"Mage Storms 01 - Storm Warning" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

Storm Warning

By: Mercedes Lackey

Synopsis:

In Storm Warning, the first volume of the Mage Storms trilogy,

Mercedes Lackey returns readers to a war-ravaged Valdemar at the moment
when Queen Selenay is attempting to effect a fragile new alliance with
the neighboring kingdom of Karse. It is a venture that must not fail
if either realm is to have any hope of surviving the coming
confrontation with the massive armies of the ancient and enigmatic
Eastern Empire.

But Karse and Valdemar have been enemies for generations, and their
peoples are filled with prejudice and mistrust that may be impossible
to overcome. Even the young Karsite representative to the Valdemaran
court finds it difficult to accept that the Heralds aren't "White

Demons" and that the Companions aren't "Hellhorses," as most Karsites
have for so long believed. Only the vile deeds perpetrated on both
kingdoms by Ancar of Hardorn and the subsequent emergence of the armies
of the Eastern Empire in the wake of his defeat forced these two
so-different lands into an uneasy coalition.

For the Eastern Empire, which has long been isolated and shrouded in
spell-fueled obscurity, is ruled by a monarch whose motives are unknown
and whose magical tactics may prove too powerful a match for even the
most advanced sorceries practiced by the Western kingdoms.

Forced to combat this mysterious and deadly foe, not only must two
traditional enemies unite, but the Companions may at last be forced to
reveal secrets which they have kept hidden for centuries ... even from
their beloved Heralds.




One

Emperor Charliss sat upon the Iron Throne, bowed down neither by the
visible weight of his years nor the invisible weight of his power. He
bore neither the heavy Wolf Crown on his head, nor the equally
burdensome robes of state across his shoulders, though both lay nearby,
on an ornately trimmed marble bench beside the Iron Throne. The thick
silk-velvet robes flowed down the bench and coiled on the floor beside
it, a lush weight of pure crimson so heavy it took two strapping young
men to lift them into place on the Emperor's shoulders.