"01 - The Cutting Edge 1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Dave)

were held elsewhere. In time the two sinister prophecies were forgotten.
And in time they were both fulfilled.


ONE
Blow, bugle!

1
The elves had a proverb, Minnows mourn when bridges fall. Unlike most elvish
sayings, it even made a sort of senseespecially to minnows.
The Marquis of Harkthil was arrested on a bright and sunny afternoon in the
spring of 2995. By sunset the Impire was in the throes of the sensation that
became known as the Yllipo Conspiracy. Day by day the scandal spread and the
toll mounted. The marquis' relatives followed him into the dungeons, one after
another.
Even at the first, there was considerable doubt that the treason was as
widespread as Emshandar maintained. More than likely, the gossipmongers said,
the imperor was merely seizing a Godsgiven chance to subdue a family that had
grown too powerful and troublesome for the good of the realm. Whatever the
truth, the old man's vengeance was savage. By the time the affair was over,
eight senators had bared their necks for the ax, and no one counted the lesser
victims.
One of those lesser victims seemed likely to be Recruit Ylo of the Praetorian
Guard, youngest son of the disgraced Consul Ylopingo. His fellow Guardsmen were
doing the arresting, so Ylo was not surprised to find himself confined to
quarters. From there he watched the tide of blood creep ever closer to his toes,
until he was the only member of his family outside the imperor's prisons. His
friends had disappeared, also, and who could blame them? Public confessions,
private executions, rumors of torture ... When the inevitable summons came, it
was almost a relief.
Ylo had enlisted three months earlier, on his eighteenth birthday, feeling he
was doing the Guard something of a favor. Apart from being a consul's son, he
was related in various ways to at least a dozen senators, and his grandfather
had become a national hero by dying dramatically during the Dark River War. All
the hereditary titles would go to his eldest brother, so Ylo's ordained future
was obviously a career in politics. In the Impire, political careers began in
the army.
In Ylo's considered opinion, the regular legions engaged in far too much
unpleasant marching around. They were also prone to violent activities involving
goblins, dwarves, djinns, and other inferior races, and those could be
positively dangerous. The Praetorian Guard, however, spent its time posturing
around the Opal Palace in Hub. Few things were as effective with girls as a
Praetorian uniform.
So the decision had been easy. A five-year stint in the Guard, followed by a
little traditional impish nepotism, would guarantee him a profitable posting as
lictor in some congenial city not too far away from the capital. Thereafter, he
would see.
Ten days after being confined to quarters, Recruit Ylo was summoned to the
guardroom. Any lingering hopes died when he saw that the man behind the table
was Centurion Hithi. The Yllipos and the Hathinos had been mortal enemies for