"Robert Don Hughes - Pelman 01 - The Prophet Of Lamath" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hughes Robert Don)

no match for the merchants. Secrets are their stock-in-trade-" "I don't need a lecture from my head of intelligence!"
Talith bellowed. "And if you want to keep not only your headship but your head, General, you had best begin
producing!" The exchequer broke in again. "She wasn't being kept in the local house, my Lord, or we could have
stopped them. The girl was being held at Pezi's own estate, on the edge of Dragonsgate." "And how did she get there?
Exchequer? General? I take it you don't know." The King's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"We know this," Joss began. "We know that when she was taken she was in the presence of your mistress-and that
only a denizen of the palace could have spirited her past our watch." The General set his jaw and stared at his King.
Though Joss was a cruel man, he did not lack for bravery.

"You are accusing Ligne?" Talith crooned menacingly.

"I accuse no one, my Lord," answered the General. "I share only what I know." "Perhaps you should know, my Lord,"
the exchequer interrupted again, "that among those Pezi was carrying to Lamath was a certain Pelman the player."
"Pelman!" the King exploded. "Is he involved in this?" "There could be no proof of that," Joss began, but the King cut
him off.

"Pelman! Of course. He's behind this. He has masterminded this whole scheme to get back at me!" "I hardly think-"
Joss began again.

Talith interrupted. "That's right, you hardly do!" He turned his back on his Chief of Security.

Joss closed his mouth and looked at the exchequer, who seemed even more nervous tonight than usual. The
exchequer avoided his eyes, and spoke earnestly to the King. "He is a most clever adversary, my Lord. And you did
deal rather brusquely with him when you sold him to Pezi. This stealth seems so unlike the fat merchant-could it be
that Pezi and Pelman plotted this together?" "Of course," growled King Talith. "It must be." Joss snorted, and the
King turned to look angrily at him.

"Pardon, my Lord," Joss said. "I share your lack of affection for Pelman. He shows by these plays of his that he is
dangerously well informed. But Pezi would not collaborate with a traveling performer. If you wish to know who has
masterminded this capture of our Princess, look to the elders of the house of Ognadzu." "They're all in Lamath!" the
King snapped.

"So, we believe, is Bronwynn," Joss said quietly, and then paused while the King mulled over his words.

The King did not think long, but his reaction was decisive. "Get me Jagd of the house of Uda. And arrest all who wear
the blue and lime of Ognadzu." For the first time since the interview began. Joss smiled. "Jagd is waiting outside, my
Lord. I felt you might wish to see him, so I sent for him earlier. As for the arrests-they were all made this afternoon. The
family of Ognadzu is having a reunion tonight in the dungeon." "Send me Jagd!" the King bellowed, and a guard at the
chamber door stamped the butt of his pike on the marble floor and announced as the double doors opened: "Jagd of
Uda, to see the Golden King." A wizened little man in rich robes of red and purple stepped briskly into the room, and
he and the King were soon deep in a heated private discussion. As Joss stepped out of the way, he noticed once
again Kherda, the exchequer. The man stood in a comer of the chamber, forgotten now, his face inscribed with anxiety
and self-doubt. Joss watched him, and marked that expression well.

As soon as he cleared the west mouth of Dragonsgate, Pelman turned south. To go straight meant to run directly into
lands controlled by the trading houses. Though they would not be expecting him, the guards on those lands held by
the Ognadzu family would surely be suspicious of a man in rags carrying a girl in golden robes, mounted on a horse
that wore the blue and lime. Pelman would take no chance. Instead he would travel along the high southwestern rim of
the Spinal Range until he could turn west under the shelter of the Great South Fir.