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

"Everyone turned to see," the count said. "I told you how dark it had been getting, and the White Throne sort of blazed ... well, glowed, maybe. Like


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 Upland Outlaws

a lantern. All the jewels sparkled. And the warlock was standing in front of it, on the dais."


"I know Raspnex, too," Rap said. "Surly as any dwarf, but not a conspicuously evil person." How much could eighteen years change a man? "Just a
year since he became warden?"


"A little less."


"He's a middling-powerful sorcerer, is all." When Bright Water had died, why had the remaining three wardens not found a stronger replacement to
be warlock, or witch, of the north? The count described Raspnex's dramatic demand that the new imperor have himself proclaimed immediately. He
smiled as he described the ancient chief herald's paralysis and the fast action by Signifer Ylo, reciting the proclamation from memory.


"He sounds like a very quick-thinking man," Rap remarked, but the Shandie he had known had been a sharp, zealous boy. He would never have
grown up to become the sort of ineffectual leader who surrounded himself with dullards.


"Ylo was always a scallywag." Eigaze sighed. "His mother was a close friend. He still calls me Aunt. Er ... He is an Yllipo, you know." In the dark,
her face displayed a sorrow that she would have masked by day.


"The last of the Yllipos," her husband agreed.


"What is an Yllipo?" Rap inquired, puzzled by their sudden discomfort.


"They were a very rich family," Ionfeu said cautiously, "a large, long-established clan. Three or four years ago there was a scandal. Accusations of
treason . . ." Even more warily he added, "Emshandar probably overreacted. He was very old, of course. "


Imps did not lightly speak ill of their imperors, especially a newly dead one. Only one man left, out of a whole clan? Rap drew his own conclusions-
and then wondered how that solitary survivor had turned up as close confidant of Emshandar's grandson and heir. Curious!


"So Shandie was proclaimed imperor by his signifer . . . Emshandar V, of course?"


"Of course."


Eigaze chuckled. "The whole Impire calls him Shandie, though! "