"1 - Ghost King (v1.0)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gemmel David)

GHOST KING
'I am not cut out to be a warrior', said Thuro.
'You are my grandson and the son of Aurelius and Alaida,' replied Culain. 'I think you will find that blood runs true. We already know you can swing an axe. What other surprises do you hold in store?'
Thuro shrugged. 'I do not want to disappoint you, as I disappointed my father.'
'Lesson one, Thuro: from now on you have no one to disappoint but yourself. But first you must agree to abide by what I say and obey every word I utter. Will you do this?'
'I will'.
'Then prepare to die,' said Culain. And there was no humour in his eyes.

By David Gemmell
LEGEND -THE KING BEYOND THE GATE
WAYLANDER QUEST FOR LOST HEROES
WAYLANDER II
THE FIRST CHRONICLES OF DRUSS THE LEGEND v-
WOLF IN SHADOW
THE LAST GUARDIAN
BLOODSTONE
GHOST KING
LAST SWORD OF POWER ^
LION OF MACEDON
DARK PRINCE,
IRONHAND'S DAUGHTER y THE HAWK ETERNAL '
KNIGHTS OF DARK RENOWN MORNINGSTAR

GHOST KING
David A. Gemmell
ORBIT

An Orbit Book
First published in Great Britain by Century Hutchinson Ltd 1988 Reprinted by Orbit 1997
Copyright й David A. Gemmell 1988 The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 1 85723 642 4
Typeset by Input Typesetting Ltd, London
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Mackays of Chatham plc, Chatham, Kent
Orbit
A Division of
Little, Brown and Company (UK) Brettenham House
Lancaster Place London WC2E 7EN .

DEDICATION
This book is dedicated with love to Stella Graham, to Tom Taylor and to Jeremy Wells for the gift of friendship.
Also to the ladies of the Folkestone Herald -Sharon, Madders, Susie and Carol-for Rocky. And to Pip Clarkson who cast the pearls anyway.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
So much in the literary world depends on the skill of those who take the manuscript and edit it for publication. A writer can all too easily take the wrong direction, or lose the thread of the drama. A good editor will re-direct skilfully and enhance greatly the work that will then accrue credit to the author. Similarly, a good copy editor can, with an inserted word, or a clever deletion, polish a dull sentence to diamond brightness.
My thanks to my editor Liza Reeves for making it all seem so easy, to copy editor Jean Maund for the fine tuning and the elegant polishing, and to my agent, Pamela Buckmaster, for bringing us together.