"David Drake - General 03 - The Anvil" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

there was a mass touching of amulets, most of them genuine ancient
computer components, in this assembly -- "and to our General
Whitehall, and to your wise policy, that the barbarian heretics were
defeated so easily. Yet I would be remiss in my duties if I failed to
point out that the Civil Government is still reeling from the expense
of the southern campaign -- completed less than a year ago. Which
has, in fact, so far served to enrich only the officers involved in the
operation."
observe, Center said:

***
Muzzaf Kerpatik was on the docks in Port Murchison, capital of the
reconquered Southern Territories. He was a small dark man from Komar,
near the Colonial border; once a merchant and agent of Chancellor
Tzetzas, until the latter's schemes had grown too much for even his
elastic conscience. Since then he'd proven himself useful to Raj in a
number of ways . . . although Raj hadn't known about this one,
precisely. He was overseeing the loading of a ship, a medium-sized
three-masted merchantman. Bolts of silk were going aboard, and burlap
sacks filled with crystals of raw saltpeter, bales of rosauroid hides,
and slatted wooden boxes stuffed with what looked like gold and silver
tableware. A coffle of women chained neck-and-neck waited to board
later: all young and good-looking, some stunningly so, and in the
remnants of rich clothing in the gaudy style of the Squadron nobility
-- families of those barbarian nobles who'd refused to yield to the
Spirit of Man of the Stars or missed the amnesty after the surrender,
headed for Civil Government slave markets.
Raj thought he could place the time: about a month after the final
battle on the docks. It had taken that long, and repeated scrubbings,
before the rotting blood stopped drawing crawling mats of flies.
I'd heard about streets running with blood, he reminded himself. Never
seen it until then. Vice-Admiral Curtis Auburn had landed ten thousand
Squadron warriors on those docks, unaware that the main Squadron host
was defeated and Raj in control of the city. Curtis had been lucky
enough to be captured almost immediately, but less than one in ten of
his men had survived the day.
The vision couldn't be much more than a month after that, because
Suzette was riding up and leaning down to examine the checklist in
Kerpatik's hand, and both Whitehalls had sailed home when Raj was
recalled in quasi-disgrace.

***
"Should we not pause and recoup our resources?" the Chancellor
concluded. "Especially when our internal situation is so delicate."
Due in no small measure to Your Most Blatant Corruptibility, Raj
thought ironically. There was a popular East Residence legend that a
poisonous fangmouth had once bitten Tzetzas at a garden party, the
unfortunate reptile was believed to have died in horrible convulsions
within minutes. The Chancellor had raised enormous sums for Barholm's
wars and public works projects, and a good deal of it had stuck to his