"Sherwood Smith - Crown and Court Duet - 01 - Crown Duel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Sherwood)

Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith (Book One of the Crown and Court Duet)


PROLOGUE

I HOPE ANY OF MY DESCENDANTS READING THIS KNOW exactly what the Covenant and
the Code of War are, but there is always the chance that my story has been copied by the scribes and
taken to another land that will consider Remalna distant and its customs strange.

The Covenant has to do with woodтАФand with Fire Sticks.

We share the land with the Hill Folk. They were here before our people came. One legend has it they
were once trees, given human form by some powerful sorcerer. They certainly look more like trees than
they do like people. Other stories insist they came through one of the fabled World Gates and settled
here because of our trees.

For the trees in our country are unique. We have the common kinds, of course. But high in our mountains
we also have the remarkable colortrees: huge, long-lived goldwoods and bluewoods and greenwoods
and redwoods, so named because the grains of these trees run rich with gleaming colors.

For centuries Remalna made itself wealthy by cutting them down and selling them to other lands. But our
greed nearly caused disaster. The Hill Folk, who were being driven from their homes among the trees,
readied themselves to fight. Not in war, because they don't use weapons. Remalna faced a magical fight
that we had no hope of winning. Peace was made only when our people promised that trees would never
again be cut down. Wood would be gathered only if it fell. In return, each autumn the Hill Folk would
give us Fire Sticks, which would burn by magic until well into the next summer.

Rich or poor, every family within the borders of RemalnaтАФfrom the King to the poorest street
sweeperтАФgets Fire Sticks. In proportion not to their riches but to their number. And anyone who tries to
take Fire Sticks, or to sell them, somehow receives fewer the next year.

The Fire Sticks are given out by magicians from a distant council, who then disappear. There is a simple
spell we say to start the fire, and to stop itтАФWords of Power, we call it, though the spell can't actually
do anything else.

Since the days the Covenant was made, no more colortrees have been chopped down. What wood we
use is gathered from windfall, and it is used carefully. Our old wooden furniture is treasured.

And so we've existed peacefully beside the Hill Folk for many hundred years.

Unfortunately, neighboring countries have not let us exist in peace.

For centuries we fought battles hand-to-hand. Several generations ago someone brought to our continent
bows and arrows, which can kill from a distance. These changed the character of battle so much that a
Code of War was agreed on by most of the countries on our continent. The only weapons permitted
would be those held or thrown by hand.

When my story began, these rules had kept us relatively prosperous and in relative peace. I say "relative"
because real peace and real prosperity are not possible when you are ruled by a bad king who thinks he
is above all the laws.