"Patricia Kennealy - TK 02 - The Throne of Scone" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kennealy Patricia)

arranges an escape for Aeron and Morwen. Although Aeron refuses to leave
without Gwydion, at last he manages to trick her into going, and she and
Morwen flee. When Jaun Akhera discovers that the Queen and her prime minister
have both fled the City, and that his supposed ally Arianeira was the one who
effected their escape, he is enraged, and fully intends to kill Arianeira for
her betrayal. But Arianeira has already killed herself to atone for her
treason to Aeron, and to thwart Jaun Akhera's vengeance, and she dies in her
brother Gwydion's arms.
The planet Tara remains in Imperial hands, with Jaun Akhera and his brother
Sanchoniathon in occupation of CaerdroiaтАФand with Gwydion as a willing
hostage. He does so to keep Keltia for Aeron and in hopes of organizing a
resistance; before the City's fall he dispatches the royal family and
othersтАФincluding the Terran lieutenant O'Reilly, who has elected to remain in
Keltia after the Sword's return to EarthтАФto parts unknown for sanctuary.
After a long and terrible flight over the mountains, in deep snow and bitter
cold, Aeron and Morwen manage to reach a secret spaceport where Arianeira has
hidden Aeron's starship Retaliator, and in that ship they escape from the
planet and from Keltia.
THE THRONE OF SCONE
xvu
They are bound on a long and difficult quest, even the reality of which is
uncertain: to find the lost and legendary Treasures of Keltia, taken away from
the kingdom fifteen centuries before by the great King Arthur himselfтАФmagical
weapons that will enable Aeron to win back her realm from Jaun Akhera, and, if
such is her final choice, to destroy Jaun Akhera and win an empire of her own
for herself and for Gwydion. But first she and Morwen must find Arthur . . .
Ni bu Arthur ond trafu. ("Arthur himself had but his time.")
Chapter 1
/n the days following his coronation, Elathan of Fomor had had little time to
call his own. The Iron Crown of his ancestors had been set upon his head, the
fealty of his barons had been accepted, the body of his father, Bres, had been
placed in the dim dusty vaults beneath the palace with the fifty-four kings
and queens who had preceded him as mon-archs of Fomor. Time now to begin to
rule, not merely to reign.
In truth, there was much that had need of being ruled, and well did Elathan
know it. In his first hour as king, he had taken a decision that would without
question shape not only his own reign but the destiny of Fomor for generations
and reigns to come: Thousands of star-miles away, upon the Keltic throneworld
of Tara, Elathan had called his armies from the war with KeltiaтАФhad whistled
them off like hounds from the huntтАФand against all advice had quit the war,
taking his forces home to Fomor with the body of his father. But the war had
gone on all the same without him, a war neither of Elathan's making nor to
Elathan's likingтАФa war begun in treachery by Jaun Akhera, heir to the Cabin
Imperium, and joined in by Bres out of vengeance and a long, long hatred.
A shadow of sorrow crossed Elathan's face at the thought of his father. They
had never been closeтАФBres had reserved such affection as he could feel, or
show, for his youngest child, his blond daughter Rauni, and for Talorcan, his
son by bis longtime concubine ThonaтАФand in these last few months they had been
not merely estranged but actively antagonistic. All the same, Bres had been
Elathan's King as well as his father, and the loss was a real one.