"Modesitt,.L.E.-.Spellsong.05.-.Shadow.Singer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

"Would fine words have changed what you believe?" asks the older woman. "Would you have believed me if I had promised to look into the matter most carefully?"

The hooded lady laughs, harshly. "We will see."

Ashtaar's eyes follow the dark figure until the door closes.


4

From her seat at the conference table, Secca glanced to ward the harbor and the masts she could see from the second-story windows of the guest quarters. The faint smell of spring-damp earth eased through the windows on the light breeze that still held a hint of chill.

Secca's amber eyes dropped to the papers and scrolls before her, the topmost one a rough map of Dumar she had sketched out in her efforts to plan where she and her forces might best land. Envaryl still held out, although Secca had the disturbing feeling that it should have fallen weeks before. The Ranuans were hurrying, according to Alcaren and the Matriarch, but it had been almost a week from the day she had asked the Matriarch to consort her to Alcaren and to hasten there departure for Dumar.

On one day she had set a consorting and an invasion--although few would have considered her meager forces as adequate for such, even with two sorceresses and an untried sorcerer. Then, Alcaren was not untried in battle, just in battle sorcery.

"Chief Player Palian, lady," announced Gorkon.

'Please come in," Secca called as she looked toward the door.

"You asked for me, Lady Secca?' The gray haired chief player inclined her head to Secca as she stepped into the guest chamber.

"I did." Secca gestured toward the chair beside hers at the conference table and waited for Palian to seat herself.

"You were the one who taught me my instruments all those years ago. You knew me when I was a little girl." Palian nodded.

"You were younger than I am now, closer to Richina's age."

Palian smiled faintly.

"If I might ask . . . if you would not mind," Secca ventured. "Why did you never choose a consort?'

Palian chuckled, ruefully. "I was never asked. . . and never did I see someone I wished to ask. Before I knew it, well, there was little point in doing so." She paused. "After playing for Lady Anna, and under Liende . ..?"

"You did not wish to consort for the sake of consorting?"

"Did you, lady?" asked Palian softly.

Secca shook her head. "But now . . . I have decided to consort." Secca looked at the older woman. "I never thought it would be like this."

"You knew that Lord Jecks threw himself before an enchanted javelin to save Lady Anna, did you not? That was when she took Dumar. A Sea-Priest was hidden and cast two at her."

Secca smiled, almost wistfully. "No. She never told me, but I was barely eight when Lord Ehara sent lancers into Defalk. It does not surprise me. It would have taken an effort such as that.. ." Abruptly, Secca laughed. "I'm more like her than I'd known--- is that what you're suggesting?"

Palian smiled. "Alcaren could not have shown he loved you any more than he already has. Or than Lord Jecks did for Lady Anna."

"That is true . . . but . . . being consorted by the Matriarch of Ranuak. . . in Encora?" Secca raised her hands. "In less than two days . . ."

"You do not have to. Not even Lord Robero could force you to consort," Palian pointed out.

"I had always thought Flossbend, or Loiseau. Even Falcor. Never had I thought I would be consorted in Encora."