"Ursula K. Le Guin - Ekumen 02 - Planet of Exile" - читать интересную книгу автора (Le Guin Ursula K)

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CHAPTER ONE: A Handful of Darkness



PLANET OF EXILE



Copyright ©, 1966, by Ursula K. LeGuin



An Ace Book. All Rights Reserved.



First Ace printing: October, 1966



Second Ace printing: May, 1971



Third Ace printing: March, 1973



Printed in U.S.A.



IN THE LAST DAYS of the last moonphase of Autumn a wind blew from the northern ranges through the dying forests of Askatevar, a cold wind that smelled of smoke and snow. Slight and shadowy as a wild animal in her light furs, the girl Rolery slipped through the woods, through the storming of dead leaves, away from the walls that stone by stone were rising on the hillside of Tevar and from the busy fields of the last harvest. She went alone and no one called after her. She followed a faint path that led west, scored and rescored in grooves by the passing southward of the footroots, choked in places by fallen trunks or huge drifts of leaves.



Where the path forked at the foot of the Border Ridge she went on straight, but before she had gone ten steps she turned back quickly towards a pulsing rustle that approached from behind.