"Dave Duncan - A Handful Of Men 2 - Upland Outlaws" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Dave)

"So could I. And I'm not exactly his best friend, either, am I?"


Raspnex chortled, a noise of ice floes in a polar storm. "Not much, you're not! You and your kingdom. Your wife and children. I bet the little turd
has dreamed of you every night for twenty years, your Majesty!"


"Why did none of you warn me?" Rap said angrily.


"Because we thought you knew! Because we thought you were laying low-and because we thought you could handle the matter when you got
around to it!"


"You mean you were all relying on me? Waiting on me to do something? Fools! " Rap had always assumed that the Four knew how he had lost his
paramount power years ago. Probably such an absurdity had never occurred to them, and they had been frightened to spy on a demigod. Fortunately
Zinixo must have made the same error.


"That's obvious now, but we didn't know that, did we?" the dwarf snarled.


"I'm surprised he hasn't come after me already."


"He didn't know, either! But it won't be long now. And he couldn't try to settle with you earlier without alerting the wardens. " The warlock's sneer


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 Upland Outlaws

was almost an offer of sympathy by dwarvish standards.


Rap thought of the battles in which he had defeated Zinixothe brutal one-on-one struggle when the dwarf had attacked him in the Rotunda, and then
the greater battle when Rap had singlehandedly stormed the Red Palace, an avenging demigod blasting aside guards and defenses in fiery
cataclysms, rending walls in pursuit of his fleeing prey. Zinixo would have forgotten none of that, especially his own screams for mercy at the end.


He thought also of Krasnegar, and Inos, and the children, hopelessly vulnerable. Gods!


"Suppose he does seize the throne," Sagorn asked hoarsely,


"the Imperial throne, I mean, not Krasnegar-either in his own name or through a puppet-then what? "


"He will wipe out any threat, any threat at all. Any hint of disloyalty, any loose talk." Raspnex threw contempt at the old jotunn, but Sagom had