"Peter David - Sir Apropos 01 - Sir Apropos Of Nothing" - читать интересную книгу автора (David Peter)

that he would avenge himself upon Runcible one day. From what I heard, he swore even greater oaths a
week later when someone, or perhaps a band of someones, went to his place of exile, and threw him
bodily into a mile-deep canyon. Thus died DeVane, who might be alive today and perhaps even back in
power somehow, if he'd only kept his big mouth shut at what could only be considered an inopportune
time.

King Runcible sent royal proclamations far and wide, speaking of the new era that was to exist under
his reign. The proclamations meant little to much of the populace, which was understandable considering
most of them couldn't read the damned things. Those who could shrugged a bit and said that they would
have to see it to believe it.

One has to credit Runcible's knights. They made a superb show of it. Jousts and open functions were
held to which all inhabitants of the realm were invited, and they marveled at the knights' strength and
power. But such warfare was for display only. Actual disputes had to be settled by ways other than trial
by combat, which had been the method of choice. Instead, Runcible himself became a prime adjudicator,
listening thoughtfully to disputes that were brought before him, saying little other than asking a few
prodding questions, and then returning with a reasoned and fair decision. Runcible and his knights were
quite well thought of in our little piece of the world.

And Madelyne was no less adoring of knights than she had ever been. She would speak of them
constantly, in wide-eyed and impressed tones. Stroker kept saying that he found her incessant
speculations tiresome, but she gave it no mind. Then, all unexpectedly, matters came to a head.

It was a dark and stormy night.

There had been a good deal of talk around the realm, far more than usual, about the activities of
Runcible and his knights. There had been talk of a convocation of dragons which had been razing some
of the eastern territories, although it had been unclear as to whether they were acting independently, or
were in the employ of some individual--royalty or sorcerous, it was open to much dispute. But what
everyone knew for certain was that Runcible's men had ridden out in force, and although some heavy
casualties had been sustained, they had managed to beat back the threat.

Indeed, that evening at Stroker's, the storminess of the night was being attributed by some to the
wrath of the Dragon God. Various customers, huddled in against the weather's ferocity, suggested that
the hard rain falling was actually the Dragon God's tears, and the lightning cracking through the sky was
the flashing of his eyes. Others ventured a related theory, that the battle between good and evil had been
raised from the physical to the spiritual plane, and what was being seen on earth was nothing less than a
full-scale war between order and chaos. There was also one poor bastard who attributed lightning and
thunder to superheated particles too small for the eye to detect. He was driven out into the storm for his
blasphemy and was promptly struck and killed by lightning, which caused a good laugh amongst the
customers at Stroker's that evening.

Abruptly the door burst open, and in clanked about half a dozen knights in armor. It was, I am told,
an impressive sight. They were huge, weathered men, but surprisingly seemed none the worse for wear.
That was something of an accomplishment considering how foul the conditions were outside. There was a
seventh man as well, although he was not armored but rather heavily cloaked...perhaps a druid, my
mother would later speculate, or a retainer, or a priest or a squire, or even a magic user...a weaver, as
they were called. Weavers didn't happen to wander into the area of Stroker's all that often. They tended
to stick to the routes where the heavier thread lines were, and Stroker's was off the main thread paths.
That was by design rather than happenstance. Stroker didn't particularly like weavers, and he'd carefully