"David Drake - Birds Of Prey" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

the way to what must be a brothel. The corner building had military guards, showing it had official status
of some kind. That seemed a more likely resort of the "source of power" they sought than did a
whorehouse, even a whorehouse in Rome.

Julia nodded to her son like a bird bobbing its head. She wore an enveloping gray cloak, hooded and
pinned shut in front. The garment was not for warmth but to hide from view the costume she wore
beneath it. The seeress' breeches and long-sleeved shirt were a patchwork of skins from over a hundred
species of animals and birds. Alone, the outfit was that of a tattered scarecrow. Those who saw Julia
wearing the costume, moving in it, could not doubt that the garb had purposes beyond those of mere
clothing. "I know where I am being led," the seeress said. Her voice, though distinct, had the unworldly
quality of a distant echo. The soldiers, all but Julius Sacrovir, her son, stirred uneasily.

"Let's go, then," Sacrovir ordered. He was slightly the youngest of the five-man escort, but he had been
born to authority. Further, Sacrovir had a familiarity with his mother's work so that it did not make him
uneasy as it did the others.

Sacrovir himself had sung the prelude to the rites in Trier from which this mission had sprung. The
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youth's clear falsetto had rung from the stone arches as dignitaries waited tensely and the Emperor
Postumus shivered in the armor he wore as a public reminder of his military valor. On the
feather-cushioned throne, Julia had begun to speak in a voice like the piping of birds. . . .

Now the little woman followed as if drawn by the wake of her tall, powerful son. The other troopers
marched to either side of the seeress, pair and pair. They kept step by habit, unremarkable in this city of
soldiers and troop-guarded administrators. If the entourage was unusual, it was for the fact that it
surrounded a woman afoot.

It was too early in the afternoon for the brothel to be busy, though there was probably a back entrance
and a latchbell for emergency service even during the hours the front doors were barred. Those doors
were open now, however, and the madam was in her barred kiosk just within them. She looked startled
by the size and ordered bearing of the party. A slave who had been mopping the gray and green terrazzo
floor scampered off, perhaps to wake the bouncer. Alcoves led off the entrance hall. An open staircase
led up to the rooms on the second story.

"How can I help you, gentlemen?" the madam asked brightly as her fingers clicked shut the cash box.
Cartoons frescoed over the arch of each alcove suggested a variety of possibilities. In some cases, these
official displays had been supplemented by notes and still cruder drawings added by customers waiting
on a full night.

"There's someone here we need to see," said Sacrovir, wishing he had more details.

"Why of course, honey," the madam began with her false smile.

Julia reached out from beneath her cloak. "Up there," she said to her son. She pointed with a hand
wearing a cat-skin mitten. The fur side was inward, but it spilled out in purest white where the mitten was
drawn over the seeress' wrist. Sacrovir obeyed the direction, striding to the stairs without another glance