[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
. Trysulda, you are unbelievable. I don't see why.It is just the smart thing to do, andI know for a fact that your, eh, inclinations won't makeit a difficult or disagreeable task. Easy now.I ride men too. Ride them? You would fuck and impregnate themif you could. That's no language for the First Daughter of theGreat Mother. Martillia chuckled.Trysulda shrugged. I speak as your mother as well.You need someanchor in your life.You know, we examined herthoroughly, and her greatest quality is that she isfiercely loyal.Not to mention that she is very smart,strong, and a downright beauty.And she worshipsthe ground you walk on.What more could you want ina partner? Stop overselling her, Trysulda, please, Martilliasaid, laughing. I promise I will give it some seriousconsideration. That's all I ask, the First Daughter said. And thatyou bed her, she added, just to, eh, try her out. Concerning the Order.What now, and what doyou want the Sisterhood to do? Ah yes, That's why we're here, after all.What doyou know about Griswinda's great plan? To be honest? Practically nothing.I know thatEmelasuntha and her boy played a great part in itthough. Yes, that they did.I'll try to be as succinct aspossible, but all this started ages ago.A long, longtime before the Darkening woman ruled the world.Iwon't go into it, but a crucial mistake was made.Forthe longest time there were no wars.Women can befierce and cruel, but they never before resorted to theobvious absurdity of armed conflict.Women knowthat you can't win a war.Even the victor loses.Nevertheless one broke out.It was led by women ofcourse, but mostly fought by men.It was the first timethat men were given real responsibility and power.More and more they began to demand a part in thedecision making process.It took centuries, buteventually they supplanted and subjugated women.There followed a long period of literally millennia ofwar and suffering, culminating in the Darkening when mankind almost ceased to exist.The records, eventhose of the Order, are scant, and I'm not too surewhat can be believed or not, but they speak ofterrible weapons.It must have seemed as if theGods themselves waged war upon mankind.Extinction was narrowly avoided.We don't know howlong it took.During the Darkening no records werekept, or if they were, they were lost.Until onethousand four hundred and fifty-three years ago,mankind emerged from the Darkening.Or so it wasdeclared.As far as the Order is concerned, we arestill in the Darkening Can we get to today, please, Trysulda.I feel asplitting headache coming. Ever since, the First Daughter continued,unperturbed, the Order has sought for ways torestore the rule of women.Griswinda thought shehad found a shortcut.The day she heard that littleprince Anaxantis had fallen gravely ill and that theXimerionian doctors were seemingly powerless, theStratagem of the Weak King was born.In short andwithout going into the finer details it amounted toputting someone on the throne of a powerful countryand ruling through him until we would be strongenough to come forth into the daylight.We knewEmelasuntha would do everything in her power to putthe Devil's Crown on the head of her boy.It was alsono secret that Kurtigaill, her brother, doesn't want tobe king.First he offered the crown to her, which sherefused, and then he proposed to abdicate in favorof Anaxantis on his tenth birthday.He reckoned thatEmelasuntha could be regent until her son's majority.He had no problem declaring that she would be a lotbetter at it than he was.Most people agreed withhim.It was too early, she said.What she meant wasthat she would be going after the Devil's Crown first.The throne of Zyntrea already was a sure thing. Martillia whistled. A woman after my heart, she said. She seessomething she wants and she goes straight for it. Her look wandered to a weeping willow in thedistance where Dirina was minding the three horses.Trysulda saw her look and smiled. No doubt, she said.Anyway, you can imaginehow she panicked when her precious boy fell ill.Youcan't order a sickness to be strangled.Griswinda, onthe other hand, saw a golden opportunity.We had avery good doctor who was how shall I put this? in our employ.Griswinda went herself to present himto Emelasuntha, and the boy recovered.Sort of.Atleast he didn't die.What Emelasuntha didn't knowwas that Griswinda had given Birnac Maelarinstructions to cure the boy, but at the same time tokeep him weak.Weak in bodily strength andwillpower.The Order would help Emelasuntha ingaining the Devil's Crown for her son.The Orderwould also train and advise him.and of coursemake sure that there would always be enough of themedicine he so obviously needed to survive, butwhich in fact kept him weak. I see, Martillia said. In one fell swoop the Orderwould become a political force as well as a spiritualone. Exactly.Anaxantis would govern Ximerion andZyntrea.The Order would govern Anaxantis.Or thatwas how it was supposed to go.You know whathappened.By a string of unforeseeable incidents,Anaxantis was deprived for a long period of themedicines that were to keep him docile.He musthave been gravely ill and even must have thought hewas dying at some point.Of course that was how thedrugs were designed to begin with.If ever Emelasuntha would have tried to wean her son offthe medicines, she would have soon changed hermind when she saw how he was suffering. It seems to me Griswinda's plan was sound. By all calculations it should have worked.Only, itdidn't, did it? The plan also had one great weakness.Or rather the Order had and still has.Whensomething unforeseen, and probably unforeseeable,happened we couldn't react adequately. I did everything humanly possible Oh, dear, nobody is blaming you.We know youdid more than could be expected of you.We weresimply outnumbered and outflanked.One crisis andour chapters couldn't bear the strain.The simple factis that we haven't got the financial means nor thewomen power. What now, Trysulda? The First Daughter sighed. Come, let's visit the temple.It would be a shameto have come all this way and not enter it. She started climbing the marble stairs. Are you giving up? Martillia asked, whilefollowing her.Trysulda waited until she had reached the platformof the temple. No, not at all, she said when she had regainedher breath
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Tematy
Indexminimalist syntax radford by Andrew Radford,
Andrew Grey Of Love 3 A Helping of Love
Kaplan Andrew Skorpion 02 Zima Skorpiona
Andrew Stark Drawing the Line, Public and Private in America (2009)
Andrews Ilona Kate Daniels 04 Magia Krwawi(1)
Andrews Ilona Kate Daniels 04 Magia Krwawi
Ilona Andrews Kate Daniels 04 Magia Krwawi
Andrew J. Dunar The Truman Scandals and the Politics of Morality (1984)
vivi andrews karmic consultants 03 the sexorcist
Virginia C. Andrews Cutler 05 Czarna godzina