"Daley,.Brian.-.Coramonde.1.-.Doomfarers.Of.Coramonde" - читать интересную книгу автора (Daley Brian)

than usual in these surroundings, tall and broad-shouldered,
contrasting the gleaming finery of the courtiers with plain, service-
worn traveler's attire of gray. He bore an unadorned broadsword at
his side and a cap held sol-

Of Deaths, Of Departure 7

dierly in the crook of his left arm. Greaved legs widespread, he set
his right fist on his hip and glared at Fania without deference. The
lantern jaw was set, the high forehead creased by beetling brows
and beneath the flaring mustachios the Duke's mouth was drawn
into something dangerously resembling a snee'r of contempt,
displaying large horse-teeth.

"Legality," Fania said, rolling the word off her tongue with a kind of
languorous menace. "The Duke implies that I'm committing some
crime? Hightower, who comes so seldom to our councils, would
now countermand me? Too long has his insolence gone
unchecked, I think."

The Duke's voice was brittle with rage. "Insolence? Insolence?"
He slammed his chest with a battered, vein-mapped fist. "/ am
Coramonde's bastion in the East; from the shadows of Spearcrest
to the foot of the Keel of Heaven I am the arm and eyes of
Coramonde! How many times has my family defended our stone
donjon with our lives at risk? Do you even know, you who were
born in another country? I have paid my homage, aye, and paid
again. Who questions Hightower's right to say his say at
Earthfast?"

Fania couldn't speak to this, nonplussed in the face of truth so
furiously set forth. But an inhumanly calm voice spoke next, one
that had always sent fear shooting through every inch of
Springbuck's being. He didn't have to turn or squint to know that "it
was Yardiff BeyЧYardiff Bey who was a figure of awe even among
other sorcerers.

The Prince knew that he could never have emulated Hightower,
who looked to where Bey stood, near the Queen, and met that
mesmerizing stare without qualm. Bey's dark countenance was
transformed into something unearthly by the eerie ocular of green
malachite and silver that he wore in 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

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