"Karl Edward Wagner - Kane 01 - Darkness Weaves" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wagner Karl Edward)

statecraft and in the secret delvings of the Pellin lords.

One night Pellin Othrin was found strangled in his chambers, though no outcry had been heard. His
guards could not explain how the assassin had slipped past them, nor guess what strangler's cord had
circled their lord's body with livid red stigmata, nor yet account for the seaweed that hung in his beard.

His sudden death left Pellin without male heir, but there was precedent in Pellin's long history when the
island had been ruled by a woman. And Pellin Othrin had taught his daughter well. Thus Efrel ascended
the ancient throne of Pellin as Queen. It was not to be long before she would be Empress as well.

Of Efrel it is said that she pursued the study of demonology and the black arts with a passion beyond
that of any of her unhallowed ancestors. Perhaps she was spurred on by the desire to rekindle the ancient
glory of the House of Pellin, which was inexorably drifting toward obscurity within the growing Empire.
Possibly she caught ways to revitalize the anemic blood of her line, whose heirs were fewer and sicklier
with each generation, and the madness that haunted the House of Pellin grew stronger apace.

Then again, there is a persistent rumor that Efrel is only half human--that her real father was not Pellin
Othrin, but a demon of his conjuration, who had lain with Wehrle on that night when sanity was driven
from her. Certainly there is some little to be offered in defense of this whispered theory. It might explain
Efrel's obsessive interest in sorcery and other arcane researches, for one thing. And further, it might
account for her inhuman beauty--or for her vitality that is like a weed to the anemic blooms that others of
her line resemble. Perhaps her unnatural parentage gave her power to inflame Netisten Maril, who in his
late thirties was as cold and unapproachable a man as ever.

Netisten Maril saw Efrel for the first time when she was presented to him at court one day. She moved
gracefully in a clinging swirl of a gown pieced from the opalescent scales of blind sea-snakes dredged
from the Sorn-Ellyn. When introductions were effected by their servants as court etiquette prescribed,
the seductress explained to Maril that she had come from Pellin to pay her respects to him and to remain
for a while in the Imperial Court, such being the privilege of one of royal lineage. From that moment Maril
thought of little else but Efrel, for her exotic beauty and her aura of mystery (and perhaps her glamour)
had thoroughly conquered his long .slumbering passions. Rekindled after so long, they blazed anew with
pent-up fire--and it was evident to all that Thovnos would very soon have a new queen.

To be sure, the turn of events dismayed Leyan, as well as many others, who foretold that there could be
nothing but misfortune from a union with ill-famed Pellin. But Maril was totally in love with this
pale-skinned beauty of midnight tresses and eyes so dark they shone like onyx. Even those who hated
the court's newest star granted that her beauty transcended in every particular that of any other woman of
their experience--including M'Cori, who under Leyan's shelter was advancing in the Imperial Court as an
ingenue of uncommon loveliness. And objections to the Emperor's imminent marriage were effectively
hushed when Maril ordered a trusted advisor beheaded after becoming enraged at his well-meant advice.

So they were married, and the Empire settled back to make the best of the new situation. However, to
her chagrin, Efrel soon discovered that although she had won into Maril's bed, she could not insinuate
herself onto his throne. For Maril was a man of strong will who kept the affairs of his personal life
unmixed with affairs of the Empire. Thus Efrel found her ambitions of ruling behind the throne stillborn for
all her wiles and secret glamour, and the many nobility she had brought as entourage remained without
influence or important position.

And as time went by, Efrel felt even her hold on Maril's affections loosening--for strong passions too
often exhaust the spirit and burn out quickly. But more important, despite Maril's enthusiastic efforts, he