"Glenda Larke - Heart of the Mirage" - читать интересную книгу автора (Larke Glenda)

wind instead of underfoot and the only water is in one's tears! I gave a
bitter smile. 'Is that how my service to you, to the Brotherhood, to the
Exaltarchy, is to be repaid? You wouldn't do this, Magister Rathrox, if Gayed
were alive. My father would never have allowed it.' It was five years since
his death, yet I felt the pang of loss still.
'General Gayed put his Exaltarch and his nation before all else, as you must.
The Exaltarchy has given you all that you own, all that you are. Now you must
pay the reckoning.' He shrugged. 'Supply the information that will quell the
Exaltarch's rebellious subjects in Kardiastan and he will not forget you. Even
now your salary is to be raised to six thousand sestus a year, while you
remain in Kardiastan, and you go as a Legata, with the equivalent status of a
Legatus.'
My eyes widened. A Legatus was someone with a special mission and they carried
much of the status of the official who sent them. If my papers were signed by
Rathrox, my power in Kardiastan would be extensive. It was telling that I'd
never heard of the feminine form of the word. Such power was not normally
given to a woman. 'You must be very afraid of me to have
obtained those terms, Magister Officii. They are generous indeed. // I can
stay alive, of course. Nonetheless, I think I would have preferred to resign
the Brotherhood, had you given me the option.'
'No one leaves the Brotherhood,' he said, the words as curt as his tone. 'Not
ever. You know that. Besides, what would you do without the intrigue, without
the power, without the challenge, Legata Ligea? The Brotherhood is your drug;
you cannot survive without it. You would never make a pampered wife, and what
other alternative is there for you?' His voice softened a little. 'I'm twice
your age, Ligea. One day I'll no longer head the Brotherhood. Take comfort
from that thought.'
I hated knowing how well he read me. I turned abruptly, leaving him, and made
my way to the palace entrance. The sentries swung open the massive carved
doors, then sprang to attention and saluted as I passed. I'd identified myself
as one of the Brotherhood on the way in, and they knew it paid to be
respectful to a compeer.
Out once more in the dazzling sun, I looked around in relief. I'd never liked
needless luxury and the extravagance of the Exaltarch's palace was stifling,
especially when coupled with the emotions still warring inside me even now:
anger, bitterness, pride, frustration. I thought I knew now why the Exaltarch
had been amused. The idea of sending a Kardi to deal with Kardi insurgents was
not without irony, and when the Kardi in question was a woman raised as a
highborn Tyranian тАФ oh yes, the situation was amusing. Unless you were the one
being banished to a desert hell. The muscles of my stomach tightened in
rebellion.
Tyr, capital and hub of Tyrans тАФ of the whole Exaltarchy тАФ was my home; the
only home I
remembered. It was the centre of the civilised world, the place where
everything began, where all decisions that counted were made, where things
happened. How could I bear to leave it?
I stood at the top of the stairs leading down from the palace doors and looked
out over the Forum Publicum, the heart of Tyr. It was the hour before siesta
and the Forum, a mile in length, was crowded in spite of the midday heat. The
usual mixed throng: slaves and ambling highborn, merchants and work-stained