"Lawrence Watt-Evans - Ethshar 3 - The Unwilling Warlord" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watt-Evans Lawrence)

he hadn't seen my grandmother for so long?"
"Oh, he didn't know you existed, but he had no choice in the matter,"
Lady Kalira said, waving the question away. "Semma has very clear and definite
laws on the lines of succession. This room and its contents were his as the
warlord, not his, personally, so he had no say about who would receive them,
nor who would receive the title. If people were allowed to influence
successions it would result in all sorts of intrigues, and frankly, we have
too much of that even as it is."
"Succession? Intrigues?"
Lady Kalira explained the words as best she could, and eventually Sterren
thought he understood.
"But why me?" he asked. "Isn't there anyone here who could be warlord?"
The noblewoman snorted in derision. "Your ancestors," she said, "were
about the worst line in the whole family at providing enough heirs. It doesn't
help that warlords tend to die young, in battle."
That statement, when the unfamiliar terms had been defined, did little to
help Sterren's peace of mind, but he made no comment.
"After you," Lady Kalira continued, "the next heir is the old warlord's
third cousin, your third cousin twice removed. That's only the seventh degree
of consanguinity. You're an heir in the third degree of consanguinity. That's
a pretty big difference. And besides, you're young and strong..."
Sterren took this as flattery, since he knew he was relatively scrawny.
"She's past fifty. If she had a son, well, that would be the eighth
degree, but it might do. Unfortunately, her only child is a daughter.
Unmarried, even if we allowed inheritance by marriage instead of blood."
An attempt to explain the new words this time was unsuccessful until,
exasperated. Lady Kalira rose and crossed to the desk, where she found a sheet
of paper, a pen, and ink, then leaned over and began drawing a family tree.
Sterren, still seated, watched with interest as she ran down the history
of Semma's nine warlords.
The first, Tendel, was the younger brother of King Rayel II, born almost
two hundred years ago. His son, also named Tendel, followed him, and a
grandson after that, but this third Tendel managed to get himself killed in
battle early in the disastrous Third Ksinallionese War, before he could get
around to marrying and siring heirs. His brother Sterren inherited the title
as Fourth Warlord, only to get himself killed three years later in the same
war.
This first Sterren had been kind enough to produce five children, though
three of them were daughters, and the younger son died without issue. The
elder son succeeded as Fifth Warlord. His only child became Sixth Warlord, and
in turn produced only one son, the eventual Seventh Warlord, before meeting a
nasty end after losing a war.
Sterren, Seventh Warlord, was only twenty-one when he inherited the title
and lived to be seventy-three. He was something of a legend. He broke with
tradition and, instead of marrying a distant cousin, married an Ethsharitic
woman he found somewhere.
They had three children, though the second one, Dereth, died in infancy.
The eldest, Sterren, eventually became the Eighth Warlord, and the youngest,
Tanissa the Stubborn, ran away with an Ethsharitic trader in 5169 and was
never heard from again.