"Denning,_Troy_-_Return_of_the_Archwizards_3_-_The_Sorceror_(v1.1)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Denning Troy)

Galaeron restrained the urge to berate the man for worrying about his purse while brave elves were dyingЧbut Alusair did not. She studied Hovanay with a sneer usually reserved for something she scraped off her boot, then shook her head.
"There is more at stake here than gold, " she said. "Our subjects cannot eat goldЧthough I'll be happy to feed you some if you'd like to experiment. "
Ruha snickered beneath her veil, and several other envoys had to bite their lips and turn away.
Accepting Alusair's affront with the casual poise of one accustomed to such treatment, Hovanay merely smiled.
"Perhaps we cannot eat gold, but we do need it to feed our armies. Is there a realm among us whose treasuries are not barren already?"
When the table remained silent, the ambassador continued, "If our losses grow any worse, I dare say the alliance will lack the means to muster any army at all, much less one powerful enough to defeat the Shadovar and stop the Melting. "
Again, a tense silence fell over the council room, and Alusair's face turned stormy with frustration. Already exhausted of both gold and men, the realms of the alliance were stretched to the breaking point, andЧjust as Hovanay saidЧany pressure brought by the phaerimm would be enough to crush them. Even to Galaeron, the implications were clear. If Evereska were to survive, it would be at the cost of every other civilized land in Faer√n.
Galaeron began to feel that all eyes were turned on him. When he glanced around the table, it was to see the gazes of the other envoys quickly slipping away.
Lord Nasher Alagondar of Neverwinter, who had come by the same magic as Piergeiron Paladinson, coughed softly into his hand. The quiet thus broken, Alduvar SnowbrandЧ a Sword of Archendale and one of the three envoys shared by the DalelandsЧwrapped his fingers around his chair arms and leaned forward as though he were about to pounce from his seat.
"We are looking at this wrong, I say. " A tall, strong man with silky black hair, Alduvar had a spectral face and deep green eyes that seemed strangely distant and dull. "Our enemies are the Shadovar, not the phaerimm. "
"That is an easy thing to say when it is someone else's home they have besieged, " Galaeron said. "The phaerimm are enemies to the elves, I assure you. "
"And who's fault is that?" Alduvar turned to glower at him, but there was no anger in his eyes, no ire or maliceЧ no emotion at all. "Was it not you who freed them in the first place?"
"And who cursed us with the Shadovar?" added Irreph Mulmar, the ruddy-faced Constable of the High Dale. Like Alduvar, he was one of the three envoys from the Dales, and like Alduvar's, his eyes seemed oddly empty. "Were you not the one who brought them back from the Plane of Shadow?"
Somewhere inside, Galaeron realized that the vitriol of the Dalesmen was strangely at odds with their vacant eyes, but
his shadow was already rising to the bait, bristling at the accusations and urging him to answer with blade or spell. He started to stand and found Ruha's hand clamped to his arm, her nails digging in hard to remind him that he had to be strong, that to indulge his anger was to yield to the darkness devouring him from the inside.
"What is done is done, " she said, continuing to hold Galaeron down. "Is there anyone here who can say he would not have made the same mistake?"
"Mistakes have consequences, " said Mourngrym Amcatha, the third and last of the Dalelands envoys. A huge, powerfully built man with a brown mustache and neatly trimmed hair, his eyes were as vacant as those of his fellow Dalesmen. "The elf is the one who made the mistake. It's his people who should suffer for itЧnot ours. "
Mourngrym's comment drew a chorus of astonished murmurs, for he was as respected across much of Faer√n as he was in his own dale. For him to speak so openly against Evereska's interests was to condone the resentment harbored in secret by many of the alliance's lesser leaders, who gathered at night in quiet little groups to complain of the hardships visited upon them by the mistake of one elf.
Galaeron was filled with such a black fury that he forgot about the vacant eyes and no longer felt Ruha's hand on his arm. He was up and leaning across the table toward Mourngrym, his weight braced on his hands and his words tumbling from his mouth of their own accord.
"And who would you blame had the Shadovar unleashed the phaerimm on the Dalelands instead of Evereska?" Galaeron demanded. "Some saurial from Tarkhaldale?"
Mourngrym's lip rose in a sneer, but his eyes remained as blank as before.
"A saurial did not release the phaerimm, " he said. "An elf did. You, to be exact"
Suddenly finding himself off balance, Galaeron looked down to find his hand a foot above the table, his fingers
curled as though to call a shadow bolt Ruha was using both hands to hold his arm so he could not cast the spell. Behind her, Piergeiron Paladinson was rising to help, watching the struggle with an expression that was half alarmed and half forbearing.
The sight was enough to shock Galaeron back to his senses. He let his arm go limp.
"Humans!"
Knowing he was still not fully in control of himself, Galaeron freed his arm and turned toward Alusair.
"If the princess will excuse meЧ"
"She will not, Sir Nihmedu. " Motioning him into his seat, she nodded at a pair of Purple Dragons posted along the wall. As they stepped forward to stand guard behind Galaeron's chair, she said, "Actually, I have a keen interest in hearing Lord Mourngrym's answer. "
Galaeron sat, and Mourngrym turned to face Alusair.
"What answer would that be, Your Highness?"
'To Galaeron's question, Lord Mourngrym. " Alusair replied, her expression growing suspicious. "Who would you blame if the Shadovar had unleashed the phaerimm in the Dalelands instead of Evereska?"
"But they didn't, Princess. "
"Lord Mourngrym, " Alusair said, "I am asking what if they had. "
"The question is meaningless, Your Highness. It was the elf who unleashed the phaerimm. "
An astonished murmur filled the chamber. Paying no attention, Mourngrym turned to gesture at Galaeron, and at last Galaeron understood what he had been seeingЧor rather, not seeingЧin the eyes of the Dalesman.
Anger clouded Alusair's face.
"Lord Mourngrym, " she said, "as a guest in my realm, you owe me the courtesy of an answer. "
Mourngrym responded with an counterfeit smile.
"Of course, Your Highness. What I fail to understand... "
Galaeron did not hear the rest of the answer, for his own thoughts were whirling like one of the cyclones that had of late been laying waste to so many of Faer√n's farms and villages. The Dalesmen's attack on him had been carefully coordinated, with the envoys of lesser stature laying the groundwork for a final indictment by their most respected member. Given that the three came from the same area, it seemed entirely plausible they had come together before the council and settled on the strategy, but Galaeron suspected another explanationЧa far more menacing one.
He leaned toward Ruha and felt a Purple Dragon's armored hand grasping his shoulder.
"Milord, " the soldier whispered. "I think the princess meant for you to stay in your own chair. "
"As I will. " Though Galaeron answered in an amiable tone, it was all he could do to keep from cursing the man aloud. If he was rightЧand he wasЧthe last thing he needed was the lout drawing attention to him. "I only wanted to thank Harper Ruha for her support"
Ruha raised her kohl-rimmed eyes to the guard and said, "Galaeron will do me no harm. "
The soldier regarded her suspiciously for a moment, then nodded gruffly and released Galaeron's shoulder. Ruha looked to Galaeron, and as Alusair and Mourngrym continued their argument in more heated tones, waited.
"Uh, thank you, " Galaeron said. It was all he dared say, at least with one of them lurking somewhere in the room, eavesdropping on the council and manipulating its mind-slaves. "I'm afraid I lost control of myself. "
Ruha knitted her black eyebrows and replied, "Considering what was said, I thought you did well to keep your shadow in check. "
Galaeron continued to look at her, trying to think of some other way to convey his suspicions without alerting the one spying upon them.
Irreph and Alduvar were lending their voices to