"Elizabeth Moon - Gird 02 - Liar's Oath" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moon Elizabeth)

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LiarтАЩs Oath - The Legacy of Gird 02, Elizabeth Moon
birthing, and died with her last attempt, who was born alive but died within the year. By then he had taken the fever that
left him no hope of children, even if he married again. He did, in fact, but to no purpose. He had sired you just before his
wifeтАЩs death; his older bastards had shown no sign of power, and mostтАФfor three were the children of a favorite
mistressтАФdied in the same fever that left him sterile.тАЭ
Luap had never thought of his father as a king with problems. Whatever the kingтАЩs problems, they could not have been as
great as those he gave Luap. It gave him a strange feeling to hear him spoken of, as an archivist might write of a figure of
history. In his mind he could see the very phrases that might be used of such a king.
тАЬAnd his brother and brothers-in-law, and his cousinsтАФall would have been glad to have him die without an heir. As in
fact he did, before you were grown.тАЭ
тАЬButтАФbut then the king Gird killed was not my father?тАЭ
тАЬOh no. Although when Gird told me you were the kingтАЩs bastard, thatтАЩs who I thought of, naturally. It was the simple
answer, and like so many simple answers, it was wrong.тАЭ Arranha shook his head, presumably at his own foolishness.
тАЬSeeing Dorhaniya again brought it back to me, and then I realized the childтАЩs face would grow into one very like yours.
The king Gird killed wasтАж let me think. First there was his brother, but he died in a hunting accident. So-called. Then his
eldest sisterтАЩs husband, who caught a convenient flux. The king Gird killed was the fourth, or fifth, since your father, a
cousin.тАЭ
тАЬBut she said she knew himтАФwhen she was talking about mistakesтАФтАЭ
тАЬWell, she knew all of them. So did I. Her father was a duke, her husband one of the cousinsтАФnot one who became king;
they killed him, IтАЩve forgotten how. She did know your fatherтАФтАЭ
тАЬDoes Gird know?тАЭ
тАЬKnow what?тАЭ
тАЬThat the king he killed at GreenfieldsтАФthe king who defiled the HallтАФwas not my father?тАЭ
тАЬIтАж I would have thought so, butтАж perhaps not.тАЭ Does it matter? was clear on his face, then his expression changed. тАЬI
see. Of course he must be told, in case he doesnтАЩt know. You are not that manтАЩs son; you would have been the heir, but of
a different man. A better man than that, though not much wiser. IтАЩm sorry, Luap, but your father was, for all his troubles,
a blind fool. I said it then, and spent a year in exile for it, and IтАЩll say it now, to his son.тАЭ
тАЬHeтАж didnтАЩt hate me?тАЭ It took all his courage to ask that; it was the deepest fear in his heart, that he had somehow earned
his fatherтАЩs hate. Against it he had mounted a fierce defenseтАФit wasnтАЩt his fault, it wasnтАЩt fair.
тАЬEseaтАЩs light! No, he didnтАЩt hate you. He put all his hopes on you, but understood only one thing to hope for, and pushed
too hard. He was desperate, by then, but that doesnтАЩt excuse him.тАЭ
тАЬNo.тАЭ Luap stared at the pavement under his feet. He had held that grudge too long; he was not ready for a father who had
had problems of his own, who had been desperate, who had placed a kingdomтАЩs weight on the hope that his latest bastard
would grow to have the tools of magery. He was not ready to consider how a king might be trapped by something more
honorable than his own pleasure. тАЬMyтАж mother?тАЭ For the instant it took Arranha to answer, he held the hope that she had
been mageborn too.
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LiarтАЩs Oath - The Legacy of Gird 02, Elizabeth Moon
Arranha gave a minute shrug and spread his hands. тАЬIтАЩm truly sorry; I know nothing about her. When I saw you, she was
nowhere in evidence. A tutor had you in hand, and bragged to the king of your wit.тАЭ
тАЬI donтАЩt remember her.тАЭ He said that to his locked hands, staring at his thumbs as if they were the answer to something
important. тАЬI never knewтАФexcept that I couldnтАЩt ask. It made them angry.тАЭ
тАЬI daresay it frightened them as much as anything. You know the peasant customs: the motherтАЩs family determines
lineage. We overrode that, whenever our law intruded into the vills, but quite often the peasants evaded our law one way
and another. If you had found your mother, if she had claimed you, her people might have helped her get you away and
hide you.тАЭ
тАЬBut she didnтАЩt.тАЭ Luap strained for any memory of his mother, forcing himself to imagine himself an infant, a child just
able to stand. Surely he would remember who had suckled him, that first deep relationship; surely he could raise it from
the deep wells of memory. A face hovered before him, dim and wavering like the reflection of his own in a bucket of