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The Verge Of An Empire 27
They appeared, osh-zan-kai wearing their unit's standard assault armor, helmets, breath masks, and long heavy rifles at the ready. They became a convex line, blocking the entrance, and everyone arrived, arrived, and then he appeared among them, slowly walking, surrounded by guards, jingling chains, a huge man in a black cloak, whose face I could not see. For a moment, my left hand was taken away, the cane almost fell out. Heart attack? Heart attack? No, not the time! Not now!- Osh-zan-kai, the ratio of lups and people is seven to one, armed with shortened assault carbines of the latest generation with underbarrel bayonet-knives for more convenient combat in confined spaces."What are you muttering, el'Moria?" Marcellus asked quietly.- They are trained for combat in urban conditions, they do not undergo drill training ...- Yes you…- Defensive formation!- What?!- Correction! Construction! Among them, only two lups! Mork, they're regulars and they're standing up like they're going
The Verge Of An Empire 28
The next morning I woke up quite refreshed and well rested. Anticipating all the troubles that await me in the coming day, I dressed, breakfasted with appetite and, saying goodbye to the household, which I usually do not, went to Scoalt Yard.Having overcome the cordon of journalists from the capital's newspapers at the entrance to the territory of the Tower, I crossed the courtyard and entered the hall. There was no free space on the walls, floor and ceiling from the piles and crossbeams along which the workers scurried. Marblers from all over the capital are herded into Scoalt Yard in order to give it a proper look as soon as possible.“Did you see this, Thane el'Moria?” - Marcellus Mork, pacing the hall with a bandaged hand, pointed to the front door.– Journalists or flowers?- Both. They do not understand that they are preventing us from working. Although it's all very touching, of course.There were indeed stacks of flowers against the outer walls, and some well-wisher had hung
The Verge Of An Empire 29
- Predatory forms and delightful chasing!– Yes, cathars are forged only by masters, and each such sword is individual. And on that stand over there you can see a plucked seven-string…I took her around the museum, showing her columns from the temple on Mount Adugashi, a figurine of a dancing cloak, ancient sets of weapons, samples of sacred religious texts, and collections of poems by poets of the Tolkwan era. We laughed together at the clothes of the noble class of the Malkabi people and marveled at how someone managed to transport the war chariot of King Kapotar to Starkrar. There was a period in the history of Maldiz when people from the Barnabarite people seized power in the country, and they had kings, not maharajas. The Barnabarites held out for two generations, after which they were all slaughtered, and the throne was taken by the Maharajas of the Simptor dynasty. The last exhibit we came to was the main trophy of General Stubbs. I deliberately circled the halls, examining the
The Verge Of An Empire 30
Later we saw each other more often, and I caught myself thinking that I was only going into the world to see the Thani el'Zornaz. It was so strange not to feel squeamish disgust from the beautiful Tanya. I told her the truth about what I was doing with her feelings, and she silently gave me permission to correct these flaws, which, when they appeared, caused her such suffering. She knew that she was ill, and what her illness was leading to, she also knew. By the will of the moon, I alone was able to slow down and reverse the disease, making Bali forget about unbearable headaches, depression, paranoia, fear of bright lights. We tried not to be noticed, to conduct sessions ... perhaps you can call it therapy, in private, so as not to compromise her. I didn't even notice how the attraction got too strong.- Started a romance?- It's a novel. How do our crooked novelists write there, Sebastina? Were they overwhelmed by a whirlpool of passion?“I don’t know, master, I only read cookbooks a
The Verge Of An Empire 31
On the second floor of Incival's house, there seemed to be a large-scale battle and, at the same time, a fire. Burnt memories remain from the furniture, the ceiling and walls are sooty, traces of burning, cracks, and dents are visible everywhere. Three baked corpses in different parts of the floor, two of them human and one lups. Extensive scorched wounds and damage from iron shards embedded in flesh. In lups, the body is cut in half in the same ideal way. At the magical laboratory, I found a wide puddle of black viscous slurry of unknown origin with a pungent smell of reagents. Pieces of metal and fragments of a wooden object float in a puddle, in which it is difficult, but possible to recognize a fire wand. Fragments of cobra decorations survived, but the sphere was broken. The laboratory itself was almost not damaged, it was not affected by the fire, but some items of magical use are lying on the floor, and along one of the walls stretched a gleaming trail of the silver blood of te
The Verge Of An Empire 32
“You know, Zinkara, I can't help feeling that I saw you once. Perhaps you, like the rest of the palace servants, huddled against the walls, begging for mercy, as I led the soldiers through the corridors to finally end this stupid kicking of your undercountry, which you called the struggle for sovereignty. It is possible that this is a figment of my imagination and we do not know each other, although you know me for sure. Anyway, I can't get rid of this stupid feeling. And I can't remember your creepy face. But I know for sure that you are a bone in the throat of my country, and I will rot you in prison.The tongueless Maldese stroked his beard sedately, holding my gaze, and I could swear I heard his clear and intelligible speech:“Sankarishma will judge us, Thane el'Moria, his punishment is inevitable. You sowed the wind, and the growing hurricane will swallow everything that is dear to you. I swear.I did not call someone to witness and force the ambassador to speak. He will only onc
