"David Eddings - Malloreon 3 Demon Lord of Karanda" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

Atesca," Sadi said mildly, pointing at the grim display at the
roadside.
"Policy, your Excellency." Atesca replied curtly. "His
Imperial Majesty seeks to alienate the Murgos from their king.
He hopes to make them realize that Urgit is the cause of their
misfortunes."
Sadi shook his head dubiously. "I'd question the reasoning
behind that particular policy," he disagreed.
"Atrocities seldom endear one to the victims. I've always
preferred bribery myself."
"Murgos are accustomed to being treated atrociously."
Atesca shrugged. "It's all they understand."
"Why haven't you taken them down and buried them?" Durnik
demanded, his face pale and his voice thick with outrage.
 Atesca gave him a long, steady look. "Economy, Goodman,"
he replied. " An empty cross really doesn't prove very much.
If we took them down, we'd just have to replace them with
fresh Murgos. That gets to be tedious after a while, and
sooner or later one starts to run out of people to crucify.
Leaving the skeletons there proves our point -and it saves
time."
Garion did his best to keep his body between Ce'Nedra and
the gruesome object lesson at the side of the road, trying to
shield her from that hideous sight. She rode on obliviously,
however, her face strangely numb and her eyes blank and
unseeing. He threw a quick, questioning glance at Polgara and
saw a slight frown on her face. He dropped back and pulled his
horse in beside hers. "What's wrong with her?" he asked in a
tense whisper.
"I'm not entirely sure, Garion," she whispered back.
"Is it the melancholia again?" There was a sick, sinking
feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"I don't think so," Her eyes were narrowed in thought, and
she absently pulled the hood of her blue robe forward to cover
the white lock in the midnight of her hair. "I'll keep an eye
on her."
"What can I do?"
"Stay with her. Try to get her to talk. She might say
something to give us some clues."
Ce'Nedra, however, made few responses to Garion's efforts
to engage her in conversation, and her answers for the
remainder of that snowy day quite frequently had little
relevance to either his questions or his observations.
As evening began to settle over the war-ravaged
countryside of Hagga, General Atesca called a halt, and his
soldiers began to erect several scarlet pavilions in the lee
of a fire-blackened stone wall, all that remained of a
burned-out village. "We should reach Rak Hagga by late
tomorrow afternoon," he advised them. " That large pavilion in
the center of the encampment will be yours for the night. My