"David Zindell - Ea Cycle 04 - The Diamond Warriors" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zindell David)

moment, before saying to me 'No, my apolo-gies. Lord Valashu. These are hard,
bad times You did
what you had to do, as we have done. And it's good that we're gathered here
together, for this is a family matter, and you and your friends are like family to Sar
Maram. And so you should advise him on what our course should be.'
'What can our course be?' Maram said. 'Other than this: you promised Behira to me
first! And promises must be kept!'
Lord Harsha pressed his hand against his eye patch as if he could still feel the
piercing pain of the arrow that long ago had half-blinded him. And he said to Maram,
'On the field of the Raaswash more than two years ago, you promised to wed my
daughter, and I still see no ring upon her finger.'
Now it was Behira's turn to make a fist as she set her right hand over her left.
'But I had duties!' Maram said to Lord Harsha. 'There were quests to be undertaken,
journeys to be made, to Tria, across the Wendrush - and beyond. And the battles we
fought were -'
'Excuses,' Lord Harsha snapped out. 'For three years, you've been making excuses
and putting my daughter off. Well, now it's too late.'
'But I love Behira!' Maram half-shouted.
At this, Behira lifted up her head and turned to gaze down the table at Maram. Her
face brightened with hope and longing. It was the first time, I thought, that either she
or any of us had heard Maram announce his affection for her so openly.
'Love,' Lord Harsha said to Maram, 'is the fire that lights the stars, and we should all
surrender up our deepest love to the One that created them. And a father loves his
daughter, which is why I promised Behira to you in the first place, for every hour I
had to bear my daughter's talk of loving you. But everyone knows that such love
matches often end unhappily. That kind of love is only for the stars, not for men and
women, for it quickly bums out.'
At this, I reached over and took hold of Atara's hand. The warmth of her fingers
squeezing mine reminded me of that bright and beautiful star to which our souls
would always return. I did not believe that it could ever die.
'Are you saying,' Maram asked Lord Harsha, 'that a man should not love his wife?'
On the wall above the table hung a bright tapestry that Lord Harsha's dead wife had
once woven. He gazed at it with an obvious fondness, and he said, 'Of course a man
should come to love his wife. But it is best if marriage comes first, and so then a
man does not let love sweep away his reason so that he loses sight of the more
important things.'
'But what could be more important than love?' Maram asked.
And Lord Harsha told him, 'Honor, above all else.'
'But I had to honor my duty to Val, didn't I?'
Lord Harsha nodded his head. 'Certainly you did. But before you went off with him,
you might have married my daughter and given her your name.'
'But I -
'Too, you might have given her your estates, such as they are, and most important of
all, a child.'
As the look of longing lighting up Behira's face grew even brighter, Maram closed
his mouth, for he seemed to have run out of objections. And then he said, 'But our
journeys were dangerous! You can't imagine! I didn't want to leave behind a
fatherless child.' Lord Harsha sighed at this, then said, 'In our land, since the Great
Battle, there are many fatherless children. And too few men to be husbands to all the
widows and maidens.'