"Andre Norton & Lackey, Mercedes - Elvenbane 1 -The Elvenbane" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

sabotage was typical for the Council members, as well as those who aspired
to Council seats. It was just one more move in the never-ending cycle of
feuds and subterfuge.

It was a game that Goris and Dorion would have played, had they been equal
to it. But their weak positions and equally weak magic ensured that they
would always be in the service of a stronger elven lord. Only one thing
stopped the elven lords short of outright assassination of each other: births
were so rare among them that an elven pair might strive for decades before
producing a single child, and once wholesale assassination started, the
perpetrator would find himself on the top of everyone's list as the next
victim.

With an entire world to plunder, one would think that the overlords would
despoil and move on. But the elven lords did take a reasonable amount of
care with their properties--which sometimes made Serina wonder at this
unusual restraint. They did not take an equal amount of care with their
human resources, however, humans birthed often, and there were always
more slaves on the way when the current batch was used up. Only the
special, and the skilled, were valuable.

"If you would rise, rise alone."

Serina was very careful to keep herself counted among the "valuable."

She was proud of Dyran; already in the past few months he had eroded Lord
Vyshall's power by planting a rumor with just enough truth to be believed
that he was thinking of divorcing his current lady and arranging another
marriage. He had traded information on the vices of Lady Reeana for that bit
of news. And he had managed to buy out the entire iron ore trade secretly,
making himself the sole possessor of the most vital component of steel
production. Now even his competition would have to come to him--or else
tax themselves and their resources in discovering new deposits of the
mineral.

But his most recent triumph was his own marriage, an amazingly fertile
marriage, that had produced an unheard-of set of twins.
The next business was with the overseer of Dyran's farmlands. Since
Branden was a depressingly honest sort, and there was nothing more boring
than listening to a recitation of weather and expected harvests, Serina
allowed her mind to wander.

Lady Lyssia... Serina's lips curved in a slight smile. Lady Lyssia, Dyran's
espoused, then divorced, wife had never been any threat to her position.

V'Sheyl Edres Lord Fotren had a daughter, Lyssia by name. And unwedded,
despite her father's position in Council and wealth as the supplier of the
finest trained gladiators to be had. Lyssia had taken a fall from a horse in her
childhood, and as the result of that fall, was possessed of just enough wit to
feed and clothe herself and play simple games. In short, though physically in