"Rawn, Melanie - Dragon Star 03 - Skybowl" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

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"Your firstborn's filial duty to you, my Lord," he said to Andry, then turned to Pol. "Andrev has just told Hollis, who's just told me, that there's been a battle fought and a victory won at Faolain Bay. Prince Amiel took two Vellanti ships, and the other three turned tail and ran for the Small Islands. Prince Tilal's cousinly compliments to the High Prince, and do you want him to start for Radzyn Keep now, or take care of the pestilence at Lowland first?"
Pol's foot slipped off the table and his chair nearly toppled. "Radzyn?"
Andry had more immediate concerns. "Is Andrev all right?"
"Perfectly. Even if he weren't, they're with Prince Amiel's little army of physicians. Twenty or thirty would swarm all over him if he even stubbed a toe. Well? What's your pleasure, my prince?"
Having recovered himself, Pol was almost laughing. "By the Goddess, I'd forgotten how good good news can feel! My congratulations to Prince Tilal and Prince AmielЧwho deserves to be taken over somebody's knee. I thought I taught my squires to be more sensible than to risk their lives in silly adventures like stealing ships. Don't you go getting any ideas, Kierun," he added, wagging a finger in the boy's direction.
"No, my lord." Kierun's mist-gray eyes brimmed with mischief. "Not yet, anyway."
"Goddess, why am I afflicted with other men's sons?" Pol moaned. "At this rate, I'll have to sire a dozen of my own to avenge myself on their fathers!"
"Perhaps I should lend you my younger boy," Andry drawled. "Joscev is only seven, but already the plague of the schoolroom."
"The true family spirit, eh?" Meath grinned.
"Goddess help us," Pol sighed. Then, more intensely, "Meath, have Tilal sit tight for a day or two, as unobtrusively as possible. I have something in mind that may spare giving those physicians something more to do. Tell him to camp on both sides of the river and wait."
Andry frowned, trying to envision it. Then he smiled, almost fondly. "You're going fishing and he's the net."
"Absolutely. The problem is to get the fish to swim in the right direction. But I think I know how. And I need you in order to do it. We'll have a little talk with Johlarian at
Faolain Lowland. With the full force of the High Prince and the Lord of Goddess Keep behind the order, not even the acquisitive Lady Karanaya will refuse to give up her black pearls to the enemy."
Andry sat forward. "TheЧwhat are they called? Tears of the Dragon? Why?"
"That's what the Vellant'im are after. As I understand it, they used the sale of them to get into Riverport, fully expecting to reclaim them. But Karanaya rode off with all six, so they besieged Lowland. My mother scared them off with her Fire dragon, but now they're back. And they still want those pearls." He rose and began to pace. "There's something very odd about them, Andry. Johlarian didn't see it until I told him how to lookЧhe's competent at his work but not especially powerful. If Karanaya's within sunlight, I want you to take a look at them and tell me what you see."
"Odd in what way?"
"You'll find out." He swung around on his heel. "Meath, have Hollis convey all this to Andrev. Do it now, before Tilal gets restless and starts to move."
The Sunrunner bowed slightly. "At once, my prince. But you know how disappointed young Saumer will be if there's no battle at Lowland. There's one other thing. Tilal believes the Vellant'im will gather soon at Stronghold. He estimates their probable numbers at three thousand."
Andry gave a low whistle. "Thank you for not telling us that first!"
"It's why he wants to go to Radzyn and take out as many as he can," Meath explained. "But if he's rightЧ"
"Then in a short while the only people still in danger will be us," Pol finished. "From Kierst-Isel to Dorval, everyone else will be free of them. That's good. That's very good."
He actually sounded happy about it. Andry blinked. "It is?"
Pol gave him a smile. "Of course. It's good for the other princedoms, obviously. It's good for the High Prince and the Lord of Goddess Keep, too. Also obvious if you think about it a moment."
Andry did, and decided he would have preferred a less life-threatening way to demonstrate his power.
"And it's good for the rest of us because it's very bad for the Vellant'im," Pol went on, looking feral again. "They'll
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all be in one place. We won't have to go chasing them down to destroy them."
Cautiously, Andry asked, "Has it not occurred to you that we mightЧ"
"No," the High Prince said fiercely. "It has not. And part of your job is to make sure it doesn't occur to anyone else, either." He flattened his hands on the table, three ringsЧ topaz, amethyst, and moonstoneЧshining. "All right, then. We'll work our trick at the Faolain if we can, then think about how to kill three thousand Vellant'im."
"Goddess help us," Andry added, meaning it.
"I think she will," Pol told him. "She always struck me as the kind of lady who enjoys a good show. Meath, after you've seen Hollis, please find Maarken and Chay and have them come here. There's work to do."
By the time Johlarian finished speakingЧfirmly and without apology, as both Pol and Andry had instructedЧKaranaya was livid.
"No! I won't!"
Mirsath squared off against her in the sunlit courtyard. "You will, if I have to rip those damned things from around your neck!"
"They're mine! I won't give them over to that pack of savages!"
Saumer, whose female relations were generally even-temperedЧor at least considered screeching beneath their dignityЧfrankly gaped.
"Give those pearls to the Vellant'im and they'll leave us alone!" Mirsath shouted. "I should've made you do it long ago!"
"I'd like to see you try!"
Johlarian ventured, "My lady, it is the command of the High Prince and the Lord ofЧ"
"I don't care if the Goddess herself commanded it!" The black pearls shimmered with her rage.
"My lady," Saumer said reasonably, "I'd much prefer to do battle with them and rid Lowland of their presence that way. But surely once they've been defeated, Prince Tilal will find the pearls andЧ"
"Pol made no mention of it," she fumed. "Doesn't he un-
derstand that they're all I have left? This was my father's castle and it should be mine, but now it belongs to Mirsath. Idalian will have the rebuilding of Riverport as his lot, and I wish him joy of it. My family has nothing else to give me."