"Katherine Kerr - Deverry 02 - Darkspell" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kerr Katherine)

‘And there’s another thing,’ Caer said. ‘Most people in the kingdom would label us witches. What if
they take it into their minds to hunt us down?’

Nesta shuddered. As an elderly woman, she was extremely vulnerable to such a charge.

‘True enough,’ Nevyn said. ‘And so we -’ He stopped, struck by a thought so urgent that he knew it
came from beyond himself, and when he spoke again, his mind-voice rang with prophecy. ‘The time has
come for the dweomer to show itself, only a little at first, but the time comes when all shall work openly.’

Those assembled heard the ring and knew that the Lords of Light had spoken through their servant.

‘Oh by the hells!’ Caer whispered. ‘Never did I think to see this day come.’

They all agreed, especially Nevyn.

‘This calls for long hours of meditation,’ he remarked.

‘I promise you all that I’ll put them in, too. We’ve got to move as cautiously as a cat in a bathhouse.’

For some time they discussed the prophecy, until they decided that Nevyn would work out this
strange idea while the rest of them lived as they always had. The council broke up, the body-images
winking out like blown candles, but Caer and Nevyn lingered in the peaceful stillness of the astral grove.
Around them the enormous trees nodded as if in a wind as the astral tides began to change, a gentle
stirring that they felt in their minds.

‘It’s a strange thing we’ve heard this day, oh Master of Earth,’ Nevyn remarked. ‘But I intend to
pursue the idea, no matter how long it takes me.’

‘Oh, I’m not worried about that. You’ve always been as stubborn as a pig on market day.’

They exchanged a smile of sincere affection. Once, some four hundred years earlier, Caer had been
Nevyn’s master when he struggled through his apprenticeship in the dweomer. Although Rhegor, as his
name was then, had followed the normal pattern for dweomerfolk and died to be reborn, many times
over now, Nevyn himself had lived one single life, sustained by the elemental forces he commanded.
Although most people would have coveted such a long life, it was a harsh Wyrd for him to bear, because
during his apprenticeship he’d made a grave mistake that had resulted in the deaths of three innocent
people, and a rash vow that never would he rest until he’d redeemed his fault.

‘Tell me somewhat,’ Caer said. ‘Do you think you’re close to fulfilling your vow?’

‘I don’t know, I truly don’t. So many times before I thought I was, only to have things slip away from
me. But I can tell you this: Gerraent and I have come to terms between us. Part of the chain’s broken
once and for all.’

‘Thanks be to every god, then. I tried to warn you about swearing that -’
 ‘I know, I know, and you’re exactly right: I’m too stubborn for my own wretched good. Ah ye gods,
poor Brangwen! You know, I still think of her by that name, even though she only bore it for a few pitiful
years. I failed her so badly, and Blaen, too, but when I swore I’d make it up to her, I never thought it
would take four hundred beastly years!’