"Katherine Kurtz - Camber 3 - Camber the Heretic" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kurtz Katherine)

them were inside the shrine, and all knelt respectfully as the bishop appeared
at the portico.
But Camber was no longer anxious at having to be among them. After
chatting amiably with several of the brothers and sisters, he pronounced a
general blessing on the house and the work. Then, with apparent reluctance,
he requested that his party's horses be brought around, Guthrie and Caleb
having returned. Queron thanked the bishop for his visit, then himself held the
stirrup so that Camber might mount.
Soon Camber and his son were on their way to Valoret once more, their road
lit by torches and the ever-brightening moonlight and their number swelled by
half a dozen monks whom Queron had insisted upon sending with them for
their further safety. They reached Valoret shortly after Compline.
The king was not yet abed. His eldest page met them as soon as they had
stepped into the great hall, before they could even divest themselves of their
heavy travelling cloaks. Cinhil was waiting for them in the private chapel
adjoining his apartments, kneeling at a prie-dieu in heavy scarlet nightrobe and
a fur-lined cap with lappets that covered his ears. He raised his head and
half-turned toward them as the page went out and closed the outer door.
"Alister! It's about time! Is GregoryтАФ"
"He's well, Sire," Camber reassured him. "He should be able to ride in a few
days. I gave him your message. He had nothing to do with our delay."
"No?"
Camber let Joram take the damp cloak from his shoulders while he began
peeling clammy gloves from fingers stiff with cold.
 "Unfortunately, not. We met Bishop Hubert's brother and sister-in-law on
the way back, near Dolban. Manfred, I believe, is his name. I expect you'll be
hearing from him far sooner than you would like."
"Why?"
"He and his lady wife apparently were harassed by a band ofтАФahтАФ-young
Deryni nobles," Camber said tersely. "Joram and I had encountered them
ourselves, a short time earlier, but they cried off when they found out who we
were."
Cinhil brought a fist down softly on the armrest of the prie-dieu and swore a
mild oath.
"The blind fools! How can I hold off reprisals against Deryni when Deryni
themselves keep agitating the countryside? God knows, we don't need another
incident like Nyford. Would you like to see one of your Michaeline houses burn
next? How about Grecotha? Or Jaffray's Saint Neot's? Or perhaps Valoret
itself?"
Camber sighed and took a seat on a stool which Cinhil had indicated. The
king did not need to say more about Nyford. The previous summer, rioting
peasants led by a handful of disgruntled human lordlings had utterly destroyed
Nyford town and slaughtered most of its inhabitants. The spark which began it
had been a senseless incident of irresponsibility not unlike that which had just
occurred on the Dolban road.
Nyford lay on the point at the confluence of the Eirian and Lendour rivers,
where Imre of Festil had begun the construction of his ill-starred new capital
nearly twenty years before. Though the palace and surrounding administrative
structures had barely been begun in Imre's time, other folk had occupied the
abandoned building site after Imre's fall, humans and Deryni, and a thriving