"Greenwood, Ed - Elminster 05 - Elminster's Daughter_v1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Greenwood Ed)

One of that last pair of merchants slapped his hand down on the table.
"No, Caethur. You'll not turn us to savaging each other whilst you
gloat. We'll sink or stand together."

The other merchant of the two nodded balefully.

Caethur gave them both a brittle smile, wiggling his ring-bedecked
fingers so the gem-studded gold bands adorning them flashed in the
lamplight like glasses of the new vintage Waterdhavian nobles had dubbed
"sparkling stars," and said airily, "Well, then, we've come to that
moment, sirs, when the wagging of tongues must give way to making good,
one way or another. Kamburan, why don't you begin?"

Reluctantly, the white-bearded merchant reached a hand into the breast
of his flame-silk overtunic and drew forth -- slowly and carefully, as
two crossbows lifted warningly -- a glossy-polished wooden coffer only a
shade larger than his palm. Wordlessly he flipped it open, displaying
the frozen fire of the line of gems within for all to see. Seven
beljurils, sea-green and shimmering, their flash-fires building.

Kamburan set the coffer gently on the table and slid it toward Caethur.

Halfway to the moneylender it stopped. Caethur lifted a finger, and one
of his guards stepped smoothly forward to close the coffer and slide it
the rest of the way down the table. The moneylender made no move to
touch it.

"We should have gone to Mirt," Hammuras muttered. Caethur gave the spice
dealer a shark-like grin. "Life is filled with 'should-haves,' isn't it,
Hammuras? I should have chosen to deal with more astute and harder-
working tradesmen and never come to this regrettable salvaging of scraps
from the wrack of what should have been five flourishing businesses."

"None of that!" Nael snarled. "You know as well as the rest of us that
times have been hard! The beasts from the sea, a season's shipping
shattered, wars in Amn and Tethyr and the fall in trade with both those
lands..."

Caethur spread his hands and lifted his eyebrows at the same time, to
ask mildly, "And did not every merchant of Waterdeep face these
troubles? Yet -- behold -- they're not all here, sitting around this
table. Only you five." Turning his gaze to Hammuras, he held out a
beckoning hand.

Grimly, the spice merchant produced a small coffer of his own, displayed
the rubies it held, and slid it along the table.

It stopped within reach of the moneylender, but Caethur made no move to
take it up. Instead, he turned his expectant gaze to Nael. Who sat as
still as stone and as pale as snow-marble. "Well?" Caethur asked softly,