"Katherine Kurtz - Heirs 1 - Harrowing of Gwynedd" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kurtz Katherine)

"I have to tell you that burying those three men was one of the most difficult
things I've ever had to do," Joram confessed to their Dhassa compatriots an
hour laterтАФthough he tried not to think about that fourth body he had just
left, hidden beneath the chapel where the other three lay. "I know we must put
our grief and outrage behind us now, and move on to the more constructive
measures we all know they would have wished, but I won't even pretend that
can happen overnight. For now, we're going to have to take it a day at a
timeтАФand maybe even hour by hour, when things get particularly difficult."
He was pacing back and forth beside a table in Bishop Niallan's private
quarters in besieged Dhassa, drawn and gaunt-looking in monkish black
instead of the now-dangerous blue of the MichaelinesтАФthough he had worn his
former habit the day before, to honor two of the three men he buried. The pale
cap of his hair, tonsured now in the manner of any ordinary priest, shone like a
halo as he paused where a beam of weak winter sunlight filtered through an
east window. Niallan, seated at the head of the long table, resisted the urge to
cross himself in awe at the pent-up power smoldering in Saint Camber's son,
though he, like Joram, was Deryni and fully capable of not a little power
himself.
So were most of the other men ranged around the bishop's tableтАФall, in
fact, save the younger man at Niallan's immediate left, who also wore episcopal
purple. Dermot O'Beirne, the deposed Bishop of Cashien, had thrown in his lot
with Niallan on that fatal Christmas Day a fortnight before, when everything
else seemed to fall apart. The regents' assault on Valoret Cathedral, given color
of authority by the young king's active presence and participation, had put an
end to Alister Cullen's brief tenure as Archbishop of Valoret. It had also put an
end to any subsequent hope of tempering the regents' increasingly anti-Deryni
policies via the established Church hierarchy. Indeed, one of the most
notorious of the regents now occupied the primatial throne, and had
suspended and excommunicated both bishops at Dhassa as one of his first
official acts.
The rest of Niallan's now-renegade household were under similar bans, for
standing by their master and refusing to surrender his See of Dhassa to his
designated successor. At Niallan's right sat his chaplain and personal Healer of
many years' standing, Dom Rickart, the Gabrilite priest's white robes a startling
contrast to the bishops' purple and the shades of mourning that everyone else
wore. Rickart was of an age with Niallan, but the long hair drawn back in the
tight, single braid of his Order was glossy chestnut, where Niallan's hair and
neatly trimmed beard were steely grey.
Another, younger Healer sat across from Rickart, next to Dermot, though
nothing in his demeanor or dress declared his Healer's calling today. Both his
tunic and his nubbly wool mantle were a dull dust-umber, the color of
weathered stone. Nor did he look old enough to be a Healer, though up until a
few weeks ago, he had been personal Healer and tutor to young Prince Javan,
the king's clubfooted twin brother and heir. The talented and sometimes
headstrong Tavis O'Neill was not exactly a member of the bishop's household,
but Niallan had given him refuge when he was forced to quit Valoret. He
remained their one reliable contact with the prince.
Tavis was also, so far as they knew, the sole possessor of an apparently
unique Deryni talent that held up some hope of preserving their Deryni race