"Bradley,.Marion.Zimmer.-.Darkover.Anthology.11.-.Darkover.v1.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bradley Marion Zimmer)

"Then send me away," Camilla flared, "where I need not listen night and day to her taunting! There are other Guild Houses in the Domains!"
Rafaella's eyes rested on Camilla; she felt her lip curl as she said, "Perhaps that would settle it best. I am trying to stay as far away from her as I can, but it seems the House is not big enough for us both. If she chooses to leave here, that would solve everyone's problem."
Kindra shook her head. "You are my oath-daughters, both of you; that would be no solution. Children," she pleaded, "will you not, for my sake, sit down together

and talk this through?" She held out a hand to each of them; Camilla lowered her eyes and pretended not to see, and Kindra said in despair, "Will you leave me no choice but to bring this before the judges?"
"Oh, Kindra," Rafaella said, and her eyes filled with tears, "I have tried, truly I have, but I can't live with her! One of us must go, even if—" she heard her voice catch in a sob, "even if it must be me!"
Would Kindra actually send her away? She thought, wretchedly, Does she care more for that emmasca than for me! A year ago she would have flung herself into Kindra's arms and cried, promising to do everything Kindra asked. She moved toward Kindra, on the verge of breaking down, longing for Kindra to take her into her arms, but Kindra frowned and drew back. She said, and her voice was hard, "It is not to me, Rafaella, but to Camilla, that you must make your apology."
"To her?" Rafaella was cold and incredulous. "Never!" She wanted to cry out, Kindra, don't you love me anymore at all? But she swallowed the words back, knowing she had no right to speak them.
Kindra took Camilla's long fingers in hers. She said "Kima, my child, you are the elder, and you have been one of us longer. She is a child. Will you yield? I should not ask it. Yet I do."
Camilla's voice was husky; but her eyes were tearless and her face like stone. "It is unfair for you to ask it, Kindra. You know I would do anything for you save this, but I have done nothing to merit her persecution—"
"Nothing?" Rafaella cried, "You—"
"Rafi!" Kindra's voice was not loud; but it cut Rafaella off in mid-syllable.
Camilla went on, steadily, "If she will apologize, I will accept her apology, and carry this no further, but I will not crawl to her and beg forgiveness for allowing her to ill-use me!"
Kindra sighed. She said, "You have left me no choice," and summoned the women who had disarmed them. "Keep them in separate rooms while I send for the judges."
Left alone, frightened as the night crawled on, Rafaella heard the words of her oath echoing in her mind.

And if I prove false to my oath, I shall submit myself to the Guild-mothers for such discipline as they see fit, and if I fail, let them slay me like an animal and consign my body unburied to corruption and my soul to the mercy of the Goddess....
Oath-breaking. She had once heard her father say that the most vicious crime was to turn drawn steel against kinfolk; she had been brought up on the ballad of the outlaw berserker who had slain his brethren and been exiled by his last remaining sister ... and she had drawn her dagger on Camilla. True, Camilla had first come at her with a dagger. But perhaps the woman had only been trying to frighten her ... it need not have come to a fight. The slash on her arm smarted and throbbed; no one had troubled to bandage it. By oath, Camilla is my sister ... mother and sister and daughter to every other woman oath bound to the Guild. And I drew my dagger on a kinswoman, the more so because she, too, is Kindra's oath-daughter.
But Kindra could not help her now.
She does not love me at all! She would not pledge herself to me ... she loves Camilla better than me!
At last one of the women came and summoned them, and Rafaella saw the pale angry face of her fellow culprit. They stood side by side before the four Guild-mothers, their slashed garments and small wounds telling the tale, and Kindra added that they had refused, before witnesses, to compromise or amend their quarrel. Mother Callista, the oldest of the Guild-mothers, and one of the judges of the Guild, said at last. "This is oath-breaking," and Rafaella trembled.
What will they do to me? she wondered.
Mother Lauria said, "You, Camilla n'ha Kyria, Rafaella n'ha Doria, stand before me. This is no game; I ask you two for the last time if you are willing to join hands, exchange a kiss as sisters, and pledge to amend your quarrel before it is too late. You will have no other chance."
Camilla said, her hands clenched into hard fists, "I would rather you killed me, than apologize without fault and grovel before her!"
Callista said, "Rafaella, will you apologize?"

