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

replacement of his left eye. All emotion was habitually hooded on his face, and it took an effort
of will to speak with him and not somehow fall under his subtle influence. Springbuck had been
moved to speak up a moment before as the words of Hightower had filled him, if not with courage,
then at least with
8
THE DOOMFARERS OF CORAMONDE
some transient burst of outrage. But before Yardiff Bey he held his peace.
"Hightower are you," the sorcerer agreed in that voice so remote from the merely mortal, "who
spurns the decisions of the Court when he so chooses. High-tower who withholds levies, contending
that he mounts a more perilous watch than the rest of Coramonde. Sanctimonious Hightower, poised
and ready against imaginary icemen."
" 'Imaginary,' you say?" the Duke shot back. "Lies are your nature as venom is a snake's, I say.
Send any doubters out with me to rural villages to see. Something malignant is growing in
Coramonde, and it wears many faces. I have seen it, I have fought it. Still it grows. Last month
came a call to me from her people and I went, to find the mistress of a great estate torturing
children. She'd been extracting their spleen and marrow for love potions. She had once been a
friend, but I knew her no more and I slew her there myself." The Duke's palm brushed once,
uneasily, across the hilt of his sword.
Fania, recovered now that Bey had intervened, soothed, "We are not unaware of these things. It has
become clear to us that such incidents come at the instigation of Freegate, the so-called
independent city east of the Keel of Heaven. Even now are leaders gathered in Earthf ast to
discuss it, and legion musters will soon follow, for a war of defense against Freegate. We ask
Hightower to look to nis own array and prepare to see the crimson tiger into battle." She waved
her hand at the royal standard and smiled a lovely, truthless smile, finishing sweetly, "As he has
done so bravely and so well in the past."
But the Duke was having none of that, not from anyone fair or anyone fey. "These things I talked
about are not come from Freegate but from Coramonde herself. Freegate has always been circumspect
of us and everyone here knows it. To blame them is a lie."
A risky accusation to say the least, Springbuck reflected. Hightower was ever the brave warrior
but never the diffident diplomat. Speaking so to Fania was a far different thing from saying the
same to Yardiff Bey.
From the ranks of the courtiers тАФ as if on cue
Of Deaths, Of Departure 9
markтАФstepped an elegant man in plum and amber, whom Springbuck recognized as Count Synfors.
"I would be honored to answer the Duke's insult," Synfors said. "If the coward will draw steel,
I'll make my argument"
Hightower, head cocked to one side, was studying the urbane young Count with a hint of amusement.
"How long," he asked, "have you been groomed for this occasion, little man? Never mind, never
mind; shall we call the armigers, or shall I kill you without all that ironmongery?"
The ends of the Count's lips curled for an instant and for answer he detached from his sash a case
of swords, twin rapiers decorated en suite, hilts flattened on one side so that they fit together
in one sheath. Synfors took the two hilts and, with an abrupt jerk, sent the sheath flying free
and held a wicked-slim weapon ready in either hand.
Unarmed, Springbuck thought for a moment to intervene but checked himself. This was a personal
contest, if unorthodox, and, it seemed to,him, not to be meddled with since it had been fairly


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