Daughter of the Empire. Janny Wurts. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Janny Wurts
Издательство: HarperCollins
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Жанр произведения: Ужасы и Мистика
Год издания: 0
isbn: 9780007375646
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      RAYMOND E. FEIST

      and

      JANNY WURTS

       Daughter of the Empire

      Book One of the Empire Trilogy

       Copyright

      Voyager An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by

      Grafton Books 1987

      Copyright © Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts 1987

      The Authors assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

      Source ISBN: 9780586074817

      Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2012 ISBN: 9780007375646

      Version: 2019-01-15

       Dedication

      This book is dedicated to

      Harold Matson

      with deep appreciation, respect, and affection

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      Dedication

      Map

       Chapter Four: Gambits

       Chapter Five: Bargain

       Chapter Six: Ceremony

       Chapter Seven: Wedding

       Chapter Eight: Heir

       Chapter Nine: Snare

       Chapter Ten: Warlord

       Chapter Eleven: Renewal

       Chapter Twelve: Risks

       Chapter Thirteen: Seduction

       Chapter Fourteen: Acceptance

       Chapter Fifteen: Arrival

       Chapter Sixteen: Funeral

       Chapter Seventeen: Revenge

       Keep Reading

       Acknowledgements

       About the Author

       By the Same Author

       About the Publisher

       Map

       • Chapter One • Lady

      The priest struck the gong.

      The sound reverberated off the temple’s vaulted domes, splendid with brightly coloured carvings. The solitary note echoed back and forth, diminishing to a remembered tone, a ghost of sound.

      Mara knelt, the cold stones of the temple floor draining the warmth from her. She shivered, though not from chill, then glanced slightly to the left, where another initiate knelt in a pose identical to her own, duplicating Mara’s movements as she lifted the white head covering of a novice of the Order of Lashima, Goddess of the Inner Light. Awkwardly posed with the linen draped like a tent above her head, Mara impatiently awaited the moment when the headdress could be lowered and tied. She had barely lifted the cloth and already the thing dragged at her arms like stone weights! The gong sounded again. Reminded of the goddess’s eternal presence, Mara inwardly winced at her irreverent thoughts. Now, of all times, her attention must not stray. Silently she begged the goddess’s forgiveness, pleading nerves – fatigue and excitement combined with apprehension. Mara prayed to the Lady to guide her to the inner peace she so fervently desired.

      The gong chimed again, the third ring of twenty-two, twenty for the gods, one for the Light of Heaven, and one for the imperfect children who now waited to join in the service of the Goddess of Wisdom of the Upper Heaven. At seventeen years of age, Mara prepared to renounce the temporal world, like the girl at her side who – in another nineteen chimings of the gong – would be counted her sister, though they had met only two weeks before.

      Mara