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

'Here, lass.' Lael made his voice gentle. 'Grief does put strange fancies in
our minds. We all ken how well you loved your Demet. To lose him with not even
a soul to blame - well, now.'
Niffa felt tears burn her eyes. She tried to wipe them away, but they spilled
over and ran. Kiel flung one arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.
'Hush, hush!' he said. 'Even if Raena did hang in the market square, would it
bring our Demet back? Here, here, little sister! It aches my heart to see you
so sad.'
Slowly the tears stopped. Niffa wiped her face on her sleeve and grabbed a
twist of straw from the floor to blow her nose. She tossed the twist into the
fire and watched it flare. May Raena burn with shame just as the straw burns!
She looked up to find Lael watching her, one eyebrow raised, as if he knew she
worked a wishing charm.
'I do wonder one thing,' Dera said. 'What does Werda think of all this talk of
spirits?'
'I know not,' Kiel said. 'A fair bit, I should think.'
Later that same day Niffa learned Werda's opinions on the matter. Lael and
Niffa were sitting by their fire, while Dera lay tucked up in the big bed
across the room to rest. Kiel had already gone to sleep in the other room,
since he would be standing watch on the town walls again that night. At the
door someone knocked in a loud quick drumming. Niffa ran to open it and found
Werda, followed by her apprentice. She was a tall woman, Werda, and lean as
well, all long bones and sharp angles, muffled up that morning in her white
ceremonial cloak. Athra, her apprentice, wore an ordinary grey cloak, splashed
here and there with whitewash, doubtless from the large bucket of the stuff
that she was carrying. Athra's face gleamed with ointment, thick smears of
lard flecked with some sort of herb from the smell of it. Blonde and round,
Athra had the sort of rosy skin that chaps from a wrong look.
'Come in quick,' Niffa said. 'Do take of the warmth of our fire.'
'My thanks,' Werda said. 'It be powerful cold still.'
All three of them trooped in. Athra set herself and her bucket down by the
fire, but Lael insisted that Werda take their only chair. She sat and for a
moment busied herself with untying the hood of her cloak and pulling it back.
'How do you all fare?' Werda said finally.
'We all be well at long last,' Lael said, glancing Dera's way. 'Thanks to the
gods and to Gwira's herbs.'
Werda nodded unsmiling. For a moment the silence held as she sat looking back
and forth twixt Lael and Niffa.
'There be no use in polite chatter,' Werda said finally. 'I did come to see
you, young Niffa. No doubt you've heard of the evil spirit loose in town?'
'I have,' Niffa said. 'They say it did kill my Demet.'
'Is it that you believe this?'
Niffa hesitated, gauging the black look on her father's face. She was aware of
Athra watching her from one side and Werda from the other.
'I know not if I believe or disbelieve,' Niffa said. Think you it be the
case?'
'I do. I did see that woman of the councilman's with my own eyes, and I talked
a long time with Gwira and Korla about her faint. Truly, naught else could
have caused her trouble but spirit possession. And then I did walk about the
councilman's house and compound, and there be spirits there, sure enough. I