"Tamora Pierce - Daughter Of The Lioness 02 - Tricksters Queen" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pierce Tamora)

men. A year older and an inch taller than Aly, Sarai had creamy gold skin and tumbles of braided and
curled black hair under a sheer black veil. An excellent horsewoman, she held herself proudly straight,
catching the eye of anyone who saw her.

"They seem to be missing something." Thirteen-year-old Dovasary Balitang moved in to stand on Aly’s
free side, and pointed. Where the Example pier joined the mainland stood a large wooden sign painted
stark white. On that sign were three names and the wordsExecuted for treason against the Crown,
decreed by His Highness Prince Rubinyan Jimajen and Her Highness Princess Imajane Rittevon
Jimajen, in the name of His Gracious Majesty King Dunevon Rittevon. The date was that of the
previous day.

"What happened to their poor bodies?" whispered Sarai, brown eyes wide. "They should be here for
weeks."

"Perhaps Stormwings dropped down and carried them off," Dove suggested quietly. Aly’s mistress was
different from her beautiful older sister, shorter and small-boned. She had the self-contained air of
someone much older. She had a catlike face and observant black eyes. Like Sarai, her skin was creamy
gold, her hair black, and her lips full. She also wore a black gown and veil in mourning for the father who
had been killed six months before.

Aly knew exactly what had happened to the dead, because she had created a plan for anyone executed
and displayed here. The absence of dead Examples was her declaration, as the rebellion's spymaster,
that she would turn the Rittevon Crown and its supporters inside out. The spies she had sent ahead with
Ulasim three weeks before the family's departure had been charged with putting her declaration into
action.

Body thieves were expected to attack from the land. No one would expect people to swim to the pier in
the foul harbor water. Her people had done just that, to remove the bodies, weigh them down with
chains, and sink them in the harbor. The plan worked on many levels. The Crown officials lost the
Examples they had made, and the Kings' Watch was left with a mystery. Aly knew quite well that
mysteries frightened people, particularly those people who were not supposed to allow them to happen.
Sooner or later word of the vanishing Examples would leak out. People would start to see that the
Crown was not as powerful as it claimed to be.

"Last autumn Prince Rubinyan told Winna that there would be no more unnecessary executions," Sarai
commented.

"Maybe he thinks theseare necessary," said Dove, grim-faced. "Or Imajane does."

"Hunod Ibadun? Dravinna?" The soft voice spoke the names painted on the announcement board. The
voice belonged to Sarai and Dove's stepmother, Duchess Winnamine Balitang. The girls made space for
her at the rail. "They wouldn't harm a fly if it were biting them." She was a tall, slender woman, elegant in
deep black mourning. "Hunod is—was—Prince Rubinyans friend!"

"I would guess they are not friends now," remarked Dove, her voice steady.

"Winna, I don't recognize the names," Sarai told her stepmother. "They aren't the same Ibaduns who
own those rice plantations on the southern coast of Lombyn, are they?"

"No," replied the duchess, wiping her eyes. "Hunod and Dravinna were cousins to those Ibaduns. They