"Richard A. Knaak - Dragonlance - Lost Histories 4 - Land of the Minotaurs" - читать интересную книгу автора (Knaak Richard A)

Hecar found his old home drab and emotionless in ways that had annoyed him only vaguely when he
had resided in Nethosak.

Flanking the palaceтАФbut from a supposedly respectful distanceтАФwere two other large, even more
utilitarian edifices. The rounded building was the central temple of the Holy Orders of the Stars, where
the high priest of the state religion resided. Here acolytes were trained and clerics were given the word
of Sargas, the Great Horned One. Humans continued to insist that the god was Sargonnas, the Dark
Queen's consort, but even Hecar could not accept that. Whether true or false, he really did not care, for
he was more inclined toward the smaller, less organized belief in Kiri-Jolith, the bison-headed god of
just cause. The house of Orilg was that god's bastion, which oftimes meant trouble with the state priests.

On the other side was the plain, boxlike building that served as the central quarters of the Supreme
Circle, the eight minotaurs who oversaw the administration of the empire. Each member of the circle
claimed a great number of followers, subordinates, and personal guards. There were clans smaller than
the numbers who obeyed the dictates of any one circle member. Even more important, all government
workers, including the strong and ever-present State Guard, which policed not only Nethosak but the
entire realm, acknowledged the superiority of the Supreme Circle. Of course, the circle and the
priesthood were supposed to bow to the commands of the emperor, yet there were circumstances when
both could not only bypass his authority, but dictate to him.

Overall, the system had always seemed a proper, efficient one to Hecar, until now. After hearing about
the doubts and uncertainties of those who had departed the empire, he had to wonder.

A distant roar made him turn his gaze to the only structure in the distance that dwarfed even the palace.

The Great Circus.

It was as massive a colosseum as any built on the face of Ansalon, perhaps all of Krynn. Its architects
had designed it with the thought that the entire minotaur race could be seated within, there to watch
matters of justice and honor settled in hand-to-hand combat, as was the way of Hecar's kind. While the
population had long ago outgrown the Great Circus, it still allowed a good portion of the imperial city's
citizenry to enjoy the spectacles. There was no other building as important to minotaurs as the Great
Circus, not even the palace, the central temple, or the headquarters of the Supreme Circle. The Great
Circus was where the mightiest champions fought one another to prove their supremacy. It was where
entire clans could be displaced from power.

It was where any minotaur who had proven himself worthy enough, who had risen in rank beyond all
other champions, could challenge the present emperor and, if successful, succeed him as ruler. The
imperial palace and everything within it would then belong to the victor. He or she would be the hand of
the empire, guiding the race ever closer to its destiny. One day soon, so the priesthood kept proclaiming,
a minotaur who would lead his people to dominate Krynn would sit upon the throne.



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Hecar snorted. Of course, a challenger was just as likely to end up dead in the circus, killed by the
emperor. Even when an emperor was replaced, which seemed to happen not very often these days,