"ED Greenwood - Band of Four 01 - The Kingless Land" - читать интересную книгу автора (Greenwood Ed)

The Kingless Land
Book 1 of Band of Four
By Ed Greenwood
Scanned by Highroller.
Proofed by an anonymous proofer.
A Proofpack release.
Ebook version 1.0
All we can boast about
All we hold proud
Comes to us drenched in blood:
The spilled lives of those who won it
For us all. Revere them.
Forget not their names.
In time of need,
Over the flames of fires,
We call to them
To come again.
For no land ever has heroes enough.

Especially not this one.

____ Whisper-chant of Kurgrimmon,
Master Bard of Aglirta,
in the elder days, when there was a King
 Prologue
The tavern sighed again.
Flaeros frowned across the warm room. Jacks of burnished copper hung on a forest of stout
pillars flashed fireflicker back at him. Long-whiskered men hefted pipes and tankards
unconcernedly, as if none heard the mournful wail but a would-be bard visiting from oversea.
He covered his darting glances with a sip of wine. A shiver trailed cold fingers down his back as
the wailing ghosted past to his left. Peering that way, he caught the eye of a lion-maned old man two
tables away: an eye that was keen, hawk-goldтАФand amused.
"You'll get used to it," the man told him, scratching his nose with a thoughtful thumb. "Truly."
Flaeros Delcamper drew in a deep breath. Arching his brow in a failing attempt to look
unconcerned, he asked as quietly as possible, "IsтАФis it a haunting, then?"
The old man chuckled. "Came in the back door, did you? From over the wave?"
Flaeros flushed. "From Ragalar," he said shortly, "for the Moot. Landed at dusk, on the Storm
Bird."
Bristling brows rose. "Costs a pearl or two for that swift a passage." Flaeros found himself
measured, that golden gaze flicking up and down like a thrusting sword. He squirmed, suddenly
more uncomfortable un-der scrutiny than he'd been since childhood.
Those golden eyes saw a man excited, young, and with a little too much wine aboard. From a
prosperous Ragalan house, by his garb, eyes bright with all the wonders of the world on his first
venture away from stern, gray Ragalar. Lilting voice, plenty of coinsтАФa ro-mantic, dreaming of
being a master bard, probably sped hence with the blessings of parents beginning to think hopes of
their youngling becoming anything were but wispy dreams.
Nettled by that knowing gaze, Flaeros opened his mouth to say something rudeтАФbut the moaning
died as the old man glided soundlessly to a seat beside him.
"What you heard is why this house is less crowded than most, with the Moot coming down swift
upon us." Old lips curved in a wry smile. "Sirl folk come here to avoid being jostled by the