"Elenium 02 - The Ruby Knight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

and Sir ulath, a huge Genidian Knight. The three were
the champions of their orders, and they had joined with
Sparhawk and Kalten when the Preceptors of the four
orders had decided that the restoration of Queen Ehlana
was a matter that concerned them all. Sephrenia, the
small, dark-haired Styric woman who instructed the
Pandions in the secrets of Styricum, sat by the fire with
the little girl they called Flute at her side. The boy, Talen,
sat by the window rubbing at his eyes with his fist. Talen
was a sound sleeper, and he did not like being
awakened. Vanion sat at the table he used for a writing
desk. His study was a pleasant room, low, dark beamed,
and with a deep fireplace that Sparhawk had never seen
unlighted. As always, Sephrenia's simmering tea-kettle
stood on the hob.
Vanion did not look well. Roused from his bed in the
middle of the night, the Preceptor of the Pandion Order,
a grim, careworn knight who was probably even older
than he looked, wore an uncharacteristic Styric robe of
plain white homespun cloth. Sparhawk had watched this
peculiar change in Vanion over the years. Caught at
times unawares, the Preceptor, one of the stalwarts of the
Church, sometimes seemed almost half Styric. As an
Elene and a Knight of the Church, it was Sparhawk's
duty to reveal his observations to the church authorities.
He chose, however, not to. His loyalty to the Church was
one thing - a commandment from God. His loyalty to
Vanion, however, was deeper, more personal.
The Preceptor was grey-faced, and his hands trembled
slightly. The burden' of the swords of the three dead
knights he had compelled Sephrenia to relinquish to him
was obviously weighing him down more than he would
have admitted. The spell Sephrenia had cast in the
throne-room and which sustained the queen had
involved the concerted assistance of twelve Pandion
Knights. One by one those knights would die, and their
ghosts would deliver their swords to Sephrenia. When
the last had died, she would follow them into the House
of the Dead. Earlier that evening, Vanion' had compelled
her to give those swords to him. It was not the weight of
the swords alone which made them such a burden. There
were other things that went with them, things about
which Sparhawk could not even begin to guess. Vanion
had been adamant about taking the swords. He had
given a few vague reasons for his action, but Sparhawk
privately suspected that the Preceptors main reason had
been to spare Sephrenia as much as possible. Despite all
the strictures forbidding such things, Sparhawk believed
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Eddings, David - Elenium 2 - The Ruby Knight.txt