Rafaella had the craven thought, If I do, then perhaps they will only punish her ... if I break down now and apologize, they will think I do so because I am afraid of punishment, and they will know I am more cowardly, that she is braver and more defiant than I am! Show myself cowardly before her? Never!
She said, spitting the words out, "Beat me, then, or kill me if you will! Is this Amazon justice?"
"Kill you?" Mother Callista laughed, not amused. "We are not Guardsmen, to challenge your defiance, and reward you for your stubbornness because you are able to disguise it as heroism. You stand here, then, ready to submit yourselves to punishment? Or will you apologize and pledge to live at peace?"
Rafaella felt her stomach lurch, her knees almost too weak to hold her upright. What are they going to do to us? She wanted to cry out, beg for mercy, but before Camilla's cold, defiant face she thought she would rather die there and then, than show herself afraid. Neither of them spoke, and at last Mother Lauria shrugged.
"On your own heads, then, you silly, stupid girls! You have left us no choice. Go and fetch the chains."
Chains! Rafaella thought in horror. This is worse than I feared....
Camilla was deathly white; Rafaella wondered for a moment if she would faint. Mother Lauria said, "Make sure neither of them has any weapons."
They stood side by side, each trying to ignore the other's presence as they were searched to the skin. Rafaella was shaking, but before Camilla's iron control she resolved she would not betray any sign of her terror.
Mother Callista stretched her hand out and one of the women handed her a pair of handcuffs, joined by a short length of chain, not more than three inches. She said, "You two have refused to keep your oath of your free will, and will not pledge to live together at peace. Now you will be chained together wrist to wrist; you will eat together, sleep together, work together and live together until you have learned to live in company as sisters must do. When you discover that neither of you can take so much as a single step without her. sister's cooperation, then you will learn a lesson that whatever we do of ne-

cessity involves another. Most of us learn this lesson less painfully. Camilla, are you left-handed?"
"Yes," said Camilla reluctantly.
"Give me your right hand, then. Rafaella, are you lefthanded?"
"Right."
"That is good; otherwise you would have had to flip a coin, and abide by the lot." Her mouth tight with angry distaste, she buckled the handcuffs on their wrists.
Some of the women watching giggled a little, nervously. One of them intoned, "May you be forever one," mocking the phrase of catenas marriage, and frowned at the Guild-mother's angry look.
"Leave them now," Mother Callista said, "and go up to bed, all of you. This shameful episode is finished."
Camilla said nervously, "What do we do now?"
Mother Callista said indifferently, "That is for you to decide. Together." She rose without a backward glance and went out of the room. Kindra looked at them for a moment and seemed about to speak, then she, too, turned and went up to bed.
One of the women who had witnessed the quarrel said, "Maybe now you silly brats will stop keeping us in an uproar night and day—and if you want to fight, you'll have all the time you want to do it where it won't bother anyone else!"
Rafaella sat with tears rolling down her face. Unfair, cruel, humiliating! How could Kindra have let them do this to me? Why didn't Kindra warn me what would happen? Doesn't she love me at all? They all hate me, they're all taking Camilla's part....
She moved automatically to wipe away her tears and felt the metal cuff jerk hard on her hand, pulling Camilla's wrist up toward her eyes. Camilla yanked hard on it and said, "Stop that, damn it!"
Rafaella began to cry, sobbing helplessly, her free hand up to her face. Camilla said coldly, "Now you may weep, when it is too late to mend matters."
"And what did you do to mend them?" Rafaella demanded, snuffling.