"SM Stirling - Change 02 - Scourge of God" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stirling S. M)

УYou can give them a bit of a push,Ф Juniper said.
She looked over at SandraТs slight cat-smile. A white Persian jumped up on her lap, looking disgruntled from its days in a box on the way here. The Regent toyed with it and commented in a neutral voice:
УWe should, as my commander-in-chief says, position ourselves. Specifically, Pendleton needs to be brought into the Meeting. Then weТll hold the Columbia as far as the old Idaho border.Ф
УWaita minute!Ф Finney said. УWhatТs thiswe ? You agreed not to meddle there after the War!Ф
УAnd weТre certainly not going to let you take it over again and divide it up into fiefs and build those goddamned castles there,Ф Rancher Brown said. УThat isnТt right, not on free American ground. Those f-f-foolish things are like nails driven into the map.Ф
Sandra raised an ironic eyebrow. Juniper knew the thought behind it; if the interior Ranchers didnТt build castles it was mainly because they couldnТt afford it.
УPendletonТs a bleeding sore, a disgrace,Ф the AssociationТs Regent said. УIt has been since right after the Change. They harbor river-pirates and they let bandits and Rover gangs fence their loot there and sell them weapons and gear.And theyТre deep in the slave trade. Pardon me: thatТscompensated relocation of registered refugees. Withaccumulated welfare charges. Ф
Brown shrugged, unable to contradict her. Astrid and her party nodded unwillingly; the D·nedain did caravan-guard work and bandit suppression far into the interior, and knew the truth of what Sandra had said.
Edward Finney looked unconvinced; that was a long way from Corvallis, and he wasnТt one of that city-stateТs far-traveling merchants.
УThey were unlucky,Ф he said. УThey had that civil war, right after the Change, and . . .Ф
УNo, they werenТt unlucky,Ф Sandra said. УThey were very lucky indeed; they had more food than people to eat it, when the machines stopped.Ф
Most of the people around the table had been adults in that year of terror and famine and plague; and the others had been in their teens, old enough to remember much of it. A silence fell for an instant, as memories opened and bled.
Sandra drove the point home: УThen they threw it away fighting one another. By now theyТve acquired any number of bad habits.Ф
But your arse is so sadly grimy and sooty, said the kettle to the pot,Juniper thought mordantly.Still, you have a point. The problem is, dear Sandra, that you always have at least three purposes behind any one statement.
Aloud, the Mackenzie chieftain went on diplomatically: УThey were unlucky in their lack of leadership.Ф It was even true, if not very relevant. УSure and it would be a good deed to clean it up . . . and Sandra has the right of it this far at least, that we canТt let an invader from the East get their hands on it. The CUThave been active there; missionaries and such.Ф
Nigel nodded fractionally beside her; theyТd talked that over last night.
Signe Havel uncrossed her arms and leaned forward; if she and Juniper had never been friends, sheТd always been a frank enemy to Sandra and the Association. Norman Arminger had killed her husband, Mike Havel; that he died first by about twenty minutes didnТt reduce her personal dislike one little bit. Her voice was sharp.
УBut nobody else in the Meeting countries will let the Portland Protectorate Association annex the area again. Nobody liked you snaffling off the western half of the Palouse back three years ago, Lady Sandra. It gave you too much leverage on the Yakima towns. WeТrecertainly not letting you get your hands on Pendleton.Ф
Sandra spread small, beautifully manicured fingers, silently letting everyone remember that the Palouse was in those hands. And that meant it was a buffer between the Meeting countries and the Prophet. Aloud she continued:
УBut Pendleton is defenseless to anyone above the twenty-thugs-on-horseback level, and if either Boise or Corwin take it, theyТll have access to the navigable Columbia. Which leads to Portland, which is our collective doorstep, not merelymy home.Ф
УAnd Corvallis isnТt going to authorize the Protectorate to take the area,Ф Finney snapped. УWe host the Meeting and I donТt think many would disagree with us.Ф
УIt seems weТre all forgetting that thereis such a thing as the Meeting,Ф Juniper said.
Someone snorted. She nodded, conceding the point but not the argument; the Meeting was much better at stopping things happeningЧlike wars or trade tariffs between its members, or forced labor or slavingЧthan at actually getting everyone who attended todo anything positive in concert. It was rather like the old UN that way, paralyzed by mutual jealousies and suspicions, although the D·nedain did enforce its resolutions when they could.
УI donТt think there would be an objection if someoneother than the Portland Protective Association alone were to undertake the task of putting Pendleton in order,Ф she said.
SandraТs eyes narrowed. УWeТre the only ones with access and the necessary troops . . . except the CORA, and . . .Ф
It was BrownТs turn to wince. The Central Oregon RanchersТ Association was another organization that had alot of trouble getting its members to do anything but defend themselves. Sometimes against one another, over stock or water rights or sheer cussedness. Each Rancher was the law on his own land, as long as he didnТt make his cowboys want to pick up and leave.
Tiphaine leaned forward to whisper in SandraТs ear again. Her murmur was very quiet, but JuniperТs daughter Eilir had been deaf from birth. Lip-reading was a skill sheТd learned in order to teach, like Sign.
УMy Lady Regent, I donТt think this is the time to play Evil Bitch Deathmatch Hardball.Ф
Sandra shrugged. УIdo tend to let the game of thrones become an end in itself,Ф she said. With a little malice: УAnd so do you intend to have your archers leave their crofts and march two hundred miles over the mountains, Juniper dear? And to stay and rule badlands full of Rovers and Indians and Ranchers who are agreat deal less civilized than our friends of the CORA?Ф
Thatisa point, Juniper thought ruefully.
Mackenzies had few full-time fighters, unlike the Protectorate. And the clansfolk had no desire at all for outland conquests; to start with, there was plenty of good land closer to home waiting for the plow.
УI was thinking weТd all send troops,Ф she said, feeling slightly sick at what necessity made her say.
The waste of war; the blood of our best, and crops not grown, cloth not woven, land not brought back under cultivation, and what we do grow and make taken and destroyed like some ancient sacrifice while our children go without. But itisnecessary. And weТve had twelve years of peace, more or less. Best not to ask too much of the Powers.
Conrad snorted. УAnd who will run this collection of odds and sods we all contribute? The Meeting? An army run by a committee? A committee of . . . how many members does the Meeting have now? Sixteen? A committee of sixteen who have to agree unanimously before they wipe their . . . noses? Oh,please . Why not just have the troops cut their own throats? It would save time, trouble and expense.Ф
Signe made a small grunting noise of unwilling acknowledgment, and Eric Larsson laughed aloud. They both had the little scar between the brows that was the mark of the Bearkiller A-list; that elite required its members to study military history as well as mastering sword and lance, horse and bow. NigelТs face kept the relaxed calm he used as a mask in situations like this, but his wife could feel how he radiated motionless agreement.
Juniper patted his knee under the table and went on: УAnd in command . . . the D·nedain Rangers. Everyone trusts them, and there arenТt enough of them to get delusions of superpowerhood.Ф
Sandra looked blank for an instant, then gave Juniper a glance of coolly irritated respect. Juniper sighed as the Regent stroked the Persian cat. It was going to be a long evening.
And Rudi . . . my son, my son, where are you now?




CHAPTER THREE
The ProphetТs council was made that day
When he called to him warrior and sage
УThe LadyТs Sword travels to the East
The Sword itself to take in hand;
Against that blade we cannot stand
And on his path he saves the weak
Who we would break.Ф