"Shirley Meier & S. M. Stirling - Fifth Millenium 05 - Shadow's Son" - читать интересную книгу автора (Meier Shirley)

memory came sharp. Marble and granite and pink brick, climbing in terraces from the city wall and the
tarry mast-forest of the harbor. Orange groves outside the walls, fields of lavender, warm sun on the blue
mountains rising northwards.
The servants had opened the windows again. Brahvnikians, he thought. Arctic seals. It was typical
spring weather in the Brezhan delta; raw, damp and chill, to an Arkan. He went to the windows and
latched them closed.
The panes were thick triangles of inferior local glass set in wood, appropriate for a merchant of his
standing. They looked down from the third story of a tall narrow house of half-timbering, above a narrow
cobbled street that smelled of fish and garbage and the river not far away. Rain started, beating at the
glass, streaking his vision like tears.
He went to the door and quickly checked the corridor either way; there was no way someone could
climb the stairs without making a loud creak, but it never hurt to be sure. He added a small shovelful of
blackrock to the tile stove, settled himself at the homely clutter of his desk and unlocked the bottom
drawer, with its secret compartment. From that he lifted a plain leather-bound account book, its pages
studded with rag bookmarks.
This was his real work: for Irefas, the Secret Service of the Arkan Empire. As far as he was
concerned, it was the best that one of his caste, fessas, artisan-professional, could get. The merchantтАЩs
life, that so many aspire to, he thought. The moneyтАЩs well and good, but the workтАЩs so boring.
Besides, more than one heroic spy in history had been elevated to Aitzas, noble. Another nice thing: in
foreign countries there were no hair laws. His, blond like all ArkansтАЩ but silvering at the temples, was
almost waist-long, as none but Aitzas were permitted, inside the Empire.
Item: prices. Mules and horses in the Aeniri towns upriver: up threefold since the spring herds had
come in. Tool-grade FтАЩtalezonian and Rand steel: up fivefold over the past six months. Significant
increases in the prices of woolen cloth, grain, leather, oil, medical supplies and drugs, bronze; the
armorers working overtime; the price of casual labor gone through the roof. Thirty-two ships of fifty
tuin or more have cleared the harbor already this season. The bills of lading as fictional as MarmoriтАЩs
Book of ChildrenтАЩs Merry Tales.
He looked at a copy his spy in the harbormasterтАЩs office had made. A seventy-five tuin two-master
carrying braided horsehairтАФcatapult skeinsтАФdried fruit, neatsfoot oilтАФfor the maintenance of
harnessтАФcured bullhide, glassfiber, resinтАФshields, body armorтАФmiscellaneous metal goods. Shipping
to Haiu Menshir. His spy had gotten a good look at the тАЬmetal goodsтАЭ; spearheads, broadaxe-blades,
brass-hilted swords from Rand. And Haians, as all the world knew, were absolute pacifists, under Arkan
control. If theyтАЩre buying that, IтАЩm the Queen of Hyerne.
ArkoтАЩs taking of Haiu Menshir made him uncomfortable, actually, as he was sure it made many
Arkans. It was also a political blunder, to his mind; no better way to turn all the world against the
Empire, heтАЩd thought at the time. Now, plain as day, it was happening. What made it even worse was
that the takeover had taken two tries. The first time, the greatest Empire in the world, attacking a small
island populated entirely by pacifists, had been defeated. A ragtag band of sailors hiding behind bales
and crates, led by a man who may now be proving himself one of the greatest generals of his time but
then had been an accredited lunatic ... he didnтАЩt like thinking about it.
In Yeola-e, Arko had taken all but those stubborn hedges of mountain in the north and southwest
corners of the barbarian nation. NowтАФhow had the Pages reports put it? тАЬStrategic withdrawals and
consolidation of our overall position.тАЭ In other words, the killer mountain boys are whipping our asses
. Last heтАЩd heard, it was three-fifths taken back. Every major military power in the area had suddenly
allied with the Yeolis, lending them troops or attacking on their own fronts.
And the non-military powers are lending them money. How else could a country all but
conquered and broke half a year ago afford to buy all those war supplies? Or hire every cutthroat,
sellsword, pirate and bar-brawler between Kreyen and Rand; heтАЩd noticed evenings in the Knotted
Worm had been more sedate recently. It didnтАЩt take a godтАЩs brains to figure out that Brahvnikian money
was involved.