"Jo Walton - Kings Peace 02 - The King's Name" - читать интересную книгу автора (Walton Jo)

Vincan inhabitants of Tir Tanagiri, and she wishes to give an account of how they came to be one people. The
book documents Sulien's career, beginning with her brother's murder and her rape by the young Jarnish raider
Ulf Gunnarsson, the nephew of Sweyn, king of Jarnhohne. She was then dedicated against her will to the
Jarnish god Gangrader, and left to die of exposure, which she escaped by her own efforts. Unknowingly
pregnant by Ulf, she entered into the service of the High King Urdo ap Avren. The baby was bom and named,
shockingly, Darien Suliensson in Jarnish fashion. Many people believed this child to be the son of Urdo,
because of a night Sulien and Urdo spent in the same room in Caer Gloran. He was fostered in the
monastery of Thansethan, whereupon Sulien returned to one of Urdo's cavalry regiments, or "alae," and
became leader of a pennon of twenty-four riders. After an invasion of the island by Sweyn and a disastrous
battle at Caer Lind, in Tevin, she became praefecto, or general in command, of the ala. Meanwhile she earned
the enmity of and later killed Morwen, witch, queen of Demedia, and sister of Urdo. There followed six years
of war, culminating in a great victory for the High King's forces at Foreth Hill. At this victory Urdo did not
accept a truce from the defeated Jarnish kings, but forced them into making an alliance and recognizing him
as High King, with all the island henceforward to live under law.
The second "book" contained in the first volume, The King's Law, covers the first seven years of Urdo's
Peace. On the first afternoon of the Peace, Ulf Gunnarsson received a trial for rape, before Urdo and Ohtar, a
Jarnish king. He admitted his fault and offered to make reparation, then refused to defend himself in a judicial
combat. Sulien decided to let him live, and he entered her ala.
The victory at Foreth was shortly followed by an invasion of three large groups of Isarnagans, the barbarous
people who lived in the western island of Tir Isarnagiri. Sulien successfully persuaded one contingent of
Isarnagans, led by Lew ap Ross and his wife, Emer ap Allel, the sister of Urdo's queen, to become vassals
and settle in an empty part of her brother Morien's realm of Derwen. During the negotiations Sulien discovered
that Emer was secretly involved in an adulterous relationship with Conal ap Amagien, all the more shocking
because Conal had killed Emer's mother. The other two contingents of Isarnagan invaders were eventually
defeated militarily. One, led by Black Darag and Atha ap Gren, retreated back to Tir Isarnagiri. The other was
treacherously slaughtered by Urdo's Malmish praefecto, Marchel ap Thurrig, after they had surrendered.
Marchel was exiled to her father's homeland of Narlahena for her crime: but for Thurrig's long and faithful
service she would have been executed for it.
Meanwhile a Feast of Peace was held in Caer Tanaga for all the kings of the lands that made up Tir Tanagiri,
Jarnish and Tanagan alike. Not all the kings were happy about this, but an uneasy peace held. A few years
later there was an attempt by one of these petty kings, Cinon of Nene, on the life of Sulien's son Darien, still
fostered at Thansethan. The attempt was foiled by the intervention of the great boar, Turth, one of the powers
of the land. Sulien believed this attempt to have been instigated by Morthu, the son of Morwen, who hated her
for killing his mother. Urdo refused to act against Morthu without proof. Two years later, Urdo's queen, Elenn,
miscarried of a son. She suspected this of being Morthu's doing, but he passed the examination of the priest
Teilo, who should have been able to detect a lie. Urdo and Elenn and all their court then made pilgrimage to
Thansethan to pray for a son. This visit, and this volume, concluded with two terrible duels—the first between
Sulien, as the queen's champion, and Conal ap Amagien for the honor of Elenn, whom Conal had jokingly
insulted. The second was between Ulf Gunnarsson and Sulien's brother Morien, after Morthu revealed to
Morien that Ulf was the killer of their brother. Ulf won his duel, and the news was brought to Sulien as she
preserved the queen's honor without killing Conal, that her brother was dead and she must leave the ala and
return home to become Lord of Derwen. The present volume takes up the story five years later.
I have here recounted the events of the first volume as if they were indeed the words of Sulien herself, and of
definite historicity. Unfortunately, we can by no means be sure that this is the case.
The manuscript we have fills the last seven volumes of the compilation known as The White Book of Scatha.
The history of the White Book would itself fill volumes, but suffice to say that the White Book as we have it
came to the island of Scatha sometime in the twenty-first century, and has certainly not been tampered with
since that time. It languished, neglected until the first three volumes, consisting of Tanagan prose and poetry,
were published with an acclaimed translation by Lady Gladis Hanver in 2564. There was then pressure to
publish the rest of the book, and though additional volumes appeared, the "Sulien Text" remained invisible.