"Dave Duncan - A Man of His Word 3 - Perilous Seas" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Dave)

had recovered his balance, Rap was gone in the darkness, the sounds of his
progress through the shrubbery already growing fainter.
"Rap! Wait! Rap, that's suicide!" The noises continued to move away. "Rap, we
have no weapons! " But obviously shouting was not going to stop the faun.
Orca?
Far, far more frightened now than he had been by the thought of a beating from
Rap, Ogi took off after him, leaving the winded Kani to follow as best he could.
If he dared.
At the Oasis of Tall Cranes, Inos achieved the impossible. It started when Azak
smiled to her as he strode by.
A smile from Azak was a fearsome sight. It displaced large quantities of
copper-red hair. Since leaving Arakkaran he had let his beard grow in full, and
it was a very full beard indeed. With his hook nose and scarlet djinn eyes, with
his great height and unshakable arrogance, Azak was not a person easily
overlooked.
For a moment Inos stood and watched him go, heading for the camel paddock;
stalking along in his voluminous desert robes, one ruddy hand resting on the
hilt of his scimitar. She sighed. Azak ak'Azakar was a problem. His proposals of
marriage were becoming more frequent and more insistent every day, as the long
journey neared its end. His logic was impeccable and his arguments unanswerable.
Only sorcery could ever put her on the throne of her ancestors, the throne of
Krasnegar. Only the wardens were permitted to use sorcery for political ends,
and the Four would be much more likely to approve her petition if she had a
competent husband at her side. Especially if he was a strong and proven ruler
already. Like Azak.


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A match foretold by the Gods.
The only flaw in this plan was that she did not feel ready to accept Azak as a
husband, despite his obvious qualifications on all counts; despite the command
of a God. She could not imagine him surviving the boredom of a Krasnegarian
winter; and if the wardens refused to uphold her claim, she would then be faced
with the alternative of being sultana of Arakkaran. That would not be the same
thing at all.
As he vanished into the roaring melee of unloading camels, Inos returned to her
immediate task, which was helping Kade erect the tent. Kade was waiting
patiently, regarding her niece with faded old blue eyes-and a glimpse of those
eyes could sometimes startle even Inos now, so accustomed was she to seeing only
djinns around her.
"First Lionslayer seems remarkably relaxed," Kade said. "Oh, I'm sure it takes
more than a few brigands to frighten Azak ... Now, which way is the wind
blowing?"
But as the two of them set to work with practiced skill, Kade's comment began to
bubble in Inos's mind like yeast in a beer vat. For weeks the women of the
caravan had talked uneasily of the dangers of the Gauntlet. Here at the infamous
Oasis of Tall Cranes, they were right in the middle of it, and most of them were
visibly jumpy. The lionslayers' wives muttered discreetly about their husbands'