"Jean Lorrah - Empire 02 - Dragonlord of the Savage Empire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lorrah Jean)

Again Helmuth cut him off, this time recalling that he could communicate directly with Lenardo without
the peasants' knowing. //They are terrified enough, my lord. Do not let rumor destroy you before you
prove you can rule.// "He was not given a hearing," the old man said aloud. "You cannot be certain he
was a Reader at all."



Lenardo was sweating after the hard ride, the pain, and his own nervous tension. He flung back the light
cloak he had put on against the early-morning chill, exposing his right forearm, where the dragon's head,
mark of the Aventine Exile, was burnt deep and permanently into his flesh. It was long-healed now, and
he had grown accustomed to it, but when the peasants saw it, they gasped.
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Lenardo felt their eyes devouring him in a strange combination of hope and fear. Then the man who
spoke for them cried, "The white wolf and the red dragon! The boy was right. And he was a Reader, my
lord, to have seen ye so."



No, the boy had not been a Reader. Lenardo knew that but accepted Helmuth's caution and didn't say
it. Instead, he said, "Should you suspect anyone else of Reading, you will do him no harm. He is to be
brought to me in Zendi. Is that clear?"



"Yes, my lord."



The peasants continued to grovel, waiting anxiously, and Lenardo Read that they expected to be
punished for breaking a law he hadn't made yet. It was what Drakonius would have done.



Looking at the battered corpse, he asked, "Does this boy have a family?"



"Yes, my lord. A mother and a sister in the village. His father and granther died in the battle at Adigia."



"And you have destroyed the last man in that family," said Lenardo. "There can be no recompense for
such a loss, but I charge all of you: Whatever needs those women haveтАФplowing land, cutting wood,