"Brian Daley - Doomfarers of Coramonde" - читать интересную книгу автора (Daley Brian)

throne room, that of vassal to Lord.
Bey in command?
How much, after all, did anyone know about him? The archives had it that he'd first appeared in
Earthfast over half a century earlier. Since then he'd been away often, for as long as ten years
at a time. He'd come back from one such sojourn, twenty years earlier, with the bizarre ocular in
place of his left eye, object of cautious speculation.
Rumors about him were inexhaustible: that his sword Dirge dealt wounds which couldn't be healed,
that he had an enchanted flying vessel concealed in the mountains of the Dark Rampart, that some
of his hidden conspiracies and secret liaisons led ultimately to the distant south, to Shardishku-
Salama, where oldest magic still worked against men.
But little was known of Bey for sure, and few dared pry.
The Prince called to mind the one time that he'd seen Yardiff Bey betray emotion. On that
occasion, six months earlier, the wizard Andre deCourteney had come to an audience with Surehand,
bringing with him the madman Van Duyn, who claimed to be from another universe, or some such.
Bey had scorned Van Duyn as demented, but appeared to regard Andre deCourteney as a threat, not so
Of Deaths, Of Departure
25
much to his position as councillor extraordinary to the Ku-Mor-Mai as to his very well-being.
But, with Van Duyn making his outrageous claims and propounding his scandalous ideas for a
government by plebiscite, Surehand had hardly needed Bey's urgent prompting to banish the two from
Earthfast, provoked as he was by their heresy.
As far as Springbuck could determine, Van Duyn and deCourteney had gone to the little village of
Erub, to the northeast, to establish an unorthodox school of their own. The Prince hoped that it
was so, and meant to seek them out. He had questions to ask them, particularly about Yardiff Bey.
As he rode along mulling all of this, the scenery had gradually changed from the walls of the
gentry who lived near Earthfast to common residences, shop and tavern, and finally the empty
market plaza. He cut across the wide square past the Temple of the Bright Lady and quickly made
his way up winding byways to the Brass Lion Gate. The guard commander there had just come on watch
and was uninclined wpgster himself over an Alebowrenian, all of whom were known for their
truculence, especially since the gate would soon be opened anyway for the predawn influx of
farmers with their produce and other goods for vending, and so accommodated Springbuck's exit.
The gate yawned behind him as the Prince rode across the hard-trodden earth to where the Western
Tangent shone gray and straight in the light of the watchtower. Storm clouds had gathered and a
sparse rain began to fall as he spurred his mount away eastward toward Erub. Eastward where,
perhaps, Andre deCourteney would have answers and the Prince's confusion and misgivings would be
thrown open to the light of wise counsel solicited from one of the best-known wizards of the day.
He let the roncin out to a gallop, heedless of Micko's warning, diverting tension and venting
frustration hi a wild ride down the broad, seamless Tangent. The rani misted in a dew on his cloak
and the sleek, rolling hide of the horse beneath him, and he removed his war mask to feel the
moisture on his face.
26
THE DOOMFARERS OF CORAMONDE
He rode expertly, crouched low over the roncin's neck, letting the tearing wind snatch the events
of the night from his brain. Lightning was flashing intermittently when he came upon a horse
incongruously leg-hobbled alone at the roadside. With a start, he saw that it was his own,
Fireheel, and came to a halt.
"I thought that your own horse would give you pause," said a familiar voice, and the Prince's
heart clenched with dread. It was a voice he associated with long hours of exhausting training
during which he was exhorted to match its ownerтАФendless, impossible effortтАФone of the most capable
warriors alive.