"Jane M. Lindskold - A Touch of Poison" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lindskold Jane)

"Slip."

"No!"

Adalia's scream strangled in her throat when the man kneeling beside her lightly touched a finger to her
lips.

"Your son will be well cared for and returned to you as soon as your task is completed," he said. "We
will send you a message indicating a place where you can see himтАФfrom a distanceтАФin order that you
will be assured of his safety."

He dropped a small leather-wrapped packet on her counterpane.

"The powder in this packet will kill quickly. It has a fairly strong taste and an odor rather like bitter
almonds. Use your imagination in administering it, for you will certainly have only one chance."

Adalia struggled to get past the black-clad figure and to her son, but the slim arm the man held out to
intercept her was as strong as a steel bar. The woman holding Jori went out through the window first,
fol-lowed a moment later by the second assassin. Then her interrogator moved to follow them.

"Please, don't!" Adalia wailed softly after his retreating form.

"And I should take care not to draw attention to yourself, Widow Baker," was all the man said in parting,
"or you will be in no condition to reclaim your son."

In Waterland, of which the city of First Harbor is the capital, no one man or woman reigns. There is no
king or queenтАФnot by any of the aliases such rulers are known. What reigns in Waterland is wealth.

Every second spring, Assessors are appointed from among the most deserving of those unfortunates
serving their sentences in debtor's prison. The theory behind this is that these men and women cannot
possibly qualify as among the Opulent and by the time they have completed their six-month term as
Assessors, they should have accumulated enough in bribes to clear their debts and set themselves up in
honest business.

Over the past ten years, five sets of Assessors had ranked Adalia's master, Greene Reid, among the ten
wealthiest citizens of Waterland. Twice in that time he had been named the wealthiest of allтАФthe
Supreme Affluent. Popular gossip said that Reid had missed a third appointment only because one of his
ships had been mysteriously lost at sea.

Among the Supreme Affluent's privileges is the right to assign market boothsтАФan equally assured way to
make fast friends and bitter enemies.

Clearly those enemies hadтАФupon hearing the ru-mors that this year Reid would again be declared the
wealthiest of allтАФdecided to act in a way far more permanent than the piracy of vessels to make certain
that Greene Reid would never be Supreme Affluent again.

Wiping tears from her eyes, Adalia struggled for composure. The little packet of powder rested
untouched on top of her bedclothes, lightly dimpling the coarsely woven material with its weight. Its
presence, even more than her son's absence, testified that this was no nightmare.