"Holly Lisle - Secret Texts 2 - Vengeance Of Dragons" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lisle Holly)

Kait led her people and Ry’s back through the hills, towardJayti and the Mirror of Souls, and
wondered how much of an ordealthe trip ahead of her would be.
 Chapter 7



Shaid Galweigh, pretender to theGalweigh paraglesiat, ushered his contingent of diplomats,
traders,and Wolves into the magnificent Palm Hall of the Sabirs. He was thefirst Galweigh to step
within the walls of Sabir House as a guestin over four hundred years, and if he did not
representCalimekka’s great Galweigh House, but only Cherian House inthe city of Maracada on
the island of Goft, that was a fact thatboth he and his Sabir hosts were willing to overlook.

He took his seat in the enormous gilded ivory chair at one endof the long table and nodded
toward the two men who sat at theother end, in chairs of matching magnificence. One was the
SabirFamily paraglese, Grasmir Sabir, old and leonine and majestic; theother was a handsome
young man named Crispin Sabir, who hadbeautiful golden hair and a warm and ready smile that
Shaidinstinctively liked. The two Sabirs had personally greeted eachmember of the delegation
before anyone moved into the Palm Hall;now, finally, Grasmir gave a signal and the meeting
began.

“We have both old and new business to discuss,”Grasmir said with a wry smile. “The old
stretches back overfour hundred fifty years; I think perhaps we ought to settle thatbefore we
move on to those things which immediately interestus.”

Around the table, various Galweighs and Sabirs chuckled.

“As acting head of the Galweigh Family, I have to sayit’s about time we got around to that.”

“Very well, then. Old business. Family records tellof an argument between Arathmad Karnee and
his partner PerthanSabir over the dowry of Arathmad’s daughter. The daughter wasto marry the
Sabir son when both came of age — at the timethey were still small children. Perthan accused
Arathmad ofbelittling his son by offering such a small dowry; Arathmad saidPerthan’s son was
ugly and spindly and that the only reason heoffered his daughter was because he was Perthan’s
only friend,and Perthan’s son would never find a suitable bride otherwise.The dispute became
bitter, the partners separated their business,which from all evidence was in the practice of black
market magic,and — though history is vague on this point — one partnercast a spell on the other
partner. The Sabirs have always held thatthe caster of the spell was Arathmad Karnee.”

Shaid nodded. “And the Galweighs have always said the spellwas cast by Perthan Sabir.”

Around the table, those who were hearing the story for the firsttime shook their heads.

“That’s what brought about four hundred fifty years ofinter-Family war?” someone asked.

Shaid and Grasmir looked at each other from opposite ends of thetable and smiled. Grasmir gave
the nod to Shaid, who said,“Not entirely. Both Perthan and Arathmad died from the effectsof the
spell — one from the spell itself, and one from whatthe histories refer to as rewhah, which is
apparently somesort of magical backlash that comes from using magic.” He knewmore about it
than that, and he assumed that Grasmir did, too— one didn’t command the Family’s Wolves for