"L. Sprague De Camp - The Goblin Tower" - читать интересную книгу автора (De Camp L Sprague)

some vile goetic witchery."

Then came four beautiful young women, the king's wives. A
fifth had given birth the day before and was judged not strong
enough to attend the ceremony. The four present were gorgeous
in silks and jewels and gold. After the wives came the
shaven-headed, purple-robed high priest of Zevatas, the chief
god of the Novarian pantheon; then a score of palace officials,
and the ladies in waiting. Last of all came Kaeres the joiner,
Xylar's leading director of funerals, and six cronies of the king
carrying one of Kaeres' new coffins on their shoulders.

As the procession reached the foot of the scaffold, the band
fell silent. After a low-voiced consultation, the Chief Justice
mounted the steps of the scaffold, followed by two of the four
halberdiers.

King Jorian kissed his four wives goodbye. They clung round
his neck, weeping and covering his broad, heavy-featured face
with kisses.

"Na, na," said Jorian in a heavy bass voice, with a rustic
Kortolan accent. "Weep not, ma pretty lassies.

"The gods, who from their puerile pipes a billion bubbles blow,
Have blown us here. We waft and wobble, iridesce and glow,
Then burst; but from these pipes a billion bubbles more shall
flow.

"Within the year, ye'll all have better husbands then I ever was
to you."

"We do not wish other husbands! We love only you!" they
wailed.

"But the weans needs must have stepfathers," he reminded
them. "Now get 'along back to the palace, so as not to see your
lord's blood flow. You, too, Estrildis."

"Nay!" cried the wife addressedтАФthough pretty, the least
beautiful of the four, stocky and blue-eyed. "I will watch you to
the end!"

"You shall do as I say," said Jorian gently but firmly. "You
shall go on your own feet, or I will have you carried. Which shall
it be?"

The two soldiers who had remained on the ground laid gentle
hands on the woman's arms, and she broke away to run,
weeping, after the others. Jorian called: "Farewell!" and turned