"Jacqueline Lichtenberg - Dushau Trilogy 01 - Dushau" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lichtenberg Jacqueline)

Allegiancy Emperor has been renowned throughout the centuries. He would not deprive the crippled of
their crutch, the sick of their medicine, the fearful of their security. The Zavaronne..."

Zinzik interrupted, his manner suddenly modern. "Nicely maneuvered, Prince Jindigar. History warned
me of you. Very well, you will all present yourselves in my private chambers immediately upon leaving
here."

Prince? Krinata examined the symbols on Jindigar's robe again. She'd never been very good at heraldry.
But if Jindigar was a prince, then no wonder he'd claimed Zinzik was deliberately insulting his people. But
why would the Emperor do that?

TWO
Conspiracy

Rantan's private office was hardly less opulent than the audience chamber, though much smaller. The
center of the room was a deeply upholstered pit in the center of which was a holostage activated by the
imperial leptolizer, a wand as long as Krinata's arm and sparkling with rare jewels.

The ceiling was paneled with high-relief carvings from dozens of worlds depicting the last Imperial
Progress across the Allegiancy worlds.

The carpet had been woven to reflect the panels from above. The walls were colored mirrors arranged to
focus light on the images. Dominating all were the imperial green laced with the Lehiroh violet and yellow.
Krinata did not understand the rules of succession that rotated the throne among species, but she knew
that Rantan's successor had to be human, though not a Zavaronne.

The Emperor reclined before his holostage, drinking from a tall cut-ruby glass and watching the audience
chamber empty into the public corridors of the palace. Rantan had the good manners to address only
Jindigar. "We're delighted you could join Us for this private chat," he said. He waved to a live servant
standing to one side and said, "Do please come down and make yourself comfortable."

They descended the padded stairs, and while Jindigar drew Krinata to sit near the Emperor's right, the
other Dushau gathered in a knot on the opposite side of the holostage from Zinzik. The servant promptly
offered them drinks, though from ordinary crystal glasses. Krinata was dry-mouthed, but when Jindigar
and the others refused, so did she, to Zinzik's displeasure.

"Then We'll make this mercifully brief. Your memory is more accurate than any Histrecording. We must
know details of your years with Raichmat's Oliat."
There was not a trace of tension in Jindigar, yet Krinata sensed by his very relaxation that he understood
at last the threat he'd sensed during the Audience. Yet his voice was deep, calm, as he answered, "I was
in Raichmat four hundred thirty-two years, Excellency."

"We're aware of how long Raichmat's Oliat existed, and how influential it was on the early expansion of
the Allegiancy ... as if Raichmat knew where to find compatible civilizations willing to join us."

"After an Interregnum of over seven hundred years during which the planets of the old Corporate League
had been isolated from galactic trade, one couldn't expect to find the same cultures dominating familiar
planets. But Raichmat specialized in exploration, and visited worlds not on any Dushau records. We
found over a hundred unoccupied worlds which we opened to Allegiancy colonization."