"Elizabeth Moon - Deed of Paksenarrion 02 - Divided Allegiance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moon Elizabeth)

"He believed that?" Haben snorted and reached his own mug into the sib. "I'd heard pirates were superstitious, but—"
"Well, the man offered proof. Said he'd seen scrolls in old Aare that proved it. Offered to take Alured there, and prove his right to the kingdom."
"To Aare? That heap of sand?"
^How do you know, Devlin? You haven't been there."
"No, but I've heard. No one's ever said anything was left in Aare but ruins."
"That's what the mage told Alured—that he'd been in the ruins, and could find the proof of Alured's ancestry."
"It seems to me," said Erial, "that it's extra trouble to hunt up ancestors like that. What difference does it make anyway? Our Duke's got his steading without dragging in hundreds of fathers and fathers' fathers."
"Or mothers," muttered Barra.
"You know they're different here in Aarenis," said Stammel. "Think of Andressat."
"That stuffed owl," said Barra.
"No—don't be that way, Barra. He's a good fighter, and a damn good count for Andressat. Most other men would have lost Andressat to Siniava years ago. He's proud of his ancestors—true—but he's someone they could be proud of as well."
"But go on about Alured, Voss," said Stammel. "What happened?"
"As I said, he already had some idea that he was nobly bred. So he listened to this fellow, and sailed back to old
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Aare with him. Then—now remember, I got this from the Fallo troops; I don't say it's true—then the mage showed him the proof. They say that Alured believed it—an old scroll, showing the marriages, and such, and proving that he was in direct descent from that Duke of Immer who was called back to Aare in the troubles."
"But Vossik, it wouldn't take much—any decent mage could fake something like that!" Erial looked around at the others; some of them nodded.
"I didn't say I believed it, Erial. But Alured did. It fitted what he wanted, let's say. If Aare had been worth anything, it would have meant the throne of Aare—if it was true. It certainly meant the lands of Immer."
"And so he left the sea, and settled into the forest to be a land pirate? How was that being a duke?"
"Well—again—this is hearsay. Seems he came to the Immer ports first, and tried to get mem to swear allegiance—"
"But he'd been a pirate!"
"Yes, I know. He wasn't thinking clearly, perhaps. Then he hired a lot of local toughs, dressed them in the old colors of Immer, and tried to parley with the Duke of Fall."
"Huh. And came out with a whole skin?"
"He wasn't stupid enough to put it in jeopardy—this took place on the borders of Fallo. The Duke reacted as you might expect, but—well—he didn't much care what happened in the southern forest, as long as it didn't bother him. And, so his men say, he's longsighted—won't make an enemy unnecessarily."
"But what about Siniava?"
"Well, Alured wasn't being accepted as Duke of Immer any more than Siniava was accepted as Count of the South Marches. Now this bit I got from one of Alured's men. Siniava promised Alured the dukedom if he'd break up the Immer River shipping, and protect Siniava's movements in the area. Thats why no one could trace him after Rotengre."
"Yes, but—"
"But a couple of things happened. First, Andressat. Andressat didn't accept Alured's claim, but he was polite:
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read the scroll, said he could understand Alured's feelings, but pushed the decision off on the Duke of Fall. He let Alured look at his archives, and said if Fallo was ever convinced, he'd back him. So when Siniava tried to get Alured to move on Andressat's flank, he wouldn't. Then the wood-wanderers: you remember that old man we met in Kodaly, that time?' Stammel nodded. "Alured had befriended them when he moved into the forest, so they were on his side. Same time, our Duke had befriended them for years in the north, and northern Aarenis. From that, our Duke knew what Alured wanted. And he knew what Fallo wanted, which was to marry into a northern kingdom—and he knew that Sofi Ganarrion had a marriageable child—"
"But Soft's not a king—"
"Yet. Remember what he's always said. And with Fallo behind him—"
"Gods above! You mean—"
"Somehow our Duke and the Halveric convinced the Duke of Fall that Alured's help in this campaign was worth that much to him. So the Duke of Fall agreed to back Alured's claim, and Andressat fell into line, and we got passage through the forest and Siniava didn't."
Paks shivered. She had never thought of the maneuvering that occurred off the battlefield. "But is Alured really the Duke of Immer?"
Vossik shrugged. "He has the title. He will be ruling. What else?"
"But if he's not really—by blood, I mean—"
"I don't see that it matters. He'll be better as a duke than a pirate: he'll have to govern, expand trade, stop robbing—"
"Will he?" Haben looked around the whole group before going on. "I wouldn't think, myself, that a pirate-turned-brigand would make a very good duke. >Vhat's the difference between taxes and robbery, if it comes to that?"
"He's not stupid, Haben." Vossik looked worried. "It will have to be better than Siniava—"
"That's my point. Siniava claimed a title—claimed to be governing his lands—but we all saw what that meant in
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Cha and Sibili. He didn't cut off trade entirely, as Alured has done on the Immer, no—but would any of us want to live under someone like him? I remember the faces in those cities, if you don't."
"But he fought Siniava—"
"Yes—at the end. For a good reward, too. I'm not saying he's all bad, Vossik; I don't know. But so far he's done what any mercenary might—gone where the gold is. How will he govern? A man who thinks he's nobly born, and has been cheated of his birthright—what will he do when we reach the Immer ports?"
They found out at Immerdzan, where the Immer widened abruptly into a bay. It sheltered four ports: Immerdzan and Aliuna, across the river from each other, Ka-Immer, seaward of Immerdzan, and Seafang, high on the last rocky point of the bay on Aliuna's side. Seafang alone had not been controlled by Siniava in the past few years; it was more a pirates' lair than a port anyway. But Immerdzan, Ka-Immer, and Aliuna had been governed by Siniava's minions.
Immerdzan required no formal assault. It had never been fortified on the land side, beyond a wall hardly more than man-high with the simplest of gates. The army marched in without meeting any resistance. The streets were crowded and dirty; the air stank of things Paks had never smelled before. Paks got her first look at the bay, here roiled and murky from the Immer's output. The shore was cluttered with piers and wharves, with half-rotted pilings, the skeletons of boats, boats sinking, boats floating, new boats, spars, shreds of sail, nets hung from every available pole, and festooned on the houses. She saw small naked children, skinny as goats, diving and swimming around the boats. Most of them wore their hair in a single short braid, tied with bright bits of cloth.
Beyond the near-shore clutter, the bay lay wide and nearly empty under the hot afternoon sun. A few boats slid before the wind, their great triangular sails curved like wings. Paks stared at them, fascinated. One changed direction as she watched, the dark line of the hull shorten-
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ing and lengthening again, now facing another way. Far in the distance she could see the high ground beyond the bay, and southward the water turned green, then blue, as the Immer's water merged with the open sea.