"Rawn, Melanie - Dragon Star 1 - Stronghold" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

20 Melanie Rawn
this one. Tobin vented her wrath with the same vehemence whatever the weight of the matter. Sioned's responses variedЧ and in her green eyes now was the lethal fury that paralyzed its object the way legend said a dragon's gaze turned men to stone.
"Convenient to have a fortune-teller ready to hand, isn't it?" she said in that same silken voice. Extending both her hands, the single great emerald flashing in bright candlelight, she added, "But perhaps we do not meet the current standard. Do you think our lack of Sunrunner's rings disqualifies us?"
That lack had caused many to forget what Sioned truly was: Sunrunner as well as High Princess. Eschur's face turned white. "Your g-grace, IЧ"
"Or perhaps," Sioned went on inexorably, "our training at Goddess Keep under Lady Andrade was so long ago that we are not fully conversant with the rituals now considered necessary by Lord Andry."
Eschur gulped again and flung a look of appeal at Rohan.
"We suggest you withdraw your proposal," the High Prince said mildly.
After several tries he stammered out, "I-^-I will so inform Prince Velden." He and his companion departed the Summer Room with indecent haste.
Rohan gestured to the slack-jawed Isriam. Sioned saw it and snapped, "I don't need any wine. I need a few moments in private with the Prince of Goddess Keep!"
"Drink it anyway." When Isriam had provided full goblets for them both, Rohan waited until Sioned had downed a good half of hers and was seething in silence before saying, "I understand how you feel."
"No, you don't," she stated flatly. "You're not a Sunrunner."
Aware that they ought not discuss this around Isriam, he turned from her and beckoned the squire forward. "Well? What do you think?" he asked.
"Me, my lord?" Isriam turned red and stared.
"You, my lord," Rohan replied, wishing the boy would cease his imitation of an astonished lobster, all red face and blinking eyes. "You heard Master Eschur explain the problem. You know the circumstances. What is your opinion?" Isriam continued to gape, and Rohan sighed. Goddess help Einar if her future ruler didn't learn to see people with his mind as well as his eyes.
STRONGHOLD 21
Sioned had made the effort and recovered her balance by now. She entered into a conversation designed to instruct :r.e squire in statecraftЧas well as to clarify the available Ttions. Rohan's other purpose was to distract her from her ir.aer: that she knew it was clear in the glance she gave him
Хxfore asking, "What do you think of Prince Velden's claim, Isriam?"
"It sounds valid, my lady," he ventured.
"It does indeed. Did you draw any conclusions from Master Eschur's reply when I asked about who might revive the holding?"
Isriam's brow furrowed. At length he said, "IЧI'm not >ure. my lady. But I think perhaps he knows who wants it,
Х;\in if he doesn't know who'll get it."
Absolutely true. He does know who wants it. And so do
Really? Who?"
He does. Think about it. If you had a case to present to :.-.e High Prince, who would you send to do it? Who would irgue most strongly?"
Isriam considered with an even mightier frown. Then >~niight broke across his face. "Master Eschur himself!"
Rohan felt like applauding. Instead he drawled, "If you r╗o are finished being brilliant. . . ."
Isriam and I are doing very nicely without you. Run r-vay and play while we solve all your problems."
Emboldened by his success, Isriam actually grinned. Rohan chuckled; there might be hope for the boy after all.
"All right, then," he said, "consider this. The two holdings lie on the coast and command a nice little harbor. The only reason no substantial town has grown up there before ;> tf>at the place is held by two princes, not one. They do a minor shipping business, but most goods go to port at WaesЧor Einar." He let Isriam ruminate on this for a moment, and saw the dark eyes go wide. Sioned gave him a disgusted look that told him he was being unfair.
"My father wouldn't half like it if the two combined and a port was built," Isriam said worriedly.
"No, he wouldn't. But I'm not Lord of Einar, I'm High Prince. More and easier trade is always profitable and therefore desirable. It's part of my duty to foster such. So again I ask: what would you recommend?"
22 Melanie Rawn
The boy looked miserably unhappy. "My lord ... I don't think I'm able to say. I am my father's son."
Sioned took pity on him. "Isriam, that is exactly the right answer for you to give. It's not your decision and you're correct to remind his grace of that. As an athri, your duty is to look to your own interests first and foremost."
Isriam's brows knotted over his nose. "ButЧbut still I have to think about what might happen to everyone else."
Rohan was pleased. "That's very wise of you. You're fortunate. You can consider possibilities and choose the most personally advantageous with a clear conscience. I have to pick what's best for everyone."
Sioned added in dry tones, "His grace's conscience does not bear close scrutiny, Isriam."
A tentative smile curved the squire's mouth, and Rohan laughed softly. "Which is why I'm going to delay a decision for a few days."
Shaking her head, Sioned confided, "He's a cruel man. After a few days in this heat the Gribains will agree to anything he says, just to go home!"
Rohan dismissed the squire for the night and took his wife for a stroll in the gardens. The moons were down and the sky was alive with stars, their silvery light almost bright enough to read by.
"You handled Isriam very nicely," Rohan commented.
"You certainly didn't," she scolded. "He's not like Daniv or any of your other squires. He needs to be ledЧgently enough so his pride isn't hurt, but firmly enough so he understands. He's not unintelligent. Just young and shy."
They came to his mother's fountain, which trickled feebly as it always did at this time of year. When rain came to the northern hills and flowed down to swell the spring that was Stronghold's life, the water would again play as Milar had intended, a joyous patter dancing to the rhythm of the wind.
Sioned bent to rinse her hands in the pool, then straightened. "You weren't very subtle about diverting me from things too dangerous for Isriam to know," she accused.
"He didn't notice. I knew you would. I save subtlety for those who need or earn it." Seating himself on the fountain's tiled rim, he went on, "Not that you spared Eschur your talons, my love."
She shrugged irritably. "You can't understand," she repeated. "You're not a Sunrunner."
STRONGHOLD 23
"You're right, I'm not. But I am the High Prince. I don't like Andry's interference any more than you do."
She paced the summer-sere grass. "Prince I called him, and prince he's trying to becomeЧin function if not title. Prince of Concocted Mysteries! I would never have believed it of a son of Tobin and Chay!"
"Andrade had the making of the Sunrunner he became," he reminded her. "Just like you."