"George R. R. Martin - Ice and Fire 4 - Arms of the Kraken" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin George R R)

The Damphair turned. The hall had suddenly grown colder. The Crow's Eye is half a world away. Balon sent him off two
years ago, and swore that it would be his life if he returned. "Tell me," he said hoarsely.


"He sailed into Lordsport the day after the king's death, and claimed the castle and the crown as Balon's eldest brother," said
Gorold Goodbrother. "Now he sends forth ravens, summoning the captains and the kings from every isle to Pyke, to bend
their knees


and do him homage as their king."


"No." Aeron Damphair did not weigh his words. "Only a godly man may sit the Seastone Chair. The Crow's Eye worships
naught but his own pride."


"You were on Pyke not long ago, and saw the king," said Goodbrother. "Did Balon say aught to you of the succession?"


Aye. They had spoken in the Sea Tower, as the wind howled outside the windows and the waves crashed restlessly below.
Balon had shaken his heac in despair when he heard what Aeron had to tell him of his last remaining sor "The wolves have
made a weakling of him, as I feared," the king said. "I pray god that they killed him, so he cannot stand in Asha's way." That
was Balon's blindess; he saw himself in his wild, headstrong daughter and believed she could succeed him. He was wrong in
that, and Aeron tried to tell him so. "N< woman will ever rule the ironborn, not even a woman such as Asha," he insisted, but
Balon could be deaf to things he did not wish to hear.


Before the priest could answer Gorold Goodbrother, the maester's


mouth flapped open once again. "By rights the Seastone Chair belongs to Theon, or Asha if the prince is dead. That is the
law."


"Green land law," said Aeron with contempt. "What is that to us? We are ironborn, the sons of the sea, chosen of the
Drowned God. No woman may rule over us, nor any godless man."


"And Victarion?" asked Gorold Goodbrother. "He has the Iron Fleet. Will Victarion make a claim, Damphair?"


"Euron is the elder brother . . ." began the ma ester.


Aeron silenced him with a look. In little fishing towns and great stone keeps alike such a look from Damphair would make
maids feel faint and send children shrieking to their mothers, and it was more than sufficient to quell the chain-neck thrall.
"Euron is elder," the priest said, "but Victarion is more godly."