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.What do you say,Jon? Jon didn t take him seriously; he knew that the Emperor himself wasn t sure if he wasserious.It was odd the way he d come to enjoy talking in this expansive way holding outpossibilities without committing himself to them.It must have been one of the ways rulers toyedwith their subjects. I didn t discover this territory, Jon reminded him. Zoë s brother saw it first.And otherpeople have been here before us.Remember the remains I told you about. Yes, you said something about stumbling on ruins don t think I ve forgotten that.Butwhoever built them is long gone there isn t a reference to them in the history books in thelibrary at least in none written in a language I can read.Besides, we ve been traveling forweeks without coming upon evidence of other humans.You may not have realized it, but I vebeen looking carefully, and I ve seen nothing to suggest that anyone lived here in the past. If they built houses of wood and thatch, would there be any trace of them after so manyyears? But the ruin you described was made of stone. True, but it was also very close to the sea.In stormy weather, it might have been underwater.No one would build a house in a place like that.It must have had some other purpose.Andwhatever you built there would have to be strong. So if it wasn t a house, what was this famous ruin of yours? Hard to say.Some kind of beacon? Like a lighthouse? What s that? Jon asked. A tall building with a light at the top.They use them to warn ships off dangerous places,like rocks lying just beneath the surface of the water.There s a string of lighthouses on the coastnear Tarnak. I guess it could have been a lighthouse, then. Was it a dangerous place for ships? the Emperor asked. I didn t see any rocks.It was a beach very much like this one. Then it probably wasn t lighthouse. The Emperor clearly felt he had pointed out a mistake in Jon s reasoning, but Jon resistedthe impulse to point out that it was the Emperor and not Jon who had suggested that the ruinmight have been a lighthouse.Instead, he returned to an earlier topic. I m sure you re right about their being no mention of this place in the histories; and,without a written history, there s little we can know about the past.That s why your library isimportant it s all we have to connect the present with the events that preceded it. Yes, my library.Only a few weeks ago nothing seemed more important, but I have toconfess I ve given it little thought recently.So much has changed.Can you imagine I onceeven contemplated writing a history of the Empire.A suitable task for a younger son, don t youthink poring over countless musty volumes in a hopeless effort to get the facts straight? Writing such a book would be a great accomplishment. Not so great as you imagine.Some writers scribble page after page of nonsense, andothers merely rehash earlier work.I used to think the way you do, but my life has changed, andnow I m not sure books are that important after all.It s the real world that matters.Here a mancan make a difference.Here, you face the facts the writers ignore.I ve been thinking about what you said about the absence of ruins.Wouldn t even wooden houses need a foundation of somekind? Not if all they required was a few posts driven into the ground and lashed together tosupport a thatch roof.With this mild climate, what more would you need? So you re saying I shouldn t expect the creatures who once lived here to have beenmuch like us? Yes, that s exactly what I m saying.Or at least different in significant ways. I won t argue with that.But, as I said before, they re gone now, and so nothing stops usfrom laying claim to the territory they ve left behind much the way Axor took those derelictbuildings on the ridge and converted them to his own purposes.Still, I meant what I said when Ipromised you a grant of territory.If I were to give you land to build a city, where would it be?On the small bay where we camped the second day after we began our trek along the ocean?Remember the enormous fig tree, where the bats came every evening to devour the fruit? Orwould you prefer it here, where the pine forest reaches down almost to the sea? How couldanyone forget this smell of salt air mingled with pine? And, to a practical man like you, thatwhiff of pine must mean the availability of good building material. What makes you think I d be practical enough to build a city? Jon asked.The Emperor smiled. Why do you always underestimate yourself, Jon? You re a man who could probably doanything he set his mind to and I m not saying that to flatter you.You know I ve come to relyon you.I d be a fool not to heed your advice.And when things return to normal, there ll be aplace for you in one of the Imperial Ministries.An emperor needs men like you to make asuccess of his reign. This praise made Jon uncomfortable.Perhaps because it wasn t praise so much assomething else. I may be able to dream up plans, he said. But I m not very good at making decisions
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Tematy
IndexKent Nerburn Chief Joseph & the Flight of the Nez Perce (2005)
Cheysuli 7 Flight of Ravens Roberson, Jennifer
Frederick Forsyth Czarna lista
Frederick Kirchhoff The Emperor's Library 3 The Game
Beckett Simon 04 Wołanie grobu
W.E.B Griffin Więzy honoru 2 Krew i honor
Janczak Józef Zakłócanie informacyjne 2
Abbott Jeff Sam Capra 01 Adrenalina
Hawkins Karen Przekleństwo MacLeanów 01 MiłoÂść szkockiego lorda
Elizabeth Young A Promising Man