"John DeChancie - Castle 08 - Bride of the Castle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dechancie John)

Castle Perilous Book 8
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Bride of the Castle

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John DeChancie
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This book is dedicated to the Greenleafs-
Bill, Donna, Tiffany, and
Amber (who is reading this now, all grown up)
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Kiss me, Kate, we will be married o' Sunday.
-The Taming of the Shrew, II, i, 318

O Wedding Guest! This soul hath been
Alone on a wide, wide sea:
So lonely 'twas, that God himself Scarce seemed there to be.
-Coleridge

Wedding is destiny, and hanging likewise.
-John Heywood (c. 1497-c. 1580)
? Chapter One

IN A FAR-OFF LAND, in another time and in another world, dim and distant, there stood a mighty
castle. A vast bulk bestriding a high escarpment; its cyclopean walls surmounted by cloud-piercing
towers, this formidable stronghold commanded a view of bleak plains and distant snowcapped
mountains.
The king, dressed in formal robes of state and wearing a crown of electrum, sat in a high-ceilinged
chamber in one of the castle's loftiest towers.
He was pissed off.
"Hell of a way to run a castle!"
"Pardon, sire? To what do you refer?"
His Serene and Transcendent Majesty jabbed a finger at the pile of loose paper on his desk. "This
flummery. Didn't I computerize this operation?"
"Sire, some of your subjects do not have computers. In fact, in most of the realms in which you reign-"
"Never mind, I know, I know. Low-tech, most of them."
"Correct, sire."
The master of Castle Perilous breathed a heavy sigh. "We're really behind in our paperwork, aren't we,
Tremaine?"
"Yes, sire. Very much in arrears."
"I suppose I should get to work and clear some of this away. What's this, for instance?"
"The castle's tribute to the Empire of the East."
The king's dark eyebrows shot up. "What? We're still paying them tribute, after they invaded us?"
"Well, you signed a peace treaty after the failed investment of the` castle, on terms favorable to us. But
the agreement did continue our vassalage to the Empire."
"Okay, but why should we pay them anything?"
"The sum is but a token, sire."
The king examined the form. "The bottom line here is something more than a token."
"Well, the tribute is based on gross revenue, not on net."