Gonji: The Soul Within the Steel. T. C. Rypel
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Название: Gonji: The Soul Within the Steel
Автор: T. C. Rypel
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Историческая фантастика
isbn: 9781479409570
isbn:
Gonji stood still as marble with the katana in a two-handed clench at middle guard, the hilt before his navel, the point fixed on Mord.
“Disperse it, Mord!”
The shape descended in a sinuous wave. Gonji took a single step back and raised his blade high over his head for a strike. He felt hands at his shoulders, ignored them.
“Send it away!”
Mord brushed one hand across his body in a wave of dispersal, and the shape turned to sparkling blue scintillas that shone an exquisite instant and then fell to the floor as dust.
“Forgive me, sire,” Mord said, head hanging low, sullen eyes gleaming out of the golden mask’s sockets, “but this barbarian—who knows nothing of what he speaks—kindled my anger. But there was never anything to fear. Merely a warning against disrespectful tongues. I’ll take my leave, if it pleases you.”
“Yes-yes, go,” Klann said.
He moved off but stopped at the end of the table and leered back in Gonji’s direction.
“The shape you saw was but an illusion. The creature it suggests, however, is quite real in substance. I should be pleased to introduce you to it one day.”
Gonji stood with the Sagami in one hand along his side. He arched an eyebrow. “I’ll look forward to it.”
And Mord was gone with a rustle of robes.
Gonji took a deep breath, restoring his harmony. He experienced a sudden chill at the cold runlets of sweat that trickled under his tunic. His bristling nape hairs gave him an urge to scratch vigorously. But he forced a placid expression as he smartly returned the Sagami to its scabbard and placed both his swords back in his sash.
Already the hall rumbled with low voices retelling the way the incident had been perceived. By morning it would exist in a hundred versions, each more fantastic than the last.
“All right, everyone—eat, drink; make music, you musicians. We command it!” roared Klann’s voice. “This is a time for gaiety. No, not that funeral dirge!” he called to the gallery. “Give us a happy refrain!”
Gonji looked over his shoulder at Garth and nodded. It was the smith who had grasped him by the shoulders in an effort at restraint.
The delegates were sorting themselves out, restoring their dignity after the unsavory incident, when they received a shock that overwhelmed all others on this monumental day.
“And what of you all these years, mighty man-of-valor?” Klann was booming. “I see that it will have to be we who shatter your stony silence!”
Klann was addressing Garth.
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