"Katherine Kerr - Deverry 08 - A Time Of Justice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kerr Katherine)


I before a vowel at the beginning of a word is consonantal, as it is in the plural ending -ion, pronounced
yawn.

Doubled consonants are both sounded clearly, unlike in English. Note, however, that DD is a single
letter, not a doubled consonant.

Accent is generally on the penultimate syllable, but compound words and place names are often an
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html




exception to this rule.

I have used this system of transcription for the Bardekian, Dwarvish, and Elvish alphabets as well as the
Deverrian, which is, of course, based upon the Greek rather than the Roman model. As faithful readers
of this series know, my decision to use this simple approach rather than the full scholarly apparatus
developed at the University of Aberwyn has been roundly attacked of late in the academic press. Such
readers will be glad to hear that the lawsuit against those attackers, in particular a certain Elvish professor
of Elvish, filed on my behalf by my publishers, is proceeding nicely through the courts in Aberwyn, where
in due time it will reach the gwerbret's malover and be resolved, once and for all, and in our favour, or so
I may hope.



I PROLOGUE

The Northlands, 1116



ALBUS



The opposite of Rubeus in all things, thus generally an omen for good. Yet when it falls into the House of
Lead, pertaining to matters of war, it does signify days of air and darkness, and an evil upon the land.

The Omenbook of Gwarn, Loremaster



Under a starry night two men and a dragon camped by a river. Though the wind blew warm, the men
had built a fire for light, and the great wyrm lay her head as close to it as she dared. The rest of her
glittering body and folded wings stretched away into shadow. Well over twenty feet long, not counting
the tail curled round her haunches, the greeny-black dragon kept raising her head to look about her and
sniff the summer wind. On the opposite side of the fire sat a young man of the Mountain People, though
he was tall for one of them at five and a half feet. He had high dwarven cheekbones and a flat nose,
narrow eyes, shadowed under heavy dwarven brows, and his hair was a brown close to black, as was