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

considered the bundles for a moment, then picked one up and handed it to
Niffa. This be for you. Set it at the head of your bed.'
The bundle contained what at first glance seemed to be an ordinary pottery
bowl. Wben Niffa took it, she could see that in truth it was a pair of bowls,
the outer stuck to the inner with more pitch. A thin black line of squiggly
decoration covered the inner bowl, starting at the middle of the flat bottom,
then winding in a tight spiral out to the rim.
'It does confuse the spirits,' Werda said. That line of writing be a spell,
and their curiosity does drive them into the bowl to read it, and then they
slip between the bowls and cannot find their way out again. Once every some
days Athra will fetch the trap away and leave another, that we may deal with
the spirits in it once and for all.'
'My thanks,' Niffa said, stammering a little. 'I do ken that I need such.'
'Indeed?' Werda looked at her with a twist to her mouth. 'It gladdens my heart
that you do.'
When the sun hung at the peak of the sky, Verrarc went to the stone council
house, which stood on the north side of Citadel's plaza. In front of it rose a
line of stone columns, a reminder of the trees that had surrounded the meeting
places of the Ancestors, back before any of the Rhiddaer folk lived in cities.
With him Verrarc carried a lit candle in a tin lantern, though the day was
bright through thin clouds. At the door he paused to examine the wardings
painted on its white-washed surface. Against the fresh white-wash the thick
black lines of Werda's pitch and lampblack concoction stood out sharp and
shiny. She had painted a design of two spiral mazes, one above the other, both
amazingly intricate, to fascinate the spirits and keep them outside.
When Verrarc went inside, he closed the door carefully behind him. The stone
room, with its high ceiling and rank of windows covered only by wooden
shutters, was as cold as the open plaza. Earlier, Harl had on his orders laid
a fire in the hearth and arranged the council's round table and chairs in
front of it. Verrarc knelt down and used his candle to get the tinder started.
A few quick breaths and the kindling caught as well, but Verrarc kept his
cloak wrapped around him. The fire would do little but take off the chill.
Chief Speaker Admi joined him in but a few moments, still wheezing from his
climb up the steep path to the plaza. He waddled across the room and stood in
front of the crackling fire.
'Good morrow,' Verrarc said.
Admi nodded and fumbled inside his cloak for a rag to mop his face. When
Verrarc pulled out a chair, Admi sank into it with a little nod of thanks in
his direction. Verrarc took a chair next to his.
'Ah, there, my breath returns,' Admi said finally. 'Which does remind me. How
fares your poor woman?'
'Better, my thanks.' Verrarc shuddered as the memory rose of Raena's dead
gaze. 'Gwira did fear that fever would set in, but Raena, she's been naught
but sleepy. This sort of possession, Gwira did tell me, exhausts the poor soul
who suffers it.'
'No doubt.' Admi's fingers twitched in the warding sign. 'It gladdens my heart
that she came to no harm.'
'My thanks. I do appreciate your nicety of feeling.'
"Welcome, I'm sure.'
'If only -' Verrarc hesitated, but Admi's eyes were ail sympathy. 'If only my