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

How long would it take for word to spread of TremaneтАЩs new position? Probably less
than an hour. тАЬWhat of Valdemar, my Emperor?тАЭ he asked, his voice steady, even if
his hands were not.
тАЬWhat of Valdemar?тАЭ Charliss repeated. тАЬWell, I donтАЩt expect you to conquer it as
well. It will be enough to bring Hardorn under our banner. However, if during that
process you discover a way to insinuate an agent into Valdemar, all the better. If you
take your conquests past the Hardorn border and actually into Valdemar, better still. I
simply warn you of Valdemar because it is a strange place and I cannot predict how it
will measure this situation nor what it will do. Valdemar can wait; Hardorn is what
concerns me now. We must conquer it, now that we have begun, or our other client
states will see that we have failed and may become difficult to deal with in our
perceived moment of weakness.тАЭ
тАЬAnd if I succeed in bringing Hardorn into the Empire?тАЭ Tremane persisted.
тАЬThen you will be confirmed in the succession, and I will begin the process of the
formal training,тАЭ Charliss told him. тАЬAnd at the end of ten years, I will retire, and you
will have Throne, Crown, and Empire.тАЭ
TremaneтАЩs eyes lit, and his lips twitched into a tight, excited smile. Then he
sobered. тАЬIf I do not succeed, however, I assume I shall resume nothing more than
the rule of my Duchy.тАЭ
Charliss examined his immaculately groomed hands, gazing into the topaz eyes of
the wolfтАЩs-head ring he wore, a ring whose wolf mask had been cast from the same
molds as the central wolf of the Wolf Crown. The eyes gazed steadily at him, and as
he often did, Charliss fancied he saw a hint of life in them. Hunger. An avidity, not
that of the starving beast, but of the prosperous and powerful.
тАЬThere is no shortage of suitable candidates for the Throne,тАЭ he replied casually,
tilting the ring for a better view into the burning yellow eyes. тАЬIf you should happen to
survive your failure, I would advise you to retire directly to your Duchy. The next
candidate that I would consider if you failed would be Baron Melles.тАЭ
Baron Melles was a so-called тАЬcourt Baron,тАЭ a man with a title but no lands to
match. He didnтАЩt need land; he had power, power in abundance, for he was an Adept
and his magics had brought him more wealth than many landed nobles had. His
coffers bulged with his accumulated wealth, but he wanted more, and his bloodlines
and ambition were likely to give him more.
He also happened to be of the political party directly opposite that of TremaneтАЩs.
TremaneтАЩs parents had held their lands for generations; Melles was the son of
merchants. Melles was, not so incidentally, one of TremaneтАЩs few enemies, one of
the few candidates to the succession who did not underestimate the Baron. There
was a personal animosity between them that Charliss did not quite understand, and
he often wondered if the two had somehow contracted a very private feud that had
little or nothing to do with their respective positions and ambitions.
Melles would be only too pleased to find Tremane a failure and himself the new
successor. This meant, among other things, that if Tremane happened to survive his
failure to conquer Hardom, he probably would not survive the coronation of his rival,
and he might not even survive the confirmation of Melles as successor. Melles was
the most ruthless of all the candidates, and both Charliss and Tremane were quite
well aware that he was a powerful enough Adept to be able to commit any number of
murders-by-magic, and make them all appear to be accidents.
He was also clever enough not to do anything of the sort, since his political rivals
would be looking for and defending against exactly that sort of attack. Melles was
fully wealthy enough to buy any number of covert killers, and probably would. He was