"Mercedes Lackey - Owl Mage 2 - Owlsight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

gave out tempers, they gave me all of the thorns and her all the rose petals. “You’re right, of
course, I would be annoyed.” She rinsed her hands in lemon-balm water to remove the vinegar smell and
any lingering trace of wormwood - poison, if ingested - and dried them on a clean rag. “And I should
have remembered about the red. How many of the girls have you promised embroidery thread to?”
“Only three - Hydee, Jenna, and Sari. I wouldn’t trust the rest with red. They’d be sure to do
something tasteless with it.” Shandi’s bright brown eyes glowed with suppressed laughter. “Ugh! Can’t
you imagine it? Roses the size of cabbages all around the hems of their skirts!”
“Or worse,” Keisha said dryly. “Roses the size of cabbages over each breast. Lallis is not exactly
subtle.” And she’s always looking for a way to bring attention to her “assets.” Not that anyone
needs help in seeing them. You could hide half the village in that cleavage, and a quarter of the
village would be oh-so-happy to stay there! “I’m all done for now, let’s go before someone decides
they have a bellyache and comes looking for a posset.”
Side by side, Keisha and her sister strolled down a neat, stone-edged path between the houses,
heading toward the village square. Once a week, the village of Errold’s Grove held a market day, and
those from outside the village and no particular interest in seeking further - and possibly more lucrative -
venues took full advantage of it. For some people, it simply wasn’t worth the effort to travel long
distances just to make more money from their goods; they’d rather that other folk did the traveling and
took the extra profit. As had been the case in the past, there were plenty of traders willing to do just that,
so the weekly market was usually visited by at least one far traveler from spring to early winter. And
three of the quarterly Faires - Spring Equinox, Midsummer, and Harvest - brought traders in their
dozens.
Errold’s Grove was more prosperous now than it had been in its earlier heyday, with dozens of
trappers and dye-hunters working the forest and hills. None of them was actually from Errold’s Grove;
the villagers were still far too wary of the forest to be tempted by the possibility of profit hidden in its
depths. But the Hawkbrothers were here now, and to some people, their presence meant increased
safety or, at least, a smaller likelihood of being eaten by misshapen monsters. So the dye-hunters and all
the people who supported and profited by them were back, as well as a new class of folk who actually
specialized in trapping the strange new creatures created by the Change-Circles. The population of
Errold’s Grove had swelled to half again more than the village had ever held before.
They even had their own temple and priest, so now the children of the village got proper lessons
in the winter, instead of being home-schooled or taught by one of the old women. For most of the
children, that was a mixed blessing, as the priest took his duty seriously and wasn’t as easily distracted as
a mother or as prone to doze off as an old granny.
They still didn’t have a fully trained “official” Healer, though, and Keisha served in place of one,
wearing her ordinary clothing rather than even the pale-green robes of a Trainee. Healers were in short
supply still, and so far, there hadn’t been a real need to have one posted to Errold’s Grove. Lord Breon
had a Healer, and according to Healer’s Collegium, he could take care of anything here that Keisha
couldn’t.
Though never selected for her Gift by a fully trained Healer in the approved and official manner,
Keisha had begun showing her talents at the age of five, by taking care of the ills of the stock on the farm,
then moving on to patching up the childhood hurts and illnesses of her brothers and sisters. It got to the
point where they came to her instead of their mother, since Keisha’s remedies were far more likely to set
things right and taste better than their mother’s book of recipes from her granny.
Things might never have gone any further, but fear of the Changebeasts and longing for other
human company together drove Keisha’s parents to resettle in the village. That had happened a few
months after the barbarian invasion when one family decided they’d had enough of Errold’s Grove and a
house fortuitously fell vacant. Not long after that, once she widened her circle of “patching up” to the rest
of the children and their pets, the villagers discovered Keisha’s talent, and a concerted effort began to
turn their new citizen into a fully educated, fully stocked, fully prepared Healer.
As she and her sister passed the home that had drawn them here - now silent, with the rest of the