"Ed Greenwood - Band of Four 03 - A Dragon's Ascension" - читать интересную книгу автора (Greenwood Ed)

Then did two desperate warriors of AglirtaтАФthe great
armaragor Hawkril Anharu, most trusted of Blackgult's blades,
though he refused all rank; and his closest friend, the
barb-tongued and nimble procurer Craer DelnboneтАФreturn as
outlaws to Aglirta, and made so bold as to try to steal gowns
from the Lady of JewelsтАФFaerod Silvertree's own
daughterтАФfrom her very palace bedchamber. She being skilled
in sorcery, her father's Dark Three had trained but also enslaved
her, making Silvertree Castle her prison, and planning someday
that she'd be bound into its very stones, to serve them as a living
fortress. Thus Embra Silvertree, who could have slain the two
thieves, instead made pact with them to carry her away.

Pursued by her father's forces, the three fled to the Silent
House, the cursed and long-abandoned mansion of House
Silvertree, and there did meet with an aging healer, Sarasper
Codelmer, who could take the shape of a longfangsтАФcalled by
some a "wolf-spider"тАФamong other forms. Sarasper was friend
unto Craer from long before, but was in hiding from all men to
escape being enslaved, as barons chained all healers for their
usefulness.

So the Band of Four were born, as merry a band of rogues as
ever enlivened bards' ballads, and in their strivings Faerod
Silvertree and his Dark Three were thrown down, and the
Sleeping King awakened, to rule from Flowfoam once more.

King Kelgrael Snowsar rewarded them for their deeds with
the titles of Overdukes of Aglirta, in the same wise as he made
the returned Baron Blackgult Regent of Aglirta, ere returning to
his spellbound Slumber-for only when Kelgrael slept could his
age-old foe, the fell and most mighty archwizard remembered by
men only as the Serpent, be held also asleep, and away from the
world he so desired to rule.

Yet in all this strife of ambitious barons and wizards, of folk
everywhere seeking the four powerful Dwaer-Stones, the folk of
Aglirta were grown tired indeed of misrule. And they turned to
the worship of the Serpent, whose scaled priests-who were not
priests at all, but wizards who as they grew in power took on
more and more of the shapes of snakesтАФled them into intrigues
that sought the Crown of Aglirta. They turned also to various
barons, who hungered after the same thing, hoping each one
would become the great king that Aglirta had lacked for so long,
who would restore peace and justice to the Kingless Land, so folk
could rest easy and the land flourish at last.

And all the while outlander mages eyed the rich Vale of
Aglirta and thrust their own hands into the fray, and the fabled