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

no matter how stressful personal circumstances were.

Tremane had luck; that was important, but more than the luck itself,
Tremane had the ability to recognize when his good fortune had struck,
and the capability to revise whatever his current plan was in order to
take advantage of that luck.

And conversely, when ill-luck struck him (which was seldom), he had the
courage to revise plans to meet that as well, now and again snatching a
new kind of victory from the brink of disaster.

Tremane was not the only one of the current candidates for the
succession to have those qualities, but he was the one personally
favored by the Emperor. Tremane was not entirely ruthless; too many of
the others were. Being ruthless was not a bad thing, but being
entirely ruthless was dangerous. Those who dared to stop at nothing
often ended up with enemies who had nothing to lose. Putting an enemy
in such a position was an error, for a man who has nothing to lose is,
by definition, risking nothing to obtain what he desires.

Tremane inspired tremendous loyalty in his underlings; it had been
dreadfully difficult for the Emperor's Spymaster to insinuate agents
into Tremane's household. That was another useful trait for an Emperor
to have; Charliss shared it, and had found that it was just as
effective to have underlings willing to fling themselves in front of
the assassin's blade without a single thought as it was to ferret out
the assassin himself.

Otherwise, the man on the throne had little else in common with his
chosen successor. Charliss had been considered handsome in his day,
and the longing glances of the women in his Court even yet were not
entirely due to the power and prestige that were granted to an Imperial
mistress. Tremane was, to put it bluntly, so far from comely that it
was likely only his power, rank, and personal prestige that won women
to his bed. His thinning hair was much shorter than was fashionable;

his receding hairline gave him a look of perpetual befuddlement.

His eyes were too small, set just a hair too far apart; his beard was
sparse, and looked like an afterthought.

His thin face ended in a lantern jaw; his wiry body gave no hint of his
quality as a warrior. Charliss often thought that the man's tailor
ought to be taken out and hanged; he dressed Tremane in sober browns
and blacks that did nothing for his complexion, and his clothing hung
on him as if he had recently lost weight and muscle.

Then again ... Tremane was only one of several candidates for the Iron
Throne, and he knew it. He looked harmless;