"Kate Forsyth - Rhiannon's Ride - 01 - The Tower of Ravens" - читать интересную книгу автора (Forsyth Kate)

“With a heart of furious fancies
whereof I am commander
With a burning spear
And a horse of air
To the wilderness I wander.―
Tom o‘ Bedlam,
traditional folksong




Barbreck-by-the-Bridge


The girl crouched on the stone ledge, hugging her cloak of furs and skins
close
against the bite of the night. Far to the east, where the towering peaks of
the
mountains broke and fell away, the moons were rising. First the little moon,
blue as a bruise, then the big blood-moon, glowing as orange as the leaping
flames on the far side of the lake behind her.
She could hear the distant sound of voices and laughter across the ice as the
wind shifted, carrying with it a shower of bright sparks. The pale circle of
her
face sank a little deeper into the dark huddle of her skins. She set her gaze
resolutely to the east, where the snow-swollen river ran headlong towards the
unknown future, towards freedom and the sea.
Tonight the inexpressible yearning was fierce in her. She could smell the
bitter
green coming of spring in the air, hear it in the clink of ice upon stone as
the
lake began to flex and test itself against the chains of winter, feel it all
around her in the surge of sap and blood. These first few weeks of the green
months were the cruellest of all, for they sang of joy to someone who had no
understanding of the word. She could only sense it, like a deaf child hearing
bells ringing all around her as a thrum of air against her skin. She did not
know what she yearned for. She did not know why she sat here in the dark
loneliness with a hot ache in her throat. She only knew that she could not
bear
to be with the herd tonight as they gloated over the spoils of their latest
hunt, swaggering and boasting and wrestling about the fire while their new
captive sat bound and bloodied, trying not to show his fear.
The girl was not driven away from her herd’s carousing by any sense of
compassion for the prisoner. She had no time to feel or wonder for anyone
else.
All her pity and terror were saved for herself. She sat on the ledge of stone
and set her face to the east, wondering only if she should take the chance to
creep away tonight, while the herd was busy carousing. If she ran all night,