"Theodora Goss - The Rose in Twelve Petals" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goss Theodora)

power.
тАЬThen get rid of it. Un-magic it. Do whatever you bloody
well have to. Make it not be!тАЭ
Wolfgang Magus already knows that he will not be able to
do so, but he says, without realizing that he is chewing his
mustache in front of the King, тАЬO-of course, your Majesty.тАЭ
10 The Rose in Twelve Petals
by Theodora Goss
IV. The King
What would you do, if you were James IV of Britannia,
pacing across your council chamber floor before your
councilors: the Count of Edinburgh, whose estates are larger
than yours and include hillsides of uncut wood for which the
French Emperor, who needs to refurbish his navy after the
disastrous Indian campaign, would pay handsomely; the Earl
of York, who can trace descent, albeit in the female line, from
the Tudors; and the Archbishop, who has preached against
marital infidelity in his cathedral at Aberdeen? The banner
over your head, embroidered with the twelve-petaled rose of
Britannia, reminds you that your claim to the throne rests
tenuously on a former JamesтАЩ dalliance. Edinburgh's thinning
hair, York's hanging jowl, the seams, edged with gold thread,
where the Archbishop's robe has been let out, warn you,
young as you are, with a beard that shines like a tangle of
golden wires in the afternoon light, of your gouty future.
Britannia's economy depends on the wool trade, and spun
wool sells for twice as much as unspun. Your income depends
on the wool tax. The Queen, whom you seldom think of as
Elizabeth, is young. You calculate: three months before she
recovers from the birth, nine months before she can deliver
another child. You might have an heir by next autumn.
тАЬWell?тАЭ Edinburgh leans back in his chair, and you wish
you could strangle his wrinkled neck.
You say, тАЬI see no reason to destroy a thousand spinning
wheels for one madwoman.тАЭ Madeleine, her face puffed with
11 The Rose in Twelve Petals
by Theodora Goss
sleep, her neck covered with a line of red spots where she lay
on the pearl necklace you gave her the night before, one
black hair tickling your ear. Clever of her, to choose a
spinning wheel. тАЬI rely entirely on Wolfgang Magus,тАЭ whom
you believe is a fraud. тАЬGentlemen, your fairy tales will have
taught you that magic must be met with magic. One cannot
fight a spell by altering material conditions.тАЭ
Guffaws from the Archbishop, who is amused to think that
he once read fairy tales.
You are a selfish man, James IV, and this is essentially
your fault, but you have spoken the truth. Which, I suppose,
is why you are the King.
12 The Rose in Twelve Petals