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

nothing going down that he needs to worry about."

Sacrovir jerked his head in assent. He slipped into the private room after his mother. The door latched
behind him.

"With your help," Julia was whispering, "there can be an Empire united again on Trier. I have seen it,
seen armies melting away before Postumus like trees struck by summer lightning. . . . What do you wish
of Postumus, then? We are sent to make it yours."


Sacrovir backed without noticing his own motion until his shoulders pressed against the door panel. His
eyes jumped around the room like sparrows in a bush. The youth did not let them light too long on either
his mother or on the sunlight-shimmering figure his mother had journeyed so far to meet.

"You know nothing," the figure said in wonder. The object it held was no longer so clearly not a
weapon.

"We know you have the power to destroy armies," the seeress replied without emotion.

"These others are fighters?" the figure asked abruptly. Its gesture rumpled but did not pass the
enveloping cloak.

"My son, yes, and soldiers," Julia said. "There are thousands more soldiers for the Emperor Postumus to
lead at your bidding - and with your aid. There are infinite futures, but I have seen ..."

"No," the figure said, the word alone without the gesture of negation to be expected with it. "Not
thousands. I have hired certain fighters here ... but yours might serve
 Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html




me yet tonight. Then later, there is a - treasure - to guard. For a year."

"You pledge your support to the Emperor, if we help you tonight and guard a treasure?" Sacrovir
demanded. He spoke to release the tension which the figure's grating voice raised in him.

"The treasure is in Cilicia," Julia said, neither a question nor a demand. "We would have gone there, but
you in Rome were closer." In her present state, the seeress had little connection with the immediate
world. She did not note the way the glittering object shifted toward her when she spoke. Her son
noticed. His general tension focused on a tighter grip on his sword.

"That is correct," the figure said. "How did you know?"

"I have seen," Julia replied simply.

"For one year?" repeated Sacrovir He knew that the tension must break in one fashion or the other.

"In Cilicia," the figure said. "For one of your years. After that, there will be no need of guards."