"Sara Douglass - The Axis Trilogy 1 - BattleAxe" - читать интересную книгу автора (Douglass Sara)

At King Priam's Court
King Priam's nameday was an occasion of great celebration
throughout Achar, but nowhere more than in the city of Carlon where a general
holiday was proclaimed. In the morning Priam presided over a parade through
the winding streets of the ancient city, sitting under a heavily embroidered
canopy that usually kept sun from his regal brow. Today it kept an unseasonable
drizzle from his closely curled head. Despite the unsettling rumours from the
north, the townsfolk lined the streets for the parade тАФ an affair put on by the
various guilds of Carlon to honour their king. Priam waved cheerfully enough
throughout the extended parade, although he was bored witless by the time the
fifty-seventh flower-draped cart passed him by. He made a good-humoured
speech at its conclusion, thanking the guilds for their efforts on his behalf, and
saying some graceful words about the large number of enthusiastic (but largely
talentless) children of guild members who had performed throughout the parade.
The crowd cheered their king warmly, Priam beamed and waved some more, and
then everyone hurried home, remarking on the cold weather and wondering
whether it would affect the evening's festivities.
Priam's nameday was the one day of the year when he extended his royal
largesse to all the citizens of Carlon, providing them with a free feast (although if
they wanted to sit down they had to bring their own stools). With the tens of
thousands of mouths that had to be fed, the public banquet involved many
months of careful planning and preparation. As much as anything, the banquet
was an opportunity for the lords of the various provinces of Achar to
demonstrate their loyalty towards their liege. Ear] Burdel of Arcness bred and
transported five hundred substantial porkers, the gigantic Duke Roland the
Walker (too fat to ride) of Aldeni supplied two hundred and thirty-five carts of
vegetables and fruit, Baron Fulke of Romsdale supplied enough ale to keep the
Carlonites oft work for three days after the banquet, and two hundred and
twenty barrels of his best red. Baron YsgryfF of Nor, understanding that the
citizens of Carlon would need to have something to entertain them once they
had drunk and eaten to sufficiency, donated the services of one hundred and
eighty-five of the best whores and dancing boys from the streets of Ysbadd. All
the lords contributed what they could, eager to impress the king, but the most
generous of all was Borneheld, Duke of Ichtar, who donated an entire herd of his
finest mutton and beef, and distributed amongst the guilds a fistful of diamonds
and emeralds from his mines in the Urqhart Hills. Of course, muttered the
assembled lords around goblets full of Baron Fulke s finest, Borneheld could
afford to be the most generous since he controlled more territory than any four
of them put together.
By nine in the evening the citizens of Carlori were happily gorging
themselves at the various venues тАФ the town hall, the market square, and seven
of the massive guild halls. The whores and the dancing boys were starting to ply
their business outside the eating halls. Well away from the street parties, a less
rowdy and more decorous banquet was underway in Priam's cream and gold
palace in the heart of Carlon.
The banquet hall of the palace, popularly known as the Chamber of the
Moons, was a massive circular affair that doubled as an audience chamber on
ordinary days of the week. Great alabaster columns supported a soaring domed
roof, enamelled in a gorgeous deep blue with gold and silver representations of