"ab Hugh, Dafydd - Jiana 02 - Warriorwards" - читать интересную книгу автора (ab Hugh Dafydd)

WARRIORWARDS
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
Copyright й 1990 by Dafydd ab Hugh
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises P.O. 1403 Riverdale, N.Y. 10471
ISBN: 0-671-72019-8 Cover art by Larry Elmore First printing, October 1990
Mr. ab Hugh is not available for personal correspondence,
but letters of comment may be sent to
4216 Beverly Blvd. #177, Los Angeles, CA 90004
Distributed by SIMON & SCHUSTER 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, N.Y. 10020
Printed in the United States of America
the mind builds a maze and the body runs through it
like a rat
every night in our dreams we escape the maze
like a dream of birds
There is no maze. We are free
even from dreams of freedom
Vani Bustamante December 23, 1989
"Before the Beginning"
Toq grinned, barely able to contain himself. The order surrounded him, waiting for him to speak.
"Sleeping Tifhiz ..." Toq giggled, then continued, "Sleeps. And sleeps!! He wakes not. I am the only and the one. It's mine! You can't have it."
The others satd nothing, kept their heads bowed as Toq continued. Pieces of the boy-god spilled onto the ground. "Some of you opposed my succession. I forgive you all, though regretably I must destroy the lot of you."
He gestured sadly, every inch the regal, all-forgiving godking. Five minor deities flickered and tore apart as the abyss entered their souls.
Some who remained blubbered in fear, prostrating themselves before Toq. Two held their subservient posture in proud silence, twitched nervously and strained. Only Magadauthan Full-of-Oceans seemed at ease.
Magadauthan knelt serene, unmoved by Toq's rhetoric or authority. The albino boy-god chewed his lip, unable to think of anything diabolical enough to temper Magadauthan's arrogance.
"The rest of you motley pile of dungЧyou too, Water-bellyЧshall be given much time to regret your inability to recognize my claims earlier, when that soon-to-be-damned Snoring Tifhiz pretended to this seat." He turned his eyes in disgust, waved his hand and the order departed swiftly, all but one.
2 Dafydd ab Hugh
"Have you chosen to stay and apologize, Magadan than?" asked Toq without looking up.
"Oceans are deep," rumbled a voice like crashing waves.
Toq raised his head and glared furiously. "What is that supposed to mean?" Bubbles formed on the boy-god's alabaster skin, blisters of hatred that burst, spewed venom across the floor to etch channels in the marble.
"I know what you intend," said Magadauthan. "I know her that tears your pride."
No need to specify the woman in question. Toq puffed up like a furious air bladder. "Then you also know what that thing did to me!"
"You did yourself, new boy."
Toq raised a fist, but checked his first, violent reaction. Magadauthan was crafty. Tides would freeze before the Goddess of Oceans tempted destiny without a backup plan. "This is a challenge," Toq marveled. "You challenge me!"
"Piece to piece."
"Spawn to spawn. Winner break all."
She looked up, eyes black as the vasty deep. Magadauthan's face was unreadable, even by Toq the boy-god. Toq grinned nastily, spoke quickly before She could. "I'll not make the same mistake, you wet slut. This time, I'll take Jiana Analena herself, against herself. Her own nature will destroy her! A test she'll foil!"
After a pause, Magadauthan Full-of-Oceans smiled. "You have spoken . . . lord." She swirled her blue-grey cloak and flowed from the meetroom.
Toq stared after her departing form. A nasty suspicion bubbled in Toq's stomach that he had been taken. . . .
Chapter I:
Prophet and Lass, a balance in the sheeting
A long, mournful cry settled across the tent-khayma; the wind, crying for the dead past: toooooo looooong, whoooo? bego-o-ne. The sound smothered the slave girl, wrapping around her mouth like a shroud, catching at her breath like a black silk veil.
Did he hear? Will he wake?
Radience crept silently with utmost humility, as she had been taught, into the tent, the khayma of the Caliph of Dokamaj Tool. The walls of the khayma puffed slowly in and out, and creatures too tiny to see clearly scurried at the edges of her vision.
Radience held the weighty bowl of candied mushrooms close to her left side, so her left arm would be able to help, too. The bowl was one of the lead pieces, ugly and heavy. Most of the girls could not carry it. Not even with two good arms.
Pressed against her side as it was, the bowl also offered excellent cover for the long dagger, sharp as a needle, as the sins of Arhatman.
Bodies pressed against the khayma walls, scratching with their claws, weeping to be let in. It was their breath that puffed the canvas, their pushing that billowed the tentwalk to a moist crawl.
/ won't be humiliated anymore. I won't!
But there she was, at the door to the Caliph's bedchamber. How had she come so far, without passing the intervening distance?