"Michael Jan Friedman - The Seekers and the Sword" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friedman Michael Jan)

pulled their hoods up, lest Ullir be recognized.

There were wagons filled with grain and driven by old,
straw-haired farmers, who seemed to bear only the slight-
est resemblance to the Aesir of Vidar's youth. Mostly, they
looked like mortals, the descendants of those earthly war-
riors who had survived Ragnarok and taken to the lands
around Asgard. Such as these did not live in the city itself,
Ullir told himтАФthat was only for those who still traced
their lineage to Odin's sons.

II

12 MICHAEL JAN FRIEDMAN

There were youths on horseback, led by a dark-eyed
master-at-arms. He glanced fiercely at any one of them
who diverged from their tight military formation. These,
Ullir explained, were the sons of the outlying lords, sent to
Asgard to learn the craft of war and the textures of
politics. Not all the highborn chose to live in the city, hut
they, too, swore their allegiance to Asgard.

There were straight-backed lyos, who traveled alone or
in pairs. Gentle traders with satchels full of precious stones
and silver or ionely figures who kept their secrets to them-
selves. The elves were not uncommon in Asaheim, accord-
ing to Ullir. As in Vidar's time, commerce and diplomacy
had tied the Aesir and the lyos togetherтАФand besides,
Vali's nephew Magni ruled the elfworld.

But those whom Vidar found the most interesting were
the slavesтАФotherworlders whose homes Va!i had invaded
in his need for conquests to match Odin's. These were the
prisoners he had brought back in fetters, or the tribute he
had exacted for suffering their world's surrender. This was
how he had kept Asgard strongтАФor so he'd told Vidar in
Skatalund. By finding new foes to beat down, by directing
Asaheim's energies toward victory after victory after glori-
ous victory.

Slaves were the side effects of those conquests. Most of
them belonged to a tall, lean-muscled race, with skin as
black as obsidian. They were hairless but for a strange
white plume that began at the crowns of their heads and
ran down to the napes of their necks. Their hides were
sleek in the dying light, their eyes as dark as the rest of
them. They wore only ragged loincloths, said Ullir,
because that was all Vali would permit them. No dagger
could be concealed if there were not a place in which to