"L. Sprague De Camp - The Emperor's Fan" - читать интересную книгу автора (De Camp L Sprague)

ruined the Empire. But have a care with that flapping tongue."
"Nought I hear here goes beyond these walls. Anyway, if you
think Haryo's fate be not widely known, you do but befool yourself."
"I daresay it is suspected. But then, foul play is always
suspected when an emperor dies. As said Dauhai to the timorous bird,
every twig is a serpent.
"Still," continued the Emperor, "that solves not my problem. I
wear mail beneath my robe. I sleep on a mattress floating in a pool
of quicksilver. I have given up futtering my women, lest whilst I lie
in their arms, some conspirator steal up and dagger me. The Empress,
I can tell you, mislikes this abstinence. But still Haryo threatens
and prophesies, and the warnings of a ghost are not to be flouted. I
need some impregnable magical defense. That idiot Koxima does nought
but frimigate and exorcise, which may drive out the demons but fails
to blunt the steel of human foes. Have you any counsel, Ragbag?"
Reiro scratched. "There is a dark, beak-nosed, round-eyed old
hewitch, hight Ajendra, lately come to Chingun from Mulvari. He gains
a scanty living by selling love potions and finding lost bangles in
trances. He claims to have a magical weapon of such power that none
can stand against it."
"What is its nature?"
"He will not say."
"If he have so puissant a device, why is he not a king?"
"How could he make himself ruler? He is too old to lead an army
in battle. Besides, he says that the holy order to which he belongs-
all Mulvanian wizards call themselves holy men, be they never such
rascals-forbids the use of this armament save in self-defense."
"Has anybody seen it?"
"Nay, chum, but rumor whispers that Ajendra has used it."
"Yes? And then what?"
"Know you a police spy named Nanka?"
The Emperor frowned. "Meseems-there was something about such a
man who disappeared. It is supposed that the low company he kept at
last learnt of his occupation and did him in."
The beggar chuckled. "Close, but not in the gold. This Nanka
was a scoundrel of deepest dye, who supplemented his earnings as an
informer by robbery and extortion. He skated into Ajendra's hut with
the simple, wholesome intention of breaking the old man's neck and
seizing Ajendra's rumored weapon."
"Hm. Well?"
"Well, Nanka never came out. A patrolman of the regular police
found Ajendra sitting cross-legged in meditation and no sign of the
erstwhile spy. Since Nanka was large and the hovel small, the corpse
could not have been hidden. As it is said, the digger of pitfalls
shall at last fall into one of his own."
"Hm," said Tsotuga. "I must look into this. Enough Sachi for
the nonce. You must let me show you my latest acquisition!"
Reiro groaned inside and braced himself for an hour's lecture
on the history and beauty of some antique bibelot. The thought of the
palatial cookery, however, stiffened his resolve.