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

to begin. Let them wait-and let them see just whose business had kept
them waiting.

They would know then, without any formal announcements, just who had
become the Emperor's current favorite. The little maneuverings and
shifts in power would begin from that very moment, like the shifts in
current when a new boulder rolls into a stream.

"Quite." Charliss frowned.

"In fact, that Hulda creature was once one of my freelance agents in
the Valdemar capital.

I was rather dubious about using her again, despite her abilities,
until I realized just how cursed difficult it is to work in Valdemar.
As it was, her progress there was minimal. Most unsatisfactory. She
was never able to insinuate herself any higher than a mere court
servant's position, and she had more than one agenda and more than one
employer at the time."

The corner of Tremane's mouth twitched again, but this time it was
downward. Charliss knew why; Tremane never knowingly worked with
someone who served more masters than he.

"Why did you trust her in Hardorn, then?" the Grand Duke asked in a
neutral tone.

"I never trusted her," Charliss corrected him, allowing a hint of cold
disapproval to tinge his own voice.

"I trust no agents, particularly not those who are as ambitious as this
one was. I merely made sure that this time she had no other employers
and that her personal agenda was not incompatible with Mine. And when
it appeared that she was slipping her leash, I sent an envoy to Ancar's
court to remind her who her master was. And to eliminate her if she
elected to ignore the warning he represented. That was why I sent a
mage, an Adept her equal, with none of her vices."

"Your pardon," Tremane replied, bowing slightly.

"I should have known. But-about Valdemar? " Charliss permitted his
icy expression to thaw.

"Valdemar is peculiar, as I said. Until recently, they've had next to
no magic at all, and what they had was only mind-magic. There was a
barrier there, according to my agents, a barrier that made it
impossible for a practicing mage to remain within the borders for very
long."

"But how did Hulda-" Tremane began, then smiled.