"MacAvoy,.R.A.-.Tea.With.The.Black.Dragon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

Mr. Long straightened in his chair, thereby disappear-
ing into shadow. His hands touched together and then
opened, as though he were releasing a bird into the air.
"Thomas Rhymer," he stated, "had a son by the queen of
Elfland. The boy was five years old when his fathers
term ended and the Rhymer was sent upon his way."
Mr. Long paused, breathed deeply and stared into the
air above Martha's head.

"Thomas left, but he came back again, fording the
river of blood, blundering through the tangle of green
which hides that road from mortal eyes. It was not so
pleasant a journey for a man alone, but Thomas Rhymer
found his way back to the land of the not-so-blessed and
he stole his little son away."

"No. I've never heard this," whispered Martha Mac-
namara. "Have you got the verses?"

He stopped and drew breath. "There are verses," he
admitted. "But I don't sing. Humor me."

And he continued. "Back in the world again, Thomas
Rhymer took to his trade, and the lad went with him.
But fortune no longer smiled upon him."

"Because he couldn't lie."

"Quite likely, Mrs. Macnamara. And before the year
was out, the Rhymer began to hear the wailing of the
Sidhe in the night and he knew he was hunted."

"Oh no!" exclaimed Mrs. Macnamara, finding herself
moved, almost frightened. It was that voice . . .

"Hiding the boy at the monastery at Lagan—this was
in the days Cormac O'Dubh was Abbot—he rode off,
leading the hunt away. .

"Crofters heard the racket of his horse's hoofs pass in
the early night, but in the coldest hour they saw the
passage of riders who made no sound, a company with




8 TEA WITH THE BLACK DRAGON

faces like chalk and horses shining without moonlight.