"Ed Greenwood - Band of Four 04 - The Dragon's Doom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Greenwood Ed)

"No! Three Above, no ..."
But the Three weren't in a hearing mood, it seemed. Bucklund Ruld managed
two more steps before he collapsed on his face and Died.
"The so-called Band of Four have defeated all our Brethren could hurl at
them twice before, Brother LandrunтАФand prevailed. Don't be fooled by the
buffoonery of Overduke Delnbone and the dim-as-yon-post front Overduke Anharu
likes to present to the world. They're not the ineffectual fools they look to
be."
"Yes, LordтАФand knowing that, we shallтАФ?"
"We shall make very sure of what the Blood Plague gives us, before anything
else. You and I test, observe-and also watch over Scaled Master Arthroon and
his Fangbrother, Khavan, as they conduct their own far more clumsy
experimentations. You know the plague has no effect on a few, but plunges many
into madness. Know this much more: it transforms others into marauding
beasts."
" 'Marauding'? Mad, or hungry, or consumed by the urge to slay all they
see?"
"Most of them, yes. Yet, if our most secret tomes can be believed, some may
be suited to serving us in a greater way."
"And this 'greater way'-?"
"Patience, and we'll see."
"But..."
"Landrun, which of us two is a Lord of the Serpent?"
"My," Craer Delnbone commented, squirming in his saddle, "but there's one
thing being a tirelessly roving overduke gives you a true appreciation of:
just how blamed big the Vale is."
"I suppose," Tshamarra teased, "you'd prefer all the King's foes to
obligingly show up at court and line up to receive us?"
"Well," Craer reflected brightly, "t'would save wear on my backsideтАФand
spare the horses, too. We could sword the enemies of the crown by appointment,
be finished by evening, and celebrate in the wine cellar."
"Thereby considerately saving servants the trouble of fetching us bottles up
and down stairs," Blackgult observed. "Your commendable consideration for
others surprises me, Lord DelnboneтАФ'tis a side of you I've not seen before."
"My good Lord Blackgult," Craer observed in shocked tones, "you amaze me.
Why, you hired me yourself as a procurer in your forces, some years back. Can
it be that you've forgotten the function of procurers? Poured out from the
brimming flask of your memory the fact that procurers considerately relieve
persons possessing too many valuablesтАФor valuing same so carelessly that they
safeguard them not-of excess items, and transfer those items to persons who
think so much more highly of them that they're willing to pay to acquire
same?"
"Craer," Embra observed pleasantly, "belt up. Procurer philosophy is far too
arch to be entertainment even if one's tipsyтАФand all of us are very far from
that now."
"Precisely why I evoked the image of the royal wine cellar at Flowfoam,"
Craer explained earnestly. "Scouring the realm for missing barons and anyone
else who may have a Dwaer-Stone is thirsty work."
"I believe King Raulin used the phrase 'crucial and exacting' rather than
'thirsty,' " Blackgult told his saddlehorn calmly, "but your mention of