"Edghill,.Rosemary.-.Empty.Crown.Trilogy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Edghill Rosemary)

"The lords who were met in council at the place of the High King's
death tarried not one moment more over their deliberations but went
forth to arm and to raise their troops, and there was thereafter in
that time such a war and travail that it set brother against brother
and father against son-aye, and sister against brother, and cast-out
Lady against her once-loved Lord-and none of this for the High
Kingship, nor any reward more lasting than the sea-cool kisses of a
heartless elphen jade with nothing in her save trouble and despite."

("So there was a war," Philip said.

"How long did it last-and what happened next?" asked Michael.) "At
last, and this an undertaking of years, and with many good men slain,
Lord Baligant, a younger son from an undistinguished house, and not
even of the line of one of the Treasurekeepers, took the High
Kingship-by force and by guile, and partly, so I believe, because all
who might depose him were sick and weary with war, and took good care
that they should not come again to the sea-tower and there become
englamoured of Hermonicet's beauty once more. So Eirdois Baligant of
(by courtesy) the House of Vermilion Shadows became High King-Elect
over the Houses of the TWilight and future husband to Hermonicet the
Fair.

"But the wounds of that long war were not healed, nor was Baligant a
forgiving suzerain, and despite the fact that law and custom compels
that the High King may not go to war with any of the Great Houses, nor
condemn a Son of the Morning without a trial before all his peers, I
fear me that Eirdois Baligant has found a way to punish those he will
not forgive."

(Here Melior paused for a long moment, and refilled his glass, and
drank. Ruth, roused by the silence, glanced quickly to right and left,
but the others were merely listening, as nonjudgmental as a movie
audience.)

"And the way of that is this: In our land are Twelve Treasures: Sword
and Cup; Lance and Shield; Harp; Mirror; Cauldron; Comb; Cloak; Horse;
Book; and Crown. Each is a talisman of surpassing magical power; all
conjoined defend us from our enemies and ensure the peace and fertility
of the land. Each one of these Treasures is separately entrusted to
one of the noble families of Chandrakar for safekeeping, lest,
possessing them all beneath his own hand, the High King's power grow
too great and his spirit too haughty. No one of the Great Houses may
have more than two in its keeping for the same cause; should such a
thing fall out through death or wedding, the present guardian of the
Treasure must find someone willing to guard that which he has
guarded.

"Line Rohannan is guardian to the Sword, called the Sword of Maiden's
Tears, which renders its possessor infallible in battle, with an