"Sara Douglass - The Troy Game 2 - God's Concubine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Douglass Sara)

William smiled wryly. That realization and that ambition had been far, far headier than
love.
But both their ambitions foundered into disaster, as Asterion manipulated Cornelia into
murdering Genvissa and putting a halt to the Game that would have trapped the Minotaur
back into its dark heart.
Disaster, and death. A death that had lasted two thousand years. Why such a delay?
William would have thought that his and Genvissa's ambition, as well as the Troy Game's
need to be completed, would have brought them back centuries before this. Instead they'd
languished in death, frustrated at every attempt at rebirth, kept back from life by a power
that they'd both taken a long time to accept: Asterion.
Over two thousand years ago, the Minotaur Asterion had spent his life trapped in the
Great Founding Labyrinth on the island of Crete, but he had been released when Ariadne,
the then-Mistress of the Labyrinth, and fore-mother of Genvissa, had destroyed the Game
within the Aegean world. Now Asterion was the Game's archenemy. He would do
anything to ensure its complete destruction, for the Troy Game was the only thing in this
world that could control him. Knowing this, after Genvissa's death, Brutus had secreted

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 Sarah Douglass - God's Concubin


the ancient kingship bands of Troy about London: Asterion could not destroy the Game if
he did not have the bands which had helped create it.
William believed that it had been Asterion who had kept Brutus and Genvissa locked
within death for so long, and Asterion who had finally removed the barriers to their
rebirth. Both Brutus and Genvissa had constantly fought for rebirth, and had as constantly
been rebuffed by Asterion's bleak power. He'd been stronger than either had ever
expected, and William had thanked whatever ancient gods who still existed, in this
strange world into which he'd been reborn, that as Brutus he had secreted the kingship
bands of Troy within such powerful magic.
Why had Asterion kept William-reborn and Genvissa-reborn at bay for so long? Had
Asterion wanted to find the bands and destroy the Game without risking their rebirth?
Well, Asterion had not found the bandsтАФ William could still sense them, safe in their
secret hiding places buried under the city now called LondonтАФand so he'd caused Brutus
and Genvissa to be reborn, hoping, perhaps, that he could use one or the other to locate
the bands.
Asterion had also caused Brutus to be reborn far from London, and (William had no
doubt) caused him to exist within such uncertainty, as rival claimant after rival claimant
attacked William's right to hold Normandy, that
William had had no chance to think of England at all. Asterion was keeping William at
bay for reasons of his own choosing.
William crouched down before the hearth, stretching out his hands to what little
warmth the embers emitted. Oh, but England would be his, it would. England, and London,
and the bands and the Troy Game. All of it.
And Genvissa.
Genvissa had been reborn. William knew it, but he didn't know who, or where, she
was. Genvissa-reborn undoubtedly faced the same obstacle. That was their great dilemma.
They needed each other desperately so they could reunite and complete the Game, but
they did not know who the other was. But wherever or whoever, William knew one thing:
Genvissa-reborn would not rest until she had achieved a place within London where the