"Steve White - The Disinherited 03 - Debt of Ages" - читать интересную книгу автора (White Steve)

Sidonius declared as the two of them descended the stairs. There was still
just enough light to see by, and the spring night was warm. So they didn't
wait to summon lantern bearers but proceeded toward the Daphne
unescorted, through gardens that the dusk transformed into a realm of
pagan enchantment and mystery, its deepening shadows inhabited by
nameless dangersтАж

Ridiculous! Sidonius chided himself. What danger can there be in the
grounds of the Sacred Palace? But for once he felt no inclination to ask
Ecdicius to slow his pace in deference to the papal dignity and years.

Ecdicius seemed oblivious to the frisson Sidonius felt, for he alternated
between brooding and talking. "What can Acacius and his lot possibly
hope for?" he wondered aloud. "Maybe they think they can persuade me to
inaugurate my reign by calling a new Council, where they can do even
more harm than was done at the last oneтАж" He cut himself off. "I know,
Sidonius. I shouldn't speak ill of him, at this of all times. But we wouldn't
be worrying now if he hadn't made that snake Patriarch of Constantinople
again! And some of his other appointmentsтАж !" Bewilderment entered
Ecdicius' voice. "Why, Sidonius? What's happened to him over the last few
years?"

"Well," Sidonius spoke in the conciliatory tones of lifelong habit, "we
can hardly blame him for the Council of Chalcedon. It was in 451, when he
wasn't even High King of the Britons yet That was where the great mistake
was made, declaring the See of Constantinople equal to that of Rome, even
though our Lord expressly delivered the keys of the Kingdom into the
hands of PeterтАж" Exertion overcame indignation, and he had to pause for
a gasping breath as he tried to talk and keep up with Ecdidius at the same
time. "Well, at least they did one thing right at Chalcedon by rejecting the
Monophysite heresy But later it came back to haunt the East."

"YesтАж with Acacius carrying its standard! I tell you, Sidonius, I can't
understand it! That devil-begotten 'Declaration of Union' Acacius drew up
in 482 was one of the reasons for Artorius' final break with Zeno, Acacius'
patron. After he'd won, Artorius tore it up and deposed Acacius as
Patriarch. So why, just four years later, did he restore the goat-bugger to
the Patriarchate?"

Sidonius frowned. A prelate of Holy ChurchтАФeven Acacius!тАФwas
entitled to a certain respect. He was framing a stern admonition when the
four darkly cloaked figures stepped from the bushes ahead of them and
deployed across the pathway.

Ecdicius wordlessly motioned Sidonius back and laid his hand on the
hilt of his spatha. He cast a glance backward and Sidonius, following it,
saw that three more strangers had blocked the path behind them.

One of the quartet to their front stepped forward and spoke in
cultivated Latin. "Noblissimus, a plot against you, and against the sacred