"Robert Jordan - Conan 02 - The Invincible" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jordan Robert)

knowledge or consent would not be theft at all.

Then there was Larsha, the ancient, accursed ruins not far from Shadizar, The origin of those toppled
towers annd time-eroded walls was shrouded in the depths of time, but everyone agreed there was
treasure there. And a curse. A decade before, when Tiridates was still a vigorous king, he had sent a
company of the King's Own inside those walls in the full light of day. Not one had returned, and the
screams of their dying had so panicked the king's retinue and bodyguard that they had abandoned him.
Tiridates had been forced to flee with them. If any had tried to penetrate that doom-filled city since, none
had ever returned to speak of it.

Conan did not fear curses-had he not already proven himself a bane of mages?-as he did not fear to
enter the very palace of the king. But which? To remove sufficient wealth from the palace would be as
difficult as removing it from the accursed ruins. Which would give him the most for his labors?

He became aware of eyes on him and looked up. A dark, hook-nosed man wearing a purple head-cloth
held by a golden fillet stood regarding him. A purple silk robe hung from the watcher's bony shoulders.
He leaned on a shoulderhigh staff of plain, polished wood, and, though he bore no other weapon and
was plainly not of the Desert, there was no fear of robbery-or anything else-in his black eyes.

"You are Conan the Cimmerian," he said. It was not a question. "It is said you are the best thief in
Shadizar."

"And who are you," Conan said warily, "to accuse an honest citizen of thievery? I am a bodyguard."

The man took a seat across from him without asking. He held his staff with one hand; Conan saw that he
regarded it as a weapon. "I am Ankar, a merchant dealing in very special merchandise. I have need of the
best thief in Shadizar."

With a confident smile Conan sipped his wine. He was on familiar ground, now. "And what special
merchandise do you wish to acquire?"

"First know that the price I will pay is ten thousand pieces of gold."

Conan set his mug down before he slopped wine over his wrist. With ten thousand... by the Lord of the
Mound, he would be no longer a thief, but a man with a need to guard against thieves. "What is it you
wish stolen?" he said eagerly.

A tiny smile touched Ankar's thin lips. "So you are Conan the Thief. At least that is settled. Know you
that Yildiz of Turan and Tiridates have concluded a treaty to stop the depredations against trade along
their common border?"

"I may have heard, but there's no loot in treaties."

"Think you so? Then know that gifts were exchanged between the kings in token of this pact, which is to
last for five years. To Tiridates Yildiz sent five dancing girls bearing a golden casket, on the lid of which
are set five stones of amethyst, five of sapphire and five of topaz. Within the casket are five pendants,
each containing a stone the like of which no man has ever seen."

Conan was tiring of the strange man's supercilious air. Ankar took him for a rude, untutored barbarian,
and perhaps he was, but he was not a fool.