"Van Lustbader, Eric - Pearl 01 The Ring of Five Dragons(eng)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Van Lustbader Eric)

"Then approach." Stogggul curled a forefinger. "Despite rumors to the contrary, I won't bite. Much." He laughed.
Frawn licked his lips and entered the room. As he did so, Stogggul passed a hand across the holomap, simultaneously dissolving it and building another.
"Do you know what this is, Frawn?"
"Yes, Prime Factor. It is an architectural schemata of the regent's palace."
The sleeve of Stogggul's ceremonial black and crimson-trimmed robes rode back, revealing his platinum okummmon. "Very good." He was a heavyset V'ornn, with a massive frontal ridge to his skull that gave him a brooding, forbidding air even when he was laughing, which, admittedly, was not often. His son had inherited his dark eyes and almost obsessive intensity, but Stogggul radiated power as fearfully as a Khagggun Star-Admiral. He had»ia way of fixing you with his gaze, as if you were under surveillance. In this way, he intuited those he could intimidate and those with whom he needed to curry favor. Lead-Major Frawn was most definitely in the former category.
Stogggul looked from the hologram to the Lead-Major. "Tell me, Frawn, is there anything about the palace defenses you have failed to pass on to me?"
Frawn walked slowly around the schemata so that he could view it from all sides, but he seemed preoccupied. Finally, he ventured: "I do not believe I can add anything further—"
Stogggul held up a square-cut hand. "Take your time, Lead-Major. There is no penalty for forgetfulness, only for willful disobedience."
Frawn swallowed hard. "Well, there is one thing, though it would not be visible in this schemata. I heard a story, told to me moments before I left the palace. It concerns the regent's mistress."
"The Kundalan skcettta." The Prime Factor's hand cut through the air as if it were a shock-sword. "I am uninterested in animal behavior."
Frawn was silent for a moment. "From what I heard, this is most extraordinary." He hesitated, and Stogggul nodded.
"I suppose on this night of all nights I should hear everything. Proceed."
"The mistress was in a contest with your son."
"Which one?"
"Kurgan, Prime Factor." Frawn licked his lips again. "Kurgan shot a bolt from his okummmon which hit a qwawd's-eye. The mistress then used a Kundalan bow to fire an arrow up into the air."
Stogggul could not help grunting in derision.
"The arrow embedded itself in the ground in front of the tree," Frawn continued. "It magically grew a vine, which climbed the tree and ate the V'ornn bolt completely."
The Prime Factor's face grew blue with blood. "Lead-Major, why are you wasting my time with this nonsense?"
"Perhaps the Kundalan protects the regent with this selfsame sorcery," he said. "At least that is what I have heard."
Stogggul gave a dismissive gesture. "Tuskugggun-speak! In a very short time, the Kundalan skcettta and her putative sorcery will be of no import." He ran his hands lovingly over the holoimage. "Because we move tonight."
Prawn's eyes flicked up. "Tonight, Prime Factor?"
"Now. As we speak. My pack of Khagggun is on its way."
"But I am unprepared."
Stogggul frowned. "One should never be unprepared, Frawn."
"I had no warning."
"Warning? Should I warn you every time I wipe my tender parts?" Stogggul tossed his head. "Go with all due haste to the main barracks and requisition an ion cannon, then return to the palace and see to your final preparations."
Frawn came to attention. "Yes, Prime Factor! At once!" He hurried out beneath the gargoylelike glare of the powerful Bashkir.
Stogggul peered at the schemata, cleared his throat. In a moment, another figure emerged through an open doorway to a room in which all the fusion lamps had been shut down.
"Nervous as a Looorm with her first customer." Stogggul did not take his eyes off the hologram. "Do you still trust him?"
Line-General Kinnnus Morcha strode across the room. "That 'warning' concerning the Kundalan skcettta." He gave a curt nod. "He is the regent's eyes, all right." He headed for the door through which Frawn had come and gone. His hand closed into a fist. "I will take care of him myself before he leaves your residence."
