"George R. R. Martin - Ice and Fire 2 - A Clash of Kings" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin George R R)

he had set his mind, there was no changing it. "Others might serve your needs
as well. Eddard Stark's son has been proclaimed King in the North, with all
the power of Winterfell and Riverrun behind him."
"A green boy," said Stannis, "and another false king. Am I to accept a broken
realm?"
"Surely half a kingdom is better than none," Cressen said, "and if you help
the boy avenge his father's murder-"
"Why should I avenge Eddard Stark? The man was nothing to me. Oh, Robert loved
him, to be sure. Loved him as a brother, how often did I hear that? I was his
brother, not Ned Stark, but you would never have known it by the way he
treated me. I held Storm's End for him, watching good men starve while Mace
Tyrell and Paxter Redwyne feasted within sight of my walls. Did Robert thank
me? No. He thanked Stark, for lifting the siege when we were down to rats and
radishes. I built a fleet at Robert's command, took Dragonstone in his name.
Did he take my hand and say, Well done, brother, whatever should I do without
you? No, he blamed me for letting Willem Darry steal away Viserys and the
babe, as
if I could have stopped it. I sat on his council for fifteen years, helping
Jon Arryn rule his realm while Robert drank and whored, but when Jon died, did
my brother name me his Hand? No, he went galloping off to his dear friend Ned
Stark, and offered him the honor. And small good it did either of them. "
"Be that as it may, my lord," Maester Cressen said gently. "Great wrongs have
been done you, but the past is dust. The future may yet be won if you join
with the Starks. There are others you might sound out as well. What of Lady
Arryn? If the queen murdered her husband, surely she will want justice for
him. She has a young son, Jon Arryn's heir. If you were to betroth Shireen to
him-"
"The boy is weak and sickly," Lord Stannis objected. "Even his father saw how
it was, when he asked me to foster him on Dragonstone. Service as a page might
have done him good, but that damnable Lannister woman had Lord Arryn poisoned
before it could be done, and now Lysa hides him in the Eyrie. She'll never
part with the boy, I promise you that. "
"Then you must send Shireen to the Eyrie," the maester ' urged. "Dragonstone
is a grim home for a child. Let her fool go with her, so she will have a
familiar face about her."
"Familiar and hideous." Stannis furrowed his brow in thought. "Still . . .
perhaps it is worth the trying . . .
"Must the rightful Lord of the Seven Kingdoms beg for help from widow women
and usurpers?" a woman's voice asked sharply.
Maester Cressen turned ' and bowed his head. "My lady," he said, chagrined
that he had not heard her enter.
Lord Stannis scowled. "I do not beg. Of anyone. Mind you remember that,
woman."
"I am pleased to hear it, my lord." Lady Selyse was as tall as her husband,
thin of body and thin of face, with prominent ears, a sharp nose, and the
faintest hint of a mustache on her upper lip. She plucked it daily and cursed
it regularly, yet it never failed to return. Her eyes were pale, her mouth
stern, her voice a whip. She cracked it now. "Lady Arryn owes you her
allegiance, as do the Starks, your brother Renly, and all the rest. You are
their one true king. It would not be fitting to plead and bargain with them