"Katherine Kerr - Deverry 06 - A Time Of Omens" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kerr Katherine)

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In those days the eastern border of the elven lands lay in the middle of a forest. A traveler leaving the high
plains and heading east came down a long gentle decline into the oaks to find several rivers that might
mark a border—if only anyone at all had lived on either side of them. In that vast tangle of tree and
shrub, bracken and thorn, finding the lands of men (that is, the three western provinces —Eldidd,
Pyrdon, Arcodd—of thekingdomofDeverry) was no easy job. If you wanted to go from west to east, the
sandy coast of the Southern Sea made a much more reliable road, if, of course, you could fight your way
south to reach it. The ancient forest had a way of tricking travelers unless they or their companions knew
the route well.

The woman who rode out of the forest late on a summer day traveled with a horde of such
companions—not that most human beings would have seen them. Sylphs and sprites hovered round her
in the air; gnomes clung to her saddle or perched on the back of the spare horse she was leading; undines
rose out of every stream and pool she passed to wave a friendly greeting. Her friends weren’t the only
odd thing about Jill. If you looked carefully at her silver hair, cropped short like a lad’s, and the fine lines
that webbed her eyes round and latticed her cheeks, you realized that she had to be at least fifty years
old if not somewhat more, but she radiated so much vitality, the way a fire gives off heat, that it was
impossible to think of her as anything but young. She was, you see, the most powerful sorcerer in all of
Deverry.

The first human settlement that any traveler corning from the west reached on the coast was the holy
precinct of Wmmglaedd, although in those days, before the silting of the river and the meddling of humans
had extended the shore, the temple lay a little ways out to sea on a low-lying cluster of islands. Jill rode
along the sea cliffs through meadows of tall grass to a rocky beach, where the waves washed over gravel
with a mutter, as if the sea were endlessly regretting some poor decision. A fair mile offshore, she could
see the rise of the main island against the glitter of the Southern Sea.

She led her pair of horses down to the two stone pillars that marked the entrance to a stone causeway,
still underwater at the moment, though when she looked at the water lapping at the carved notches along
the edge of one pillar, she found each wave falling a little lower than the one before. Crying and mewling,
seabirds swooped overhead, graceful gulls and the ungainly pelicans that were sacred to the god Wmm,
all come to feed as the dropping tide exposed the rocky shallows. At last the causeway emerged,
streaming water like a silver sea snake, to let her lead her horses across the uncertain footing. At the far
end of the causeway stood a stone arch inlaid with colored marble in panels of interlace and roundels
decorated with pelicans; it sported an inscription, too, “water covers and reveals all things.”

About ten miles long and seven wide, with a central hill standing in the midst of meadows of coarse sea
grass, the island sheltered four different temple complexes at that time, brochs as tall as a lord’s dun,
clusters of wooden guest houses, cattle barns and riding stables as well as a series of holy shrines placed
at picturesque locations. Although the temple had been founded in the year 690 as a modest refuge for
scholars and mystics, during the long civil wars of the ninth century its priests had the shrewdness and the
good fortune to play a crucial role in placing the true king on his throne. When the wars were over, their
fame drew an occasional desperate soul seeking an oracle, and as the long years went by, the rare case
became a swarm of pilgrims, all laden with gifts to earn the favor of the god.

Now Wmm was rich. Still leading her horses rather than riding, Jill left the causeway and followed a fine