"Katherine Kerr - Deverry 10 - The Black Raven" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kerr Katherine)

coy? How would Ebany put it? He's demented, lunatic, deranged, insane -' Tears
overwhelmed her.
Marka was aware of Keeta getting up, then kneeling again next to her. She
turned into her friend's embrace and sobbed. Keeta stroked her hair with a
huge hand.
"There, there, little one. We'll find a way to heal your husband yet. We'll be
playing in Myleton next. They have physicians and priests and the gods only
know who else, and one of them will know what to do.'
'Do you think so?' Marka raised a tear-stained face. 'Do you really think so?'
'I have to. And so do you.'
'I' I - tears stopped. Marka sat back on her heels and wiped her face on the
sleeve of her tunic. A sudden thought turned her cold.
'Wait - where is Ebany?' Marka scrambled to her feet. 'Here we are, on the
coast, with the cliffs -'
'I'll stay here with the child.'
Marka ducked out of the tent, then stood blinking for a moment in the bright
sunlight. Around her the camp spread out, a grand thing of white tents and
painted wagons, the biggest travelling show that Bardek had ever seen. At the
moment, however, the camp seemed curiously empty. Most of the performers had
retired to their tents to sleep away the noon heat. Since she could see none
of their animals, some of the men must have led them to the water trough by
the public fountain, hidden from her sight by trees. Nowhere did Marka find
Ebany, but in the far view, at the edge of the caravanserai, between the palms
and the plane trees, she could see the cliffs and distantly hear the sea,
pounding on rocks below.
Marka trotted off, panting a little for breath in the hot sun. All those
pregnancies had buried the slender girl acrobat somewhere deep inside a
thick-waisted matron who had to bind up her heavy breasts for comfort's sake.
At those moments when she had the leisure to remember her younger self, Marka
hated what she had become. Especially when she looked at her husband - as she
hurried along the cliffs, she saw him at last, strolling along and singing to
himself a good safe distance back from the edge. Her relief mingled with
anger, that he could still look so young and so handsome, with his pale blond
hair and his pale grey eyes, his pinkish-white skin just glazed with tan and
as smooth as a young lad's. When he saw her, he smiled and waved.
'There you are, my love,' he called out. 'Do you have need of me for
something?'
'Oh, I was just wondering where you were.'
'Enjoying this glorious day under the dome of the sky. The sea's full of
spirits, and so is the wind, and they're all enjoying it with me.'
'Ah. I see.'
Not of course that she did see the spirits teeming. He often spoke of spirits,
as well as demons, portents, and visions, all of them invisible to everyone
else. Still, she had to agree about the glory of this particular day, with the
sea a winter-dark blue, scoured into white caps by the fresh wind.
'I've been thinking about the show,' Ebany said. 'I want to add something new
to my displays, in the parts with the colourecHights. I'm just not sure what
yet.'
'It'll come to you. I have faith.'
'Well, so do I.'