The Verge Of An Empire 33
For her, my tone is like a blow of a whip, because usually I am extremely polite with all the girls of the Rosebud, but now I am not in the mood for pleasantries! I feel that I am ready to break loose on anyone, just to get rid of the heavy evil fear and anger that it generates! If I came in vain, then I will not have a single lead left to look for Incival.“The mistress will be here in a minute,” Inresh squeaked, looking fearfully at Sebastina. - Settle down!I sank into a huge easy chair, took off my glasses, closed my eyelids and began to massage my eyes.“Would you like some egg liqueur, master?”- No.- Guilt?- No.- Cognac?- I do not want anything. Just get close. Your presence calms me a little.Inhaling the smell of peonies fragrant from the floor vase, and listening to the ticking of the clock, I waited for the hostess for several minutes, during which I calmed down a little. Fortunately, she does not like to test my patience, although she knows that I am ready to forgive h
The Verge Of An Empire 33
I lie in bed among hot blankets, and sleep is afraid to come to me, because I am afraid to fall asleep. This happens in patients with fever or poisoned by bad food, who are tormented by great heat and nausea. Any attempts to fall asleep are futile, because crazy pictures, fragments of some melodies, slurred phrases are dancing in the inflamed mind. Every now and then the disfigured muzzle of the late Wolfeld flickers, the family of coal miners dances among the nameless tombstones, and people whom I did not personally see, but who have disappeared, lie in a heap on the sidelines. Customs officials, most of them never found, none of the ones de Moranjac suspected of taking bribes. Speaking of him, the high accuser is also here, in my head, in the midst of the excruciating heat. He and his whole family dine at a large table, not noticing the dancing dead and the lups prowling between the graves.“Monsieur de Moranjac,” I said as I approached, “forgive me for disturbing your meal. I don't
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- The Verge Of An Empire
Epilogue
In the evening of the same day, when the carpenter's hammers continued to rattle throughout the capital, I sat opposite the Emperor and told him everything I knew about the past crisis. Although not all, of course. I left out some details, I didn't say a word about John Darksad, or Zolan el'Cha, or who and what helped me set up a forgery to start a riot, I didn't say how exactly I was connected with the first enemy of the empire, in my retelling, he was simply the Persistent, who broke into our world and wanted to crush the great Meskian Empire. If the Emperor knew I was lying, he never showed it. After all, during our conversation with Authurn di'Anshwar, he was near death and could not hear everything that we said to each other.“Thus, after all of the above, I tender my resignation and express my readiness to accept any punishment that Your Majesty deems appropriate.”I laid out a sheet of petition on the tabletop.Hmm, punishment? the Emperor drawled. “Hmm, what punishment should
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- Hurt.- Sorry…“It hurts to see what an ungrateful and stupid young man my son's son has grown up to be. Boy, I am a great black-tongued, I do not die from a wounded perishable blade, I forge perishable blades myself!With these words, he tore the sword out of his stomach, causing the purulent masses to flow out, and let out a loud roaring scream! His appearance changed dramatically and almost instantly, his clothes dissolved, his whole body acquired a matte black color, dozens of thin tentacles appeared instead of legs, forming something like a long skirt, huge black wings opened behind him, from which numerous eyes looked, his arms lengthened and received the second elbow, instead of fingers, terrible blades jingled on them, and a white bone mask without eyes and nose, but with a wide, toothy mouth, covered his face. A large wound on the stomach that was supposed to kill a person was quickly healed on this monster!“Look what you got me into. Are you satisfied now? I had to uncove
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“I was forced, Brian. Even my spell can be removed, and the puppets, although they are not able to act on their own, see and understand everything.“You destroyed him, and at the same time you tried to kill Tromgar el'Rumar to protect yourself from possible testimony from the grave.- It's like that.“I still don’t understand why you stole Yaro Wolfeld’s body from Volchie. Is it really just to abuse him for the last time and turn him into a vile running piece of carrion?- A burst of inspiration. A particle of chaos in an ordered stream of consciousness. Besides, I was hoping to set you on another false trail.“Using charmed Lups soldiers from the missing battalion?”- Exactly. They did not stand out on Volchie, and lups are by nature a close-knit people, they do not suspect their own.- I understand ... In principle, if the execution of a grandiose plan was perfect, you would have succeeded. You removed your creature from the statue before the statue reached the museum, and all this
- The Verge Of An Empire
