"Jack Vance - Demon Princes 3 - The Palace of Love" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

nefice Kakarsis Asm must "cooperate with the guild"
for selling poison

Circumstances, of course, are not all that simple
Asm's customer, no ordinary murderer, was Viole Fa-
lushe, one of the Demon Princes The essence of the
crime was neither "trafficking with a notorious crimi-


1
nal" nor "betrayal of guild secrets," but rather "selling
fixed-price poisons at a discount "

Kakarsis Asm must die

How7 How else7

The longer Alusz Iphigema traveled in the company ofKirth Ger-
sen, the less certain she became that she understood his personality.
His moods perplexed her, his behavior was a source of misgiving
His modesty and self-effacement-were they inversion, brooding
cynicism3 His careful politeness-could it be no more than a sin-
ister camouflage7 Such questions entered her mind with increasing
frequency no matter how staunchly she rejected them

On one occasion-the date was July 22, 1526-they sat on the
Avente Esplanada in front of the Grand Rotunda, Gersen sought
to explain the seeming contradictions of his character "There's
really no mystery I've been trained to a certain function It's all I
know To justify the training, to fulfill my life, I exercise the func-
tion It's as simple as that."

Alusz Iphigenia knew the general outlines ofGersen's past The
five Demon Princes joining for the historic raid on Mount Pleasant
had destroyed or enslaved five thousand men and women Among
the handful of survivors were Rolf Gersen and his young grandson
Alusz Iphigema realized that such an experience must alter anyone's
life, still, she herself had known tragedy and terror "I am not
changed," she told Gersen earnestly "I feel neither rage nor hate "

illL !^L~t(EOI LOl-L

"My grandfather relt the rage and hate," said Gersen in rather
a flippant tone ot voice "So far as I'm concerned the hate is ab-
stract "

'\lus/ Iphigema became e\cn more disturbed "Are you then
just a mechanism7 This is rnindtessness, to be the instrument of
someone else's hate'"