"McCarty, Dennis - Thlassa Mey 01 - Flight to Thlassa Mey UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCarty Dennis)

Chapter One:

Lady Aelia

THE ANCIENT CITY of Buerdaunt slept restlessly; stone
towers loomed against the moonlit sky above an eastern
bay of the inland sea called the Thiassa Mey. She was the
capital of a great feudal land, this Buerdaunt, and home
to many a mysterious sight.

All manner of folk filled her streets and buildings, liv-
ing, breeding, and dying like maggots on a piece of meat.
Near the docks, in the oldest section of the city, the streets
were narrow and unlit. It was night; the sun would not
rise for awhile and, even when it did, its light would barely
penetrate these tangled alleys with their overhanging
buildings. Here, a catcall uphill from the wharves, dwelt
denizens from every comer of creation. The streets were
infested with beggars, cutthroats, pickpockets, usurers;

every form of human scum was known to lurk here.

To this place came outcasts from every shore of the
Thiassa Mey. If a man's debts were relieved by the sudden
death of one of his creditors, that man might be found
here. If a village maid produced a fatherless child, the

2 FLIGHT TO THLASSA MEY

scoundrel responsible was likely to find his way to these
streets.

In the center of this pustule of humanity stood a tavern.
There were no tetters upon the signboard before the place,
only a faded painting of a knight sitting astride his horse.
So faded were the figures that there was hardly any color
left to them; they were ghosts against the exposed wood
of their background.

In a garret chamber above the tavern itself, in a rough
cot hardly long enough to bear him, lay a man. He was
only one of many brought to Buerdaunt by the endless
tossing and whirling of the fates that propel all mortals.
On this night, his sleep was fitful.

It was dark. But had there been enough light in this
chamber, an observer would have noted that the sleeper's
face was handsome enough, although it was creased by
the turmoils of his life. He was about forty years old. His
dark brown hair had faded to gray at the temples and