"Modesitt, L E - The Hammer of Darkness" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

Karnak shortly. That's the choice."
"There has to be another one." Her voice is matter-of-fact.
So are her feelings, Martin can tell, and she is as calm as her
mother, the Iron Duchess, in telling a subject he is mistaken.
Kryn will be Duchess, or more, Martin knows.
"If you could be so kind, Lady Kryn Kirsten, as to suggest
another alternative for your obedient subject, Martin Martel,
I would be most deeply obliged. Particularly since my student
status will be terminated rather shortly."
"How soon?"
"Tomorrow ... today ... perhaps three days. The term is
over, and the minimum guarantees of the Regency toward a
Free Scholar have been met."
He looks down at the flat white of the marble pavement,
then lifts his eyes to watch the dust devil in the far corner
scatter a small heap of cone needles.
The sunlight floods abruptly into the courtyard.
"The climatizers succeed again," the ex-Scholar remarks,
"bringing light into darkness, except for a few of us."
"Martin!"
He realizes that she wants to stamp her foot but refrains
because the action would be unladylike.
He chuckles, and the low sound eddies through the col-
umns. The guard in the shadows, now that there are shadows
with the full winter sunlight beaming down, edges forward.
"What will you do?" Her question comes almost as a dis-
missal, an acceptance.
"I don't look forward to spending five years in the ore
mines ... and I don't have the heroic build of the successful
Imperial Marine. So I'm somewhat limited."
"You aren't answering the question."
"I know. You don't want to hear the answer."
"You could leave the Empire ..."
"I could. If I had the creds for passage. But no one can
hire me to pay my way, except an outsider, and outsiders
aren't allowed to downport here. And I don't have passage to
the orbitport."
"I could help."
"I've already made arrangements."
"You didn't!"
'The Brotherhood is looking for comm specialists, so ..."
"But"Чher voice sharpensЧ"that's treason."
"Not unless the Regent changes the law."
He ought to. Brotherhood is nothing but trouble.
"Perhaps he will," Martin supplies the follow-on to her
thought. "But they do pay, and will clear me from Imperial
space, if necessary."
"Why?"
"Because, Lady Kryn Kirsten," Martin answers the ques-
tion she meant, "I came off the dole, and I will not spend five