"Kim Hunter - [The Red Pavillions 02] - Wizard's Funeral v1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kim Hunter - [The Red Pavillions 02] - Wizard's Funeral)

Chapter One

Those who have not seen the dazzling towers, the obsidian turrets, the domes, the green-glass cupolas of Zamerkand, have surely missed the greater part of earthТs splendour. The morning sun is quick to find high, golden porches bright enough to blind a traveller many leagues from the city. Polished lapis lazuli tiles bordering lofty battlements shine with a penetrating blueness. Silver gutters glint with points of light that might come from the divine weaponry of a warrior-deity. The city is a great geometrical flower opening to the morning, the light running and leaping from spire to column to belfry to campanile to fleche, like sacred fire racing from one heavenly petal-point to the next.
On the battlements stand the Imperial Guardsmen, their helmets flashing, their spearpoints glinting. Around the walls of the city, almost completing the circle but for a man-made tunnel of stone, there to protect the canal all the way down to the sea, stand the red-ochre pavilions of the mercenary army of Carthagans. Their weapons gleam with a duller light. Unlike those of the Imperial guardsmen, which are taken out only to polish before parades and drills, the Carthagan weapons are frequently used in anger. They are tarnished with constant employment: their surfaces scratched; their edges sharp, but wavy with honing; the flaws in their blades stained with the blackened blood of enemies.
Five miles long and five miles wide, the city stands in the South of Guthrum, rich and powerful, and ripe with wealth.
On one of the green turrets which looked out over the surrounding countryside stood a man who had slept very little during the long and ponderous night. He called himself Soldier and he was married to the queenТs younger sister, Layana. Soldier saw the rider come from the West, from the Seven Peaks where the gods lived, and the wizards ruled. The rider looked exhausted, swaying in his saddle, his feet frequently slipping from the stirrups. Garthagans on their way to fetch early-morning water parted for him, allowing him a path, and the great wooden gates of the city, bold with brass and bronze, swung open as if this horseman had been expected for a very long time.
СDrissila?Т called Soldier, not moving from the turretТs balcony, Сis your mistress in the real world this morning?Т
СI fear she is unhappy,Т came the answer. СThe demons visited her during the night and are now within her.Т
Soldier sighed deeply. He loved his wife with a deepness that is found only by a man who has lost a former love to dark fingers of death. She was his future, past and present. He would kill for her, he would die for her.
СIs Ofao tending to her needs?Т
СOfao and myself.Т
СThank you.Т
The rider, now in the market square, almost fell from his horse onto the cobbles. Captain Kaff, of the Imperial Guard, was hurrying onto the scene. Others were scurrying forth, gathering their robes about them Ч officials of the court Ч keeping their hemlines clear of horse and donkey shit: Chancellor Humbold; Quidquod, Lord of the Royal Purse; Maldrake, Lord of the Locks; Qintara, Lady of the Ladders; Marshal Crushklte, Warlord of Guthrum. Even the ruler of Guthrum, Queen Vanda, had quit her boudoir to appear on the balcony of her tower on the Palace of Birds.
A raven landed near to SoldierТs elbow as he surveyed this scene in the streets below.
СIТll wager a dozen the King Magus is dead,Т said the raven. СPancakes, that is, fried in lovely hot corn oil.Т
СYou wonТt find a taker here,Т replied Soldier.
СThe King Magus is dead!Т cried the rider in a ragged voice. СWhere is the wizard to take his place?Т
СThere you are,Т said the raven. СPancakes for breakfast.Т
СYou didnТt get a taker,Т Soldier reminded him. СAnyway, how did you know?Т
СOh, you know me. I fly here, I fly there. I talk with the wind.Т
СBut youТve been outside my window all night.Т
СIdiot, youТve only got to look at the world this morning to see how itТs changed. See how the sun shines brightly? Look how blue the mountains seem now, where once they were gloomy and oppressive. Listen to the sparkle in the cockТs voice as he crows! The whole kingdom of the living and the dead has changed its aspect.Т
And the bird was right. It had. Soldier had been too rapt in his own troubles to notice how much better this day appeared than yesterday, or the day before, or a thousand days before that.
The raven took to the air, settling some distance away on the pommel of a flagpole.
The rider in the square below was being questioned further now.
СWho inherits?Т cried Humbold. СWho is the new King Magus?Т
СWhy, I am instructed - instructed ...Т the rider was visibly wilting, but Captain Kaff shook him to keep him awake. СInstructed to tell you that he is the son of a woman called Uthellen, of this city.Т
СOf this city?Т shouted the mob, now flowing from their shanties and hovels. Zamerkand might have had a shining coat, but it also had a rotten heart.
Humbold shouted, СWho knows this Uthellen?Т
There was a buzz and a rumble from the crowd.
Marshal Crushkite yelled, СSomeone must know her.Т
Silence now fell upon the cobbled square.
СAnyone?Т cried Captain Kaff.
The silence deepened.
Finally. СI know her.Т
All eyes looked up to where the voice had come from.
Kaff nodded his head slowly and grimaced. Humbold sighed. A trader called Spagg, seller of hanged menТs hands, spat in the gutter.
It was Soldier who had spoken.
СYou?Т said Marshall Crushkite, who almost alone among the watchers was not an enemy of the man in the high tower. СIs she in Zamerkand, Soldier? Where is she?Т
СShe used to reside in the sewers, along with her child, amongst the poor and destitute.Т
There was a shuffling from the officials. The King Magus did not usually intervene in petty human affairs, being concerned with higher things, but he was invested with great power; enough to destroy any city, even whole countries. Only an innate sense of justness and Tightness curbed the hand of the King Magus when it came to levelling those who had displeased him.
This, indeed, was a new King Magus. Would he have the same integrity as the last? Or would he settle a few scores, beginning his new reign with the slate wiped clean of any bitterness?
Queen Vanda spoke now, from the balcony of the Palace of Birds. СSoldier, you know the order of things. There must always be the poor, the rich and varying degrees between. That he was raised amongst the wretched people of this city is the fault of social order, not of our government.Т
Soldier did not necessarily agree with this point of view, but he saw that there was nothing to be served by arguing.
СThe boy, when I last\ knew him, did not see himself as a victim of the state. There, was no bitterness in his heart. But who knows the mind of a wizard?Т
The queen sighed, her small, heart-shaped face pale with the effort of finding solutions. СCan you find him?Т
СI think so. He is outside the city, that I do know.Т
СThen here is your task. You see your work before you. Chancellor, give Soldier all that he needs to form an expedition to find the new King Magus, so that he may be informed of his predecessorТs death. He must take up his exalted post as quickly as possible.Т
With that the queen left her balcony and swept into her chambers in a cloud of purple chiffons and silks.