"Mercedes Lackey & Eric Flint & Dave Freer - The Shadow of th" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

In the Heart of Darkness
Destiny's Shield
Fortune's Stroke
The Tide of Victory
The Tyrant (with David Drake)
(forthcoming)
1632
Mother of Demons
BAEN BOOKS by DAVE FREER
The Forlorn
Rats, Bats, and Vats
(with Eric Flint)
Pyramid Scheme
(with Eric Flint)
Prologue
April, 1537 A.D.




MAINZ

The yellow lantern-lights of Mainz's dockside inns reached out across the dark Rhine. Standing
on the prow of the riverboat, Erik Hakkonsen stared at them, thinking of little more than food and
a bed. He'd left his home in Iceland three weeks earlier, to answer the Emperor's summons. They'd
had a stormy crossing. Then the late spring thaw had ensured that the roads of the Holy Roman
Empire were fetlock deep in glutinous mud. And, finally, the river had been full and the rain
steady. Tomorrow he would have to go to the Imperial palace, and find out how to seek an interview
with Emperor Charles Fredrik.
But tonight he could sleep.
The riverboat nudged into the quay. A wet figure stepped out from under the eaves of the inn.
"Is there one Erik Hakkonsen on this vessel?" he demanded, half-angrily. The rain hadn't been kind


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to the skinny courtier's bright cloak. The satin clung to him, and he was shivering.
Erik pushed back his oilskin-hood. "I'm Hakkonsen."
"Thank God for that! I'm soaked to the skin. I've been here for hours," complained the man.
"Come. I've got horses in the stable. The Emperor awaits you."
Erik made no move. "Who are you?"
The fellow shivered. "Baron Trolliger. The Emperor's privy secretary." He held out his hand to
show a heavy signet. It was incised with the Roman Eagle.
That was not a seal anyone would dare to forge. Erik nodded. "I'll get my kit."
The shivering baron shook his head. "Leave it." He pointed to the sailor who had paused in his
mooring to stare. "You. Watch over this man's gear. Someone will be sent for it."
As much as anything else, the alacrity with which the sailor obeyed the order drove home the
truth to Erik. He was in the heart of the Holy Roman Empire, for a certainty. In his native
IcelandтАФor Vinland, or anywhere else in the League of ArmaghтАФthat peremptory order would have been