"I would prefer that you didn't."
The Line-General paused and turned back. "I beg your pardon?"
"Blood in my house?" Stogggul shook his head. "No, that will not do." He came around, viewed the schemata from the opposite side. "Besides, I believe there is a better way to handle the Lead-Major, a way that will be more to our benefit."
"In my caste we execute traitors."
"This is the cusp of a new age." Stogggul's eyes rose slowly to take in the Khagggun. "I told you when we first agreed to join forces that nothing short of annihilating the entire Ashera family would do. Once we commence, we are committed. If we fail, if we are caught, we are the ones who will surely be executed. It is all or nothing with us, yes? Here is the nexus of our alliance: I become regent, establish my dynasty, and you and all Khagggun are elevated to Great Caste status."
"What about the Gyrgon? You never explained how you will ensure that they will choose you."
"Line-General, you of all Khagggun should appreciate the value of knowing only as much as you need to know."
"The Bashkir have a saying, do they not? 'Knowledge is power.' Between us, it is a matter of… well, I would say faith, but that word has not been in fashion for many sidereal cycles. So I suppose I must substitute the word trust."
The Prime Factor nodded. "We are in accord. If we cannot trust each other, then, sadly, we are nothing.'"
"Trust does not come easy to a Khagggun," Kinnnus Morcha said, thinking suddenly of his last conversation with Eleusis Ashera.
"To a Bashkir, either. Remember now, Eleusis Ashera must not be killed, not right away. I must get control of the salamuuun trade. That secret is locked away inside his head. By dawn you will unearth it for me, even if he is driven mad in the process."
Kinnnus Morcha showed long, yellowed teeth. "As the sysal boweth before the snow, so the old order boweth before the new." He gave a peremptory jerk of his head. "I had better return to the palace before my absence is noticed."
"Starlight, starbright…" Stogggul said.
The Line-General cocked his head. "Prime Factor?"
"Oh, it is the beginning of a song my mother sang to me when I was a child. It is not known to you?"
"It is not."
"Ah, perhaps it was only for the Great Castes, then." Stogggul was silent a long time. When he spoke again, it was in an odd, lilting tenor wholly unlike his normal voice: "Starlight, starbright, in your light I sleep tonight/Guide our way, build our might/Between the gulfs of airless night."
Stogggul made a scooping gesture with his hand and the schemata of the regent's palace disappeared into his fist. He strode to where Kinnnus Morcha stood and grasped his wrist as an equal. "About the Lead-Major…" He leaned in, put his lips against the other's ear, whispered to him. Then he pulled back and in his deep voice, he said: "May the starlight fall on both of us this night, Line-General, as we take our great leap into a new and glorious future!"
It was not until he was safely back inside the regent's palace that Lead-Major Frawn suspected that he was being followed. Of all the Haaar-kyut, he had been chosen by the Kundalan mistress to be the regent's eyes and ears among the traitors who had gathered around Prime Factor Stogggul's black-and-crimson skirts. Giyan had chosen well, for she had seen in Frawn that which his superiors had not: a V'ornn with keen intellect and fierce hearts, who nonetheless was born to the wrong caste. To protect himself, he had formed this decidedly dull exterior so that none of his superior officers would ever ask too much of him. He had invoked the reputation of being straightforward and utterly reliable. He was also as nondescript as a V'ornn could get, which is why Prime Factor Stogggul had singled him out to turn traitor. He was, however, ignorant of Kinnnus Morcha's treachery, and this lack would, finally, be his undoing.
This suspicion of being followed was the first inkling he had that things were amiss. Now he wondered whether he had been followed from the time he left the Prime Factor's residence. He had been so anxious to deliver his news to the Kundalan mistress who was his contact that he had not been as careful as he should have been. Cursing himself, he strode down the hallway toward the great staircase to the second story.