"Mercedes Lackey - Mage Storms 1 - Storm Warning" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

to the amount of time magic could prolong oneтАЩs life. Eventually the body itself
became too tired to sustain life any longer; even banked fires dwindled to ash in the
end. CharlissтАЩ rumored immortality was one of many myths he himself propagated.
Useful rumors were difficult to come by.
The dull gray throne sat in the midst of an expanse of black-veined white marble;
the EmperorтАЩs robes, the exact color of fresh-spilled blood, and the yellow gems in
the crown, were the only color on the dais. Even the walls and the ceiling of the dais-
alcove, a somber setting for a rich gem, were of that same marble. The effect was to
concentrate the attention of the onlookers on the Emperor and only the Emperor. The
battle-banners, the magnificent tapestries, the rich curtains - all these were behind
and to the side of the young man who waited at the EmperorтАЩs feet. Charliss himself
wore slate-gray velvets, half-robe with dagged sleeves, trews, and Court-boots, made
on the same looms as the crimson robes, in his long-ago youth, his hair had been
whitened by the wielding of magic and his once-dark eyes were now the same pale
gray ,as an overcast dawn sky.
If the young man waiting patiently at the foot of the throne was aware of how few
years the Emperor had left to him, he had (wisely) never indicated he possessed this
dangerous knowledge to anyone. Grand Duke Tremane was about the same age as
Charliss had been when Lioth bestowed his power and responsibility on CharlissтАЩ
younger, stronger shoulders and had retired to spend the last three years of his life
holding off Death with every bit of the concentration he had used holding onto his
power.
In no other way were the two of them similar, however. Charliss had been one of
LiothтАЩs many, many sons by way of his state marriages; Tremane was no closer in
blood to Charliss than a mere cousin, several times removed. Charliss had been, and
still was, an Adept, and in his full powers before he ascended the Throne. Tremane
was a mere Master, and never would have the kind of mage-power at his personal
command that Charliss had.
But if mage-power or blood-ties were all that was required to take the Throne and
the Crown, there were a hundred candidates to be considered before Tremane.
Intelligence and cunning were not enough by themselves, either; in a land founded by
stranded mercenaries, both were as common as snowflakes in midwinter. No one
survived long in CharlissтАЩ court without both those qualities, and the will to use both
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 EmperorтАЩs Spymaster to insinuate agents into TremaneтАЩs household.
That was another useful trait for an Emperor to have; Charliss shared it, and had