The Riftwar Legacy: The Complete 4-Book Collection. Raymond E. Feist

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СКАЧАТЬ girl ran off to do as bid, and Peter the Grey came over and said, ‘Pardon me, sir, but … well, I don’t know any other way to say this: I really must ask you to leave.’

      James looked at the mild-mannered innkeeper and laughed. ‘I understand.’

      

      A pale-faced Baron Corvallis arrived as they were hauling away the body of the man named Navon. James said, ‘M’lord, we have a mystery to unravel.’

      The Baron said, ‘What is all this?’

      Ugyne said, ‘He called Navon “Neville”, Father.’

      If the Baron had looked wan when he arrived, what remaining colour had been in his face drained and he looked as if he might faint. ‘Neville?’

      James indicated the Baron should sit, and said, ‘My lord, there’s been murder done, not just recently, but years ago. Tell me about du Sandau and the wine cellar.’

      The Baron put his hand over his eyes and leaned forward, and for a moment James thought he was weeping, but when he pulled his hand away at last, James saw mostly relief in his eyes. ‘He was your brother, Ugyne. That is why I was so adamant about your not seeing him. He was courting you to enrage me.’

      ‘I don’t understand,’ said the girl.

      James said, ‘Neville was your brother.’ He looked at the Baron. ‘But he was not your father’s son.’

      The Baron’s colour rose and he nodded, looking as if he couldn’t bring himself to speak.

      James said to the girl, ‘I did some snooping around. There are always those willing to gossip. It seems the man your father hired, Sandau, was a sculptor as well as a mason. He was reputed to have a way with the ladies. According to one of the old women I talked with, he was a big, handsome man, with a flamboyant nature, the type who appeals to some women.’

      The Baron’s face flushed.

      Ugyne said, ‘My mother was unfaithful?’

      James said, ‘It has been known to happen.’

      She looked at her father as if he was a stranger. ‘You had Sandau killed?’

      ‘I arranged for an accident,’ he said weakly. ‘I didn’t know it would get so out of hand. The cave-in killed a half-dozen men. And, I thought, Neville.’ Looking as if he was growing angry, the Baron said, ‘I didn’t know the boy was going to be down there!’ He slapped the table. ‘I tried to treat him fairly.’ Looking at Ugyne, he said, ‘Your mother and I never talked about it after I found out. I tried to raise the boy as my own.’

      She stood up and said, ‘I don’t know you.’ She backed away a few steps. ‘I don’t know you at all.’ She turned and ran from the inn.

      James said, ‘Baron, we have pressing business, but this will all be mentioned in my report to the Prince of Krondor. I suggest you take a trip to see your liege lord in Romney, and perhaps the King as well. To both of them you owe a complete confession and I think you need to put your affairs in order. I doubt the King will permit you back as Baron. I might also suggest you send Ugyne to stay with Owyn’s family for a while.’

      Owyn regained consciousness and said, ‘What happened?’

      Gorath helped him to his feet. ‘I was expecting someone else. Sorry.’ The last actually sounded sincere.

      Owyn rubbed his swelling jaw. ‘I’ll be all right.’ He looked around. ‘What happened?’

      ‘I’ll tell you on the way.’

      ‘On the way where?’ asked Owyn.

      James produced a key he had taken off of Navon. ‘Back to Cavell Run.’

      

      When the door was again open, James said, ‘I knew that only a family member would be able to know how to trigger that door from the outside,’ as Owyn jumped down from the ledge. ‘If the other children in the village couldn’t find it, Navon du Sandau from Kenting Rush wasn’t going to blunder up here and find his way into the run.

      ‘So, I asked a few questions and got the clues I needed,’ he said as they walked back into the dark tunnel. Owyn produced another light with his magic and James continued. ‘We’ve met the Baron. It doesn’t take much imagination to see the Baroness attracted to a flamboyant, handsome man, even if he’s a common mason. So Neville is conceived.

      ‘The Baron finds out he’s not the father, and he and his wife agree not to discuss it, but every day he sees the boy and is reminded of the betrayal.

      ‘So, after a decade of daily insult to his manhood, he decides to lure the betrayer up to the run, rig an accident, and extract his revenge. Unfortunately, the boy was watching the work being done when the accident happened.’

      Owyn said, ‘And I wasn’t here, and Ugyne couldn’t open the entrance by herself from outside.’

      ‘And perhaps the Baron himself didn’t realize there was an outside trigger. I don’t know and mostly I don’t care. He killed at least four men and will have to be tried for that.’

      They reached the barracks and headed for the stairs to the door with the lock. ‘Neville somehow found his way out of the run. I suspect he was either injured, terrified, or both. We will never know how or why, but somehow he got out and lived. Someone found him and he survived. It might have been the Nighthawks, or he might have come to them later. It may be that a bright young and talented lad like Neville might have seized the opportunity to take control of the Nighthawks when Arutha all but stamped them out in Krondor, ten years ago. It would have been the right time for survivors of that destruction to have been seeking sanctuary in an out-of-the-way place like the run.

      ‘They changed his appearance enough so it wasn’t apparent to those who knew the boy that he was the same person. Some people change dramatically between eleven summers and twenty-two. Or maybe they used some magic. As I’ve said, we’ll never know. But we do know there were relationships that Neville inherited, between the Nighthawks, the moredhel and the Pantathians.’

      Gorath almost spat at the last. ‘Damn snakes and their hot land magic. I can’t abide them.’

      ‘But Murmandamus counted them useful,’ said James, not knowing that Murmandamus had actually been a Pantathian in disguise, magically altered to look like a moredhel.

      He reached the lock and used the key he had taken from Navon. The key turned and the lock opened, and James pushed up on the trap door. It swung away and he mounted the steps and found himself in private quarters. He quickly glanced through the single door and found another barracks, empty and unused for years. But the small room contained chests with gold, gems and documents.

      James ignored the gems and gold, and quickly read through documents.

      After a moment, he said, ‘Damn me!’

      ‘What?’ asked Owyn.

      ‘Northwarden. Delekhan is attacking through Northwarden.’

      Gorath said, ‘Why?’

      James was silent СКАЧАТЬ