"Kurtz, Katherine - King's Service" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kurtz Katherine)

In The

King's Service



KATHERINE KURTZ



With Love and Thanks to

Andre Norton,

Great Lady of Many Wondrous Tales


In The King’s Service
Prologue



"Set not thy heart upon goods unjustly gotten;

for they shall not profit thee in the day of calamity."

-ECCLESIASTICUS 5:8



I

HEAR that you have a son at last," Dominy de Laney said to Sir
Sief MacAthan, as she settled beside him at the heavy, eight-
sided table in the Camberian Council's secret meeting chamber.
"Congratulations are surely in order."

Across the table from them, Vivienne de Jordanet was absently
twirling a dark ringlet around one forefinger as she read over the
shoulder of the man to her right: Lord Seisyll Arilan, one of the
Council's two coadjutors. Both of them looked up at the other
woman's comment, and Vivienne gave the new father an indulgent
smile.

"Well done, Sief."

Sief’s face brightened, a boyish grin creasing his still handsome
features as he basked in this affirmation of his male potency. After
nearly thirty years of indifferent marriage, four living daughters, and
a sad succession of stillborn or short-lived sons, he had all but