"Andre Norton - Merlin' s mirror" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

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looked like. Vortigen was old; he had grown sons who
would be quick to raise sword for their shamed mother. A
messenger had brought the news that they were summon-
ing near and far kin to that very effort now. But the Sax-
ons would form a shield wall for the new queen, too. It
was all war! She could not remember back to a time when
there was not the clang of weapons about the clan house.
She need only raise her head a little to see the line of
weather-cleaned skulls set along the roof eaves above, the
spoils of wars and past raids.

She did not think that Nyren would have much sympa-
thy for the High King. Ten days ago another messengei
had ridden in to be received with a far warmer welcome: a

MERLIN'S MIRROR 9

lean, dark man with cleanly shaved face, wearing the
breastplate and helmet of the Emperor's men. The Em-
peror was long gone, though it was said that emperors still
ruled overseas. But the Imperial Eagles had been lost
from this land since her father was young,

It seemed that at least one leader still believed in the
Emperor. The dark man had come from him to ask Ny-
ren's men for his war banner, just as the messenger who
had spoiled the feast tonight. That one had had a strange,
tongue-twisting name, after the style of the Romans. Brig-
itta said it aloud now, proud that she knew enough of the
old speech to say it properly.

"Ambrosius Aurelianus." She added the equally strange
title he held, for he did not claim any kingdom, Dux Bri-
tanniae. Lugaid had said it meant Leader of Britain in the
other tongue. It was a lot for a man to claim when half
the land was filled with Vortigen's new kin, the Winged
Hats from overseas.

Her father had been schooled at Aquae Sulis in the old
days when the Emperor Maximus had ruled not only Brit-
ain, but half the lands overseas. He remembered how it
was when there was peace and one only had to fear the
Scotti raids or trouble along the border. So he was one
who had inclined to the Roman, one of those Vortigen
had hunted out of the cities because the High King feared
their influence.