Читать книгу Dragon’s Empire – 5. Society of Shadows онлайн

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«It’s funny,» I agreed. «It’s news to me, too, that you’re in such dire straits.»

«Well…» Vincent blushed. «It would be a plight, though, if I took my scribbles closer to the printing press.»

«Who would agree to that?» I laughed. «Remember the sad experience of Camille, who only managed to get a play into an unpopular theater by threatening the director?»

«My case is quite different,» said Vincent confidently. – In addition, you are able to buy for us all the bookstores in Lara and not one printing press, and not a dozen pairs of workers. Gold or threats, it doesn’t matter to you what you pay with.»

«I may soon find myself in the claws of your venerable former employer, and you want to make a book hero out of me.

«For if the prince gets you back on your old path, you might find your biography with a delicate velvet bookmark on your bedside table, and you wouldn’t have to seduce anyone, they’d already be in love with you.»

«And if it’s not about the girls? What about the agitated superstitious peasantry, the suspicious laymen, the soldiers, the youths, the merchants, the proprietors? Do you think they will all love the one whose fiery breath could at any moment collapse on the roofs of their houses and turn a peaceful night to a burning hell. No one, from ministers to long-suffering students, wishes for such an end.