"Mindy L. Klasky - Glasswright Journeyman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Klasky Mindy L)

As if remembering this strength, Hal managed a smile as he handed Rani into the room.
"Holy Father, Father Dartulamino, you remember Rani Trader, our treasured sister?"

Sister. That was not how Rani would have asked to be presented. Nevertheless, she thought as
she collapsed into an automatic curtsey, sister was appropriate. Particularly since the Holy
Father had presided over the religious service five years before in which Rani was welcomed
into the House of Jair, where she became the First Pilgrim for a year. Then she had become a
member of the royal family, if only temporarily. She had been expected to spend a year
living in the palace, living as a member of the royal House of Jair. One year, fiveтАж The
Thousand Gods worked in mysterious ways.

As Rani rose from her obeisance, she concentrated on the fourth person in the room, on
Father Dartulamino. His had been the voice that she heard from the outer chamber. Of
course it had seemed familiar! Rani knew Dartulamino from other hallways, from other
meetings.

Dartulamino was a member of the Fellowship of Jair.

Rani cast a hurried glance toward Hal, wanting to confirm the priest's secret identity. The
Fellowship was a shadowy organization, and its members generally kept their daily lives
hidden. In fact, in the three years since one of the Fellowship had come close to assassinating
Hal, the cabal had drawn its ranks even closer. Glair, the leader of the cell that operated in
Moren, had disavowed the crazed nobleman who had drawn steel against Hal; she claimed
that the attacker had acted on his own, without approval or permission from the Fellowship.

After much debate with Rani and Mair, Hal had decided to accept Glair's explanation. To do
otherwise would have required the king to challenge the Fellowship openly. Hal's reign was
still too new for that sort of upset. Instead, Hal had attempted to embrace the Fellowship
even more closely, to integrate himself into its workings more completely so that he became
invaluable to them.

Rani knew that Hal had taken on special missions in the past three years, that he had offered
advice and the distinct advantage of royal secrecy to at least one information-gathering
sojourn that the Fellowship had conducted in far-off Brianta, homeland of First Pilgrim Jair.
Rani did not know the details, but she understood that Hal was maneuvering toward the
heart of the Fellowship's cell in Morenia. He had worked hard to make himself indispensable,
to make himself the rumored Royal Pilgrim.

The Royal PilgrimтАж Neither Rani nor Hal nor even MairтАФwith her long history in the
FellowshipтАФknew precisely what the Royal Pilgrim was. Hal had heard about the Pilgrim
from a madman, learning the Fellowship's aspirations from the rogue member intent on
assassinating him. The Royal Pilgrim would unite the kingdomsтАФnorth and south, east and
west. The Fellowship pinned its future on the figure. Hal and Rani might not know the details,
but they understood one crucial fact: Hal must ingratiate himself even further with the
Fellowship if he was to claim true power in its ranks.

And while Rani had not been privy to all Hal's maneuvers within the Fellowship, she had
attended at least two secret meetings of that brotherhood where the sallow Dartulamino had
spoken. The man was a priest; he had dedicated his life to the holiness and the sanctity of the