"Juliet E. McKenna - Aldabreshin 2 - Northern Storm" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKenna Juliet E)

He gestured at the temporarily flourishing greenery beyond the pavilion before startling the assembled
spokesmen with sudden entreaty. 'Leave me and the warriors of Chazen to serve the domain in fighting
these vermin. Let us take your vengeance on a people so debased they brought magic to fight their
battles for them. Your strong arms and backs are better used in rebuilding your homes and your boats, in
restoring your vegetable gardens and grain plots, in recapturing your house fowls. Then, when we have
put the last invader to his richly deserved death, you will be ready to help restore those islands in their
turn.'
'You don't fear that the presence of such vile savages will have corrupted those islands beyond
cleansing?' Isei's free hand strayed to the hilt of the dagger at his plaited-leather belt.
Crescent-moon Chazen dagger like the one I wear now, not the smoother curve of a Daish blade like the
one my father gave me.
Kheda looked him straight in the eye. 'Not after every trace of their foul presence has been burned to ash
and scattered to the seas and the winds.'
For retribution as well as purification, for the sake of all those innocents they slaughtered and all the
villages they burned in their accursed rampage.
'My lord, something to eat?' Borha broke the tense silence with a snap of his fingers at the waiting
maidens. One immediately proffered candied lilla fruit slices set on cakes of steamed sailer grain glistening
with honey.
'Thank you, no.' Kheda smiled to mitigate the rebuff. 'Passing by the oyster vats has left me without an
appetite. Tell me, are the divers correct? Are we going to see a good harvest of pearls for the Chazen
domain?'
'It's early days yet, my lord, but yes, I think it will be a truly splendid year.' Borha's smile was wide and
ingratiating.
'Let's go and see for ourselves.' Kheda abandoned the pavilion and strode towards the crude awnings
sheltering those sifting through the pearls already won from the close-mouthed oysters. The assembled
spokesmen hurried after him, other islanders trailing after.
Let's keep you all looking to the future and let's hope it's a favourable one. Let's not remember the
invaders who brought chaos and death last year. Let's not recall the calamity or your erstwhile lord
Chazen Saril dead in exile from his birthright. Let's not wonder how rumours of my own death turned out
to be falsehood or contemplate those events that set me over you as your new ruler. Let's not ponder just
why it proved impossible for me to return to my home and my family and the Daish domain I was born to
rule.
Borha drew level with Kheda's elbow. 'We filled the vats within a few days of starting to dive. They were
already rotted down enough to be emptied yesterday. We've had a fine haul of pearls and there are
plenty of shells warranting a closer look.' He gestured to the baskets of dark mottled ovals in the midst of
a gang of old men sitting cross-legged on a stretch of faded, sandy carpet.
'My lord.' One acknowledged Kheda with easy self-assurance. His hair and beard were white in stark
contrast to skin as wrinkled and dark as a sun-dried berry. Unhurried, he studied the empty oyster shell,
fine-bladed knife hovering around a sizeable blister marring the iridescent nacre that so closely mimicked
the pearls it bore.
Kheda found he was holding his breath as the old man scored a fine line around the bulbous swelling.
A trivial omen, but an omen nevertheless. Will he find a pearl? Or will this be one of those pockets of
stinking black slime?
The old man eased the sharp steel into the nacre and the swelling burst to leave a perfect milky sphere
rolling in the hollow of the shell. 'Should clean up well enough.' Putting the pearl carefully in a cotton-lined
box, he took another shell from the basket and contemplated a cyst of three half-moon pearls clinging
stubbornly to one edge.
'You're polishing them here?' Kheda moved on towards an awning shading men and women gently
scouring impurities from gleaming pearls held in scraps of soft deer hide, their forearms shimmering with
pearl dust.