"Williams, Tad - Memory, Sorrow and Thorn 03a - To Green Angel Tower part 1 (b)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Tad)

Particular thanks for assistance on this final volume of
the Bloated Epic goes to Mary Frey, who put a
bogglesome amount of energy and time into reading
andЧfor lack of a better wordЧanalyzing a monstrous
manuscript. She gave me an incredible boost when I re-
ally needed it.

And, of course, the contributions of my editors, Sheila
Gilbert and Betsy Wollheim, are incalculable. Caring a lot
is their crime, and here at last is their well-deserved pun-
ishment.

To all of the above, and to all the other friends and sup-
porters unmentioned but by no means unremembered, I
give my most heartfelt thanks.

NOTE: There is a cast of characters, a glossary of terms,
and a guide to pronunciation at the back of this book.

Synopsis of
The DnuJonfione Chair

For eons the Hayholt belonged to the immortal Sithi, but
they had fled the great castle before the onslaught of
Mankind. Men have long ruled this greatest of strong-
holds, and the rest of Osten Ard as well. Prester John,
High King of all the nations of men, is its most recent
master; after an early life of triumph and glory, he has
presided over decades of peace from his skeletal throne,
the Dragonbone Chair.

Simon, an awkward fourteen- year old, is one of the
Hayholt's scullions. His parents are dead, his only real
family the chambermaids and their stem mistress, Rachel
the Dragon. When Simon can escape his kitchen-work he
steals away to the cluttered chambers of Doctor Mor-
genes, the castle's eccentric scholar. When the old man
invites Simon to be his apprentice, the youth is
overjoyedЧuntil he discovers that Morgenes prefers
teaching reading and writing to magic.

Soon ancient King John will die, so Elias, the older of
his two sons, prepares to take the throne. Josua, Elias'
somber brother, nicknamed Lackhand because of a disfig-
uring wound, argues harshly with the king-to-be about
Pryrates, the ill-reputed priest who is one of Elias' clos-
est advisers. The brothers' feud is a cloud of foreboding
over castle and country.

Elias' reign as king starts well, but a drought comes