"04 - Emperor and Clown 1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Dave)

important, although none of the others realized."
The alley entered a tiny square, and Gathmor peered around nervously. "Last
warning-don't play games with me, Sagorn."
The old man snorted. He was wheezing now, but obviously headed back to the
palace. How long could their luck last?
"Is there a solution?" Gathmor demanded. "Certainly."
"There is?"
"Certainly. I have known it since Jalon called me yesterday. I just didn't want
to raise your hopes by mentioning it."
Gathmor promised himself revenge on this scraggy old bookworm-someday, somehow.
"Raise them now."
"More magic! Rap is merely an adept. His powers have kept him alive this long,
despite his injuries, but since he can no longer speak to talk his guards into-"
"I am only an ignorant sailor!" Gathmor shouted. "But I am not stupid. I know
all this." The old windbag always used too many words, but he seemed to be
dragging this story out deliberately.
"Will you tell the world? Keep your voice down! Now, do you want to hear or
not?"
"What is the answer?"
The two jotnar emerged onto a wide road, better lit by the moon. There was no
wheeled traffic in these early-morning hours, but a band of men went by on the
far side with lanterns and suspicious glances, guarding a fat merchant encased
within them like a yolk.
Sagorn was laboring, puffing harder. "More power! If we can learn another word,
then I will be an adept, also, and so will Andor, or Thinal, or Jalon, or even
Darad. I admit that the thought of Darad as an adept is . . ." He sensed
Gathmor's fury and broke off. "That is the answer! Another word of power."
What madness was this? "And where exactly do you propose finding one of those
now, after failing for a hundred years?"
Sagorn chuckled dryly. "I know exactly where."
"Where?"
"The girl has one."
"Rap's princess? She does? You're serious?"
"Absolutely) One of Inisso's words has been handed down in her family. Her
father passed it to her on his deathbed. It was perhaps the reason the sorceress
abducted her. But I couldn't be sure ... She does not seem to have had fair
fortune, and even a single word normally brings good luck."
"Now you're sure?" Gathmor was certain he was overlooking something in this
argument.
"Yes, I am. That was why we have been cultivating Master Skarash all afternoon.
He was one of her companions in the desert."
"One word? A genius? What's her skill, then? What's she good at?"
Sagorn sniffed disparagingly. "That seems to be still a mystery. At least the
djinn boy told Andor he didn't know. He may not have been informed, of course,
but at one point in their adventures, she was definitely exercising some sort of
power. It was how his grandfather was able to find her again."
"Grandfather?"
"Elkarath himself. He's a mage. But he isn't here. He's still in Ullacarn,
working for Warlock Olybino now. Forget him. We must find Inos and persuade her
to share her word of power with me. Or with one of my associates. Then we can