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

All my life, I had heard of the ancient Battle of the Sarburn referred to in this way,
but it seemed strange for Lord Harsha to give the recent Battle of the Culhadosh
Commons that name as well.
'Sar Joshu himself,' Lord Harsha continued, 'lost his father and both his brothers
there.'
Joshu looked straight at me then, and I felt in him the pain of a loss that was scarcely
less than my own. I remembered that his mother had died giving him birth, while his
two older sisters had been married off. Joshu had inherited his family's rich farm
lands only a few miles from here, and who could blame Lord Harsha for wanting to
join estates and take this orphan into his own family?
'Sar Joshu,' I said, looking down the table. I studied the two diamonds set into the
silver ring that encircled his finger. 'Before the battle, my brother gave you your
warrior's ring. And now you wear that of a knight?'
Sar Joshu bowed his head at this, but seemed too modest to say anything. And so
Lord Harsha told us of his deeds: 'You came late, Lord Valashu, to the fight with the
Ikurians, and so you did not witness Sar Joshu's slaying of two knights in defense of
Lord Asaru. Nor the lance wound through his lung that unhorsed him and nearly
killed him. In reward for his valor. Lord Sharad, Lord Avijan and myself agreed that
he should be knighted.'
Now I could only bow my head to Joshu. 'Then Mesh has another fine knight to help
make up for those who have fallen.'
'Nothing,' Joshu said, 'can ever replace those who fell at the Great Battle.'
I thought of my father and my six brothers, and I said, 'No, of course not. But as I
have had to learn, life still must go on.'
'And that,' Lord Harsha said, 'is exactly the point I have been trying to make.
Morjin's cursed armies cut down a whole forest of warriors and knights. It's time
new seeds were planted and new trees were grown.'
I considered this as I studied the way that Joshu looked at Behira. I sensed in him a
burning passion - but not for her.
'Sar Joshu,' I asked, 'have you ever been in love?'
He looked down at his hands, and he said simply, 'Yes, Lord Valashu.'
As Behira took charge of finally passing around the roasted chickens, blueberry
muffins, mashed potatoes and asparagus that she had prepared for dinner, it came
out that Joshu had indeed known the kind of all-consuming love that makes the very
stars weep - and he still did. It seemed that he had been smitten by a young woman
named Sarai Garvar, of the Lake Country Garvars. But a great lord had married her
instead.
'My father was to have spoken with her father, Lord Garvar, after the battle,' Joshu
told us. Although he shrugged his shoul-ders, I felt his throat tighten with a great
sadness. 'But my father died, my brothers, too, and so it nearly was with me. And so
I lost her to another. Everyone knows how bitter Lord Tanu was when the enemy
killed his wife during the sack of the Elahad castle. So who can blame him for
wanting to take a new wife? And who can blame Lord Garvar for wanting to make a
match with one of Mesh's greatest lords?'
Lord Tanu, of course, had been not only my father's second-in-command but held
large estates around Godhra, and his family owned many of the smithies there. As
Joshu had said, who could blame any father for wanting to join fortunes with such a
man?
'But Lord Tanu is old!' Behira suddenly called out as she banged a spoonful of
potatoes against her plate. She seemed outraged less for Joshu's sake than for Lord