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

into anyone's trap."
"Save yours, Band of FourтАФand Blackgult. Or are you a member, good Baron,
and this wench whose magic now constrains me the fifth, the outsider? I'd not
heard that the boy king was proclaiming new overdukes . .. but then, I've not
had the leisure to hear or see much of anything in the Vale this last while,
with you hunting me. And if, as you say, I'm so wise as not to put a foot
wrong, why this chasing and capturing? I was unaware that I'd slighted the
Young Majesty. What quarrel has he with me?"
"None to speak of, Huldaerus," the Baron Blackgult replied grimly. "Yet your
power is a danger to Aglirta of the sort we can no longer ignore. With
shapeshifters busy and dozens of threats still menacing the River Throne like
drawn blades, it's timeтАФand past timeтАФto scour the realm, collecting foes of
the crown ... or wizards who refuse to kneel to King Raulin and pledge
loyalty. Your refusal was, you must admit, rather spectacular." He examined
one of the chains critically, and told it, "At last, we're gathering enemies
before they show up in the Throne Chamber with swords or flaring spells in
their hands."
The Master of Bats made a face, his hands trembling from the force of a
surreptitious attempt to tear free of his manacles. "So if I go upstairs right
now and kiss the royal slipper and say the right words, I can go free? Surely
'twould have been easier to try that first, ereтАФ"
"No, Arkle Huldaerus," the Lady Silvertree said softly but firmly. "Things
might be different if you meant your pledge, and so swore loyalty in all
heartfelt honesty, but this Dwaer can power spells I'd not dare to weaveтАФor
trustтАФby myself, and it has told me one thing very clearly, more than once
since your capture: You feel no shred of loyalty or fair feeling to the King,
or to Aglirta."
"So that's why you were forever asking me to swear fealty, or if I wouldтАФor
could," the chained wizard murmured, his face now flushed deep red from his
inverted position. "I thought you meant it as some sort of taunt."
"No," Embra told him calmly, "you thought nothing of the kind. You thought
we were trying a new spell on you, to urge you to loyalty. You also thought
that we were a lot of fools who'd be tyrants if we weren't so addle-witted,
that this Dwaer was wasted in our hands, and that you'd been very clever thus
far to hold back when Serpent and Dragon were contesting on Flowfoam, and in
the troubles before that. You then went on to think that you were quite clever
enough to weather this latest storm of foolishness on our part, and break free
with the aid of the three bats that, even now, you're concealing upon
yourself."
 "My, my, that unlovely lump of rock shows you everything, doesn't it?" the
Master of Bats replied, more wearily than mockingly.
"Three bats?" Craer snapped. "Where? I felt him all over, good and proper,
and graul if I think he could have hidden even one of the little chitterers
from me. Where did he hide them?"
"Right now," Embra replied, "they're under his manacles, where the metal
will best hide them from us. Before, when you were searching, they were in a
dark place we all have, that's fashioned for expelling what our bodies are
ready to be rid of."
"Why," Tshamarra murmured, "am I unsurprised?" She watched Craer slip a long
dagger under one manacle and slide it around the trapped wrist swiftly. A dark