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“You were right, cousin. As always.“See the skinny shadows walking in front of the front door?- The enemy was spotted in the amount of fifteen combat units.“These are Asmoderians, immortal creatures from the Darkness. They are very fast and strong, and they also have weapons that destroy any armor, stone, metal, wood.“My task is to attack and distract while you get inside.– There may be more, and even your car does not guarantee you victory.“I fight to fight, not to win, cousin.Chapadeau rushed across the square turned into a battlefield, took out the front gate with a kick and opened fire. The Asmoderians scattered like frightened water striders, but they weren't frightened!- Now!Sebastina made a dizzying leap and ran forward. The shooting stopped, a huge iron fist grabbed me and threw me forward like some kind of ball, and the maid caught me!- Run, cousin!The last thing I saw before I ran into the palace hall was the figure of a steel giant, plastered with skinny black bo
- The Verge Of An Empire
80
The tashshar's horseback ride turned out to be a surprisingly convenient and fast way to get around. Skinny looking and very hard to the touch, these furry monsters have long, strong legs. They rushed at great speed, made long jumps and easily maneuvered in the stream of evil spirits flowing through the streets. Smaller monsters did not stick to the tashshars, they had an order to get out and add new oil to the subdued fire of terror, and they breathed it, they breathed the will of their master! Every few seconds I looked up and peered into the darkness above our heads, expecting that the ceiling of the cave, invisible to me, would crack from a hail of artillery shells and multi-ton slabs would bury us under them! We broke out of the city and began to break through the tunnels filled with evil spirits, up into the predawn winter night, and hope even began to arise in me, that we will have time to get out when the whole world went crazy at once and a grandiose roar knocked us down! The
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It ended abruptly. The Tashshars simply crushed the Asmoderians in bulk, crushed them and deprived them of their heads. After that, the bodies of the invincible guardsmen literally evaporated. The armor was empty and scattered in many segments, swords fell to the floor. The crazy spree is over. It seems that one of the survivors addressed me. Some kind of lups with a crazy muzzle. Simon was saying something, but I didn't hear them. I was snapped out of my stupor by the sight of Arren el'Calyps writhing on the floor. Raising my saber as I ran, I struck with all my might at his arm, chopping it off at the elbow. Noble silver blood spattered, and the severed forearm literally in a few moments turned into a piece of fetid meat exuding poisonous pus.- Bandage him! Calculate the personnel, provide assistance to the wounded, if any! Don't touch the dead! Rest… I… Perform!Sebastina was already seated next to Incival.- Is he alive?- Yes, master. But it is very difficult for him, as far as
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He sighed heavily and sadly.“Listen, boy, I will go against my rules and extend my hand to you one more time. You have come a long way, you were able to find me and you were not afraid to come here, taking only a maid. This is worthy of encouragement. I extend my hand to you again and say, join me! The next morning will be the first morning of the new age! And this century will belong to me! On the ruins of old Mescia, I will build the palaces of a new empire, and, what the hell is not joking, you will sit on its throne!"Are you offering me the imperial crown?"“That little thing doesn't matter, my boy. I offer you the whole world!- Interesting.- You deserve it! Believe me, I know that in all this rotten aristocracy there will never be as much grandeur and dignity as there is in one of your fingers! Help me today, and tomorrow your path to the top of the world will begin! This is not the ravings of a madman and not a sweet lie, this is my promise to you! Get close and...- No.- W
- The Verge Of An Empire
77
We moved through the streets of the ancient city, expecting danger from every shadow. And there are many, many shadows! Tower, castle, palace or temple, whatever it was, the building seemed incredibly majestic and hung over us the closer we got. We soon approached the first crater.“The impact came at an angle of twenty-five degrees, demolished two houses, left a furrow, and went out right here.- What could hit like that? Spell? The stone is melted.The Emperor did it.- What?!- I saw something like that. Traces of destruction. Huge. And this sand under our feet - it is everywhere - not sand. It is the ashes of hundreds of thousands of living beings whose bodies have decayed over the past ages. This is Meskiah, thanes and gentlemen.“You mean the same city, el'Moria?”“The city that gave the name to our empire. The city that became the first letter in the new history. The Emperor came here and swept from south to north like a hurricane, demonstrating the power of his Voices. He dest
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Gantsaros remained himself, ruthless and purposeful, the one who steps over the corpses, grinding them into mincemeat, and opens fire on any moving target. I see his receding back and a plume of hot steam, white as milk in this cold and bitter night. And I have no doubt that the royalists have put an end to it. For some time, the new weapon will show its power, and the number of victims will exceed tens of thousands, total extermination. Then the time limit will be released, and the surviving prisoners will appear. Mesquia's new weapons will prove to all countries of the world that their armies are outdated. We will remind you again how powerful we are. And we will make them remember how ruthless we can be to our own people. What will we do with them if they dare to anger us?“Truly… The Emperor is prudent and ruthless as always… Now I understand why the threat of rebellion did not frighten him. Moon, have mercy on us.I looked at the creator of these new war machines and felt his del
