[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
. Well, take care of yourself.And perhaps, when you return I ll have something new foryou to do a charge more interesting than serving as Aide to the High Commander.You can tspend the rest of your life gratifying his need for male companionship.He turned away several men were waiting to speak with him.Jon knew he was beingdismissed.But, when he spoke of a more interesting charge, what on earth did the man have inmind?***The night before their departure from Kar, Argath stood Jon to a farewell dinner at thetavern.It was neither beef nor lamb, but pork his least favorite, since pork was always fattierthan the other meats.Fattier, but, he had to admit, often more succulent.And succulent it wastonight.Jon couldn t help enjoying the meal.He felt at home here and there d be no food likethis where he was going.Meals in the Southland kept you going, but they seldom offered thekind of pleasure you had in meals in the Imperial City.Not even Alice s mother could equal thechefs of Kar.Maybe it was the spices they used in the Central Valley, but he knew nothing aboutcooking. When you come back to the city in triumph, it will be your turn to treat, Argath toldhim. What if I come back in disgrace?Argath sat back in his chair and laughed. Yes, that s always a possibility.If you come back in disgrace, I ll buy your dinner butnot here.There are too many people who know me, and I wouldn t want them to see me sharinga pitcher of wine with a man under a shadow.4The first time Jon had traveled the River Road, he d been alert to everything along theway features of geology, changes in the way villagers dressed or dried their hay; and he d donemuch the same on his second, faster trip with Aziz, although this time seeing the world from anew perspective.But now he paid little attention to the scenes before him.Transformations in thelandscape merely reminded him of the distance traveled and the closer he was coming to theinvisible border separating the North from the South.In Kar, his actions had no bearing on theEmperor, who might as well have been living in a different universe.But at some point in thisjourney Jon would enter that universe and be forced to decide where his loyalties lay with theEmperor or with the High Commander.When he d agreed to the Commander s offer of a position, he d told himself that it wouldbe useful for the Emperor to have a spy among the upper echelons of the Chosen.Yet thatdecision now belonged to a life he d left behind.Jon recalled the Emperor with affection, but theman had ceased to mean anything to him.And from what he d learned in Kar, the Empire hadbeen very different from the glorious enterprise the Foresters revered.And, as for the Forestersthemselves, as much as he loved them, he couldn t help finding them more than a little bitridiculous.The Great Teacher was an awful man, and the Emperor was a good one, but it was absurdto imagine the Emperor overcoming the general whom the Great Teacher had sent to obliteratehis ridiculously small forces.The only predictable result of the Emperor s effort to regain histhrone would be useless bloodshed.Moreover, when it came down to the bare facts of existence,did it really matter who was in control? If only there were a way to allow the Emperor and hisfollowers to live at peace in the South but that option wasn t on the table.The HighCommander intended to root out the last pocket of resistance to the Chosen.He d been orderednot to kill the Emperor, but Bent Lake was far from the Imperial City and the chances of warfavored death over capture especially when the Commander saw little benefit in returning withhis adversary in chains. It will only evoke sympathy, he d explained. As long as the Emperor is alive, men andwomen will risk their lives to return him to the throne.And I fully understand that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]