"John Maddox Roberts - Stormlands 02- The Black Shield" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberts John Maddox)

"My mother-in-law is intractable at these times," Hael said. His mind was set at rest. Had there been any
difficulty, his wife's mother would have sent a hundred men to drag him back by force.

When the day's formalities were over, Hael called for the box of messages. Most were official or
semi-official communications. A few were personal. Hael took one of the latter, a scroll closed with a
seal he knew well. It was from the royal scribe Choula. Choula had penned several of the other scrolls in
his official capacity, but this one was a personal letter to a friend. Choula had taught Hael to read.

Hael sat back and broke the seal. The letter was long and chatty, full of court and city gossip. He
included descriptions of recent expeditions of exploration, complete with sketchy maps. Choula was also
a topographer, and had drilled into Hael the importance of accurate maps. It gave Hael a warm feeling,
to communicate thus with a friend he had not seen in the fle'sh for a number of years. Near the end of the

8 John Maddox Roberts

letter was a bit of information that trans-fbrmed the warmth to heart-freezing cold.

. . . and our beloved king, Pashir, sends you assurances of his eternal friendship, although he considers it
rather rude of you to go and make yourself a king when you were supposed to be working for him. In
token of his esteem, he has recently named your old friend, the sea-captain Malk, as one of the masters
of the newly reorganized Sea Merchants' Guild. Malk has become quite prosperous, owning six vessels.
He has asked me to pass along this odd bit of information: It seems that travel to the islands you once
called home has become hazardous. A new king has arisen there, whose name I do not recall, and he has
unified many of the islands into a sort of island kingdom. His warriors sail and paddle their vessels from
one island to another, conquering as they go and pressing the defeated warriors into the conqueror's
service. It is said that they have had a few successful raids on the more remote areas of the mainland. He
says that it is a peculiarity of these warriors that they all bear black shields....

Hael brooded long on this letter, and a great sense of dread overtook him. He had thought himself free of
his former life. Here he had made a life for himself that was unique, unlike any other man's. He had
thought that he had made his people safe from the dangers he had known would one day threaten them.
But now a greater danger loomed. Gasam was alive.

THE BLACK SHIELDS 9

He had thought that Gasam was too mad to live, but, then, did many not believe Hael himself was mad?
Gasam, his foster-brother, who hated Hael with a twisted, inexplicable hate. Gasam was not only alive
but he, too, had become a king and a conqueror.

Hael turned and looked through the window toward the mountains to the west. He knew, as surely as he
knew the face of the black-scarred moon, that Gasam was a tyrant as evil as any from legend. In his
ears, unheard by anyone else, the voices of the spirits spoke to him. He knew now that someday, on the
great coastal plain beyond those mountains, he would once again meet with his foster-brother Gasam,
and that the meeting would be terrible.

TWO
The smoke of the burning dead was sweet in his nostrils. King Gasam stood on the steps of the temple
and gazed into the plaza below. Upon one side, the new slaves continued to throw the corpses of the
enemy slain onto a pyre of blazing timber. On the other, his warriors gathered the loot of the town, both
animate and inanimate. Above the crackling of the flames he could heard the wailing of the women and