"Pournelle, Jerry - Janissaries 2 - Clan And Crown" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pournelle Jerry)

Clan and Crown



JERRY POURNELLE
and
ROLAND GREEN






CONTENTS

PART ONEThrones and Dominions

PART TWOIf This Be Treason...

PART THREEAngels and Ministers of Grace

INTERLUDELuna

PART FOURInvaders

PART FIVEPrincipalities and Powers

PART SIXWanax and Warlord

PART SEVENSky God

PART ONE


Thrones and Dominions


1

The rocket sputtered for a moment, then rose swiftly above the worn cobblestone courtyard of the old fortress. It hissed upwards in a column of fire, trailing golden sparks and a faint smell of brimstone as it climbed until, without warning, it burst loudly into a shower of silver. The crowd gasped in wonder.
High above the courtyard, two richly dressed boys about fifteen Earth years in age clapped their hands in wonder. They huddled together in a window cut in the wall of the keep thirty meters above the gawking populace. One of the boys shouted aloud when the rocket burst above Castle Edron.
"Quiet! The Protector will hear us," the other boy said. "He'll make us join the others."
"He is nowhere about, Majesty."
"Ah." Nothing like those rockets had ever been seen on the whole planet of Tran. Even kings should be able to gawk at them without losing status.
But, Ganton thought, kings must think first of their dignity, and for the opinions of the nobility. No monarch ever needed his lords' good opinions more than I do. Another rocket arced across the darkening sky. This one trailed blue sparks. "Oh-look!" he cried. The True Sun had long set, but the Firestealer was high enough to cast baleful shadows and light the summer sky above the fortress capital of Drantos.
Ganton shouted again as yet another rocket burst. Ganton son of Loron, Wanax of Drantos, he might be; but he was also nine years old, fifteen according to the reckoning of the starman Lord Rick; and the rockets were fun to watch. "Perhaps we could make weapons from those," Ganton said. "Do you think so?"
"The Lord Rick says he will," Morrone answered.
He speaks in those tones, Ganton thought. They all do, when they speak of Lord Rick. They never sound that way when the talk is about me. They rebelled against my father. The wonder is that I lived this long. It is no time to be Wanax, but I have no choice of times.