"Stephen Lawhead - Pendragon Cycle 05 - Grail" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lawhead Stephen)

'See, now,' said Hwyl, beginning to lose patience, 'this reluctance is
unseemly. We have asked kindly, and expect an answer. We mean you no
harm.'
'Please,' I said to Hwyl, 'I believe she is mute. She has not said a single
word since we found her.' Seeking merely to reassure her, I reached out
and touched her gently on the arm. 'May God have mercy on her soul, it is
a pity.'
However light, my touch produced an astonishing result. The young
woman pulled her arm away as if my fingertips had burned her flesh. She
held the arm stiff and close to her, staring wild-eyed as she backed away
from me, rubbing the place my hand had touched. She took three steps and
began trembling and shaking all over. Her eyes then rolled up into her
head, showing nothing but white. Meanwhile, her mouth framed a scream,
but no sound emerged. She then collapsed, falling to the ground, where
she began thrashing and rolling, as if in unbearable agony.
I was beside her in two steps. 'Bring water!' I shouted, kneeling over her.
'Hurry!'
Hwyl sent the gateman scrambling away for water. I called to Peredur and
Tallaght, 'It is the heat. We must get her out of the sun.'
'Bring her into the hall,' suggested Hwyl, going before me.
By the time the two warriors had dismounted, I was already striding for
the entrance. It took all my strength to hold her, for the tremors threatened
to throw us down at every step. I could feel the muscles of her back and
arms, stiff and tight as iron bands. Somehow, I reached the doorway and
stumbled in.
Owing to the high roof and lack of windholes, the hall was dimly dark and
much cooler. Along one side of the great room was a series of wicker
partitions separating a number of sleeping places. I carried the stricken
young woman to the first of these and lay her down on the straw pallet,
and then stood helplessly watching the convulsions coursing through her
body.
Two women from the settlement entered and rushed to the young woman's
side. One of the women carried a water jar, and the other some rags.
Kneeling down in the straw, the first cradled the young woman's head in
her lap while the other wet the cloth and began applying it gently to her
forehead. This produced a soothing effect and, in a moment, it appeared
the more violent of her spasms had passed; the girl closed her eyes and lay
back, still trembling and shaking somewhat, but quieter.
'Go about your affairs,' said the woman with the water jar. 'We will look
after her and bring word of any change.'
I thanked her kindly and, leaving the young woman to the elder women's
care, summoned Tallaght and charged him to tend the horses. But Hwyl
interposed, saying, 'Please, have no care for the beasts. Get will see your
mounts watered and rested. Join me at table. We will share a cup instead.'
Thus we settled with Hwyl at the far end of the hall where a table stood
beside a long hearth next to a large chair made of oak and covered with
the hides of three or four red stags. A young boy appeared as soon as we
sat down; he carried a bowl of ale, which he placed on the table. He
looked to the chieftain for approval and, receiving it in the nod of his
elder, turned and ran away.