"Diana Wynne Jones - The Game" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jones Diana Wynne)

the bow, raised it and, very slowly and carefully, drew the arrow
back until the bow was a great arc.
Hayley cried out, “Oh no! Don’t !”
The hunter did not seem to hear her. He let the arrow fly. Out in
the lake, the swan collapsed into a white, spouting turmoil.
“Let’s move on,” Flute said sadly. He took Hayley’s hand and
pulled her away from the lakeside. But before the bushes hid the
lake, Hayley had to look back. She saw the hunter wading in the
water, dragging the white floppy shape of the lady to the shore. He
seemed to be crying his eyes out.
The next part they went through had swans in it everywhere.
Three swans with crowns on their heads glided on a sudden sea. A
group of young women ran down to the beach a bit farther on and
then took off as swans in a white beating of huge wings. More
wings beat, and some swans came in to land beside a big bonfire. As
they landed, they turned into young men. This happened several
times. Sometimes there was just one swan, sometimes a whole
flock. Then Flute and Hayley arrived at a place where a young
woman timidly held out her hand to a huge swan, as big as she
was. There was something about that big swan that Hayley did not
like at all.
 “I think,” Flute said, “that we’ll take another strand now. All
right?” When Hayley nodded, he turned off along a way that was
greener, where the sun shone among forest trees that seemed to be
putting out new spring leaves.
They passed through a sunny clearing where golden midges
circled under a big oak tree. When Hayley looked at the midges
closely, they were very small winged people. She cried out with
pleasure.
“More like it, eh?” Flute said, grinning.
The midge people all flew away as he said it. They seemed to
have been frightened by a growing noise, over to the left. It was a
sound of yelping, pattering and panting. Shortly a whole crowd of
dogs burst into the clearing, excited, long-legged hunting dogs with
their tongues hanging out. Hayley could see that they were all little
more than puppies. They saw Hayley and Flute and rushed towards
them, so that in seconds they were surrounded by curved, waving
tails, big floppy ears, and wide panting mouths with long pink
tongues draping out of them. One puppy reared up to put both paws
on Flute’s stomach. Flute laughed and rubbed its ears. Hayley, a
little timidly, stroked the head of the nearest hound. This caused all
the rest to clamour for attention too. Hayley had to laugh. It was
like being in a warm, boisterous bath, full of excitement and
affection.
A boy came panting into the clearing, trailing a long whip. He
stopped and laughed when he saw them surrounded in happy dogs.
“Sorry,” he said. “I’m trying to teach them to follow a scent. You
wouldn’t believe how easily they get distracted!” He was a
good-looking boy, not much older than Hayley, and he seemed as
happy and excited as his dogs. He cracked his whip in the air.