"Julian May - Boreal Moon 2 - Ironcrown Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (May Julian)

year that BazekoyтАЩs conquering army sailed up the River Brent marked the beginning of the Blenholme Chronicle.

After a long and glorious life, the emperor chose to return to the island to dieтАФinfluenced, according to legend, by a dream of Great
Lights. Over a thousand years later his remains, interred in Zeth Abbey, were destined to play a strangely influential role in the life of
ConrigтАЩs father, King Olmigon of CathraтАФas I have already described in the first volume of this Boreal Moon Tale.

ConrigтАЩs own reign began in Chronicle Year 1128, with a triumph and what seemed to be an appalling tragedy. A great sea-battle and a
climactic storm in Gala Bay resulted in the defeat of King Honigalus Mallburn of Didion and forced that ill-fated monarch to accept
vassal status in ConrigтАЩs new Sovereignty of High Blenholme. As a condition of DidionтАЩs surrender at Eagleroost Castle, in a move that


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 May, Julian - Boreal Moon 2 - Ironcrown Moon


stunned most of the high nobility of Cathra, Conrig divorced his Tarnian wife Maudrayne NorthkeepтАФpresumed by him to be barren
after six years of turbulent marriageтАФand pledged to wed Princess Risalla, the younger half sister of Honigalus.

Although I was only sixteen years of age at the time, I was already closely attendant upon Conrig and serving unofficially as his Royal
Intelligencer by virtue of my secret wild talents. Thus I was one of the horrified witnesses who saw Maudrayne calmly put her name to
the bill of divorcement, then throw herself off the castle battlements into the wintry sea forty ells below.

I was also a member of the large party who subsequently combed the ice-covered shore rocks for MaudrayneтАЩs body. My uncanny
seekersense was then extremely powerful; nevertheless, I was unable to detect any trace of the poor suicide. In the days that followed,
both the Brothers of Zeth and Conjure-Queen Ullanoth of Moss utilized their magical talents to hunt for the woman Conrig now termed
the Princess Dowager, scrutinizing not only the shoreline but also the interior regions of the island, on the improbable chance that she had
somehow survived. The searchers found nothing. It was decided that the body must have been carried far out into Gala Bay, to be lost in
the frigid depths.

After a month of official mourning, Conrig quietly married Risalla Mall-burn. His profound condolences had been dispatched to Tarn,
MaudrayneтАЩs birthplace and the only island nation not yet accepting the Edict of Sovereignty. TarnтАЩs ruler, the High Sealord Sernin
Donorvale, reacted with predictable fury to his favorite nieceтАЩs public humiliation. In the year following her presumed death, Sernin
rebuffed ConrigтАЩs demands that Tarn join Cathra, Didion, and Moss in a unified High Blenholme, even when the Sovereignty
тАЬreluctantlyтАЭ cut off trade with his corner of the island, leaving Tarn at the mercy of rapacious mainland merchants and pirates. Forced to
purchase food and other needful commodities from the Continent at inflated prices, the once-wealthy domain grew more and more
impoverished and vulnerable.

The injurious effects of the WolfтАЩs Breath volcanic eruptionsтАФwhich had caused widespread crop failures on the island, shut down
TarnтАЩs all-important gold mines, and precipitated the political upheaval that inspired ConrigтАЩs scheme of unificationтАФwere now only a
bad memory. Eastern Didion recovered from the famine that had devastated its largest cities. Its pragmatic ruler, Honigalus, rebuilt the
capital city of Holt Mallburn that had been devastated by ConrigтАЩs invading army. He regained the trust of DidionтАЩs independent-minded
timberlords, whose cooperation was vital to the restoration of his countryтАЩs shipbuilding industry, paid off the war reparations demanded
by Conrig by building a new fleet of naval vessels for the Sovereignty, and did his best to keep a lid on his fiery younger brother Prince
Somarus, who remained implacably opposed to ConrigтАЩs hegemony and considered Honigalus a traitor for having capitulated.

In the tiny kingdom of Moss, which enjoyed First Vassal status in the Sovereignty thanks to Conjure-Queen UllanothтАЩs magical
assistance to Conrig during the war with Didion, things were apparently tranquil. The queenтАЩs insanely ambitious younger brother
Beynor, who had briefly occupied the throne until his imprudent ventures into high sorcery incurred the displeasure of the Beaconfolk,
had fled to the desolate Dawntide Isles to live with the Salka monsters. Whenever she gathered strength enough to pay the pain-price to
the Beaconfolk, Queen Ullanoth made use of a powerful magical tool, the moonstone sigil Subtle Loophole, to keep watch on BeynorтАж