"Ursula K. LeGuin - Earthsea 5 - The Other Wind" - читать интересную книгу автора (Le Guin Ursula K)

"They're ripe," he said, "though they'll be even better tomorrow." He held out his
handful of little yellow plums.
"Lord Sparrowhawk," the stranger said huskily. "Arch-mage."
The old man gave a curt nod of acknowledgment. "Come into the shade," he said.
The stranger followed him, and did what he was told: he sat down on a wooden bench
in the shade of the gnarled tree nearest the house; he accepted the plums, now rinsed
and served in a wicker basket; he ate one, then another, then a third. Questioned, he
admitted that he had eaten nothing that day. He sat while the master of the house went
into it, coming out presently with bread and cheese and half an onion. The guest ate the
bread and cheese and onion and drank the cup of cold water his host brought him. The
host ate plums to keep him company.
"You look tired. How far have you come?"
"From Roke."
The old man's expression was hard to read. He said only, "I wouldn't have guessed
that."
"I'm from Taon, lord. I went from Taon to Roke. And there the Lord Patterner told me
I should come here. To you."
"Why?"
It was a formidable gaze.
"Because you walked across the dark land living…" The stranger's husky voice died
away.
The old man picked up the words: "And came to the far shores of the day. Yes. But
that was spoken in prophecy of the coming of our King, Lebannen."
"You were with him, lord."

file:///F|/rah/Ursula%20LeGuin/LeGuin,%20Ursu...sea%2005%20-%20The%20Other%20Wind%20[v1].html (4 of 126) [7/17/03 11:34:21 PM]
Le Guin, Ursula - [Earthsea 05] The Other Wind


"I was. And he gained his kingdom there. But I left mine there. So don't call me by any
title. Hawk, or Sparrowhawk, as you please. And how shall I call you?"
The man murmured his use-name: "Alder."
Food and drink and shade and sitting down had clearly eased him, but he still looked
exhausted. He had a weary sadness in him; his face was full of it.
The old man had spoken to him with a hard edge in his voice, but that was gone when
he said, "Let's put off talking for a bit. You've sailed near a thousand miles and walked
fifteen uphill. And I've got to water the beans and the lettuce id all, since my wife and
daughter left the garden in my charge. So rest a while. We can talk in the cool of the
evening. Or the cool of the morning. There's seldom as much hurry as I used to think
there was."
When he came back by half an hour later his guest was flat on his back asleep in the
cool grass under the peach trees.
The man who had been Archmage of Earthsea stopped with a bucket in one hand and a
hoe in the other and looked down at the sleeping stranger.
"Alder," he said under his breath. "What's the trouble you bring with you, Alder?"
It seemed to him that if he wanted to know the man's true name he would know it only
by thinking, by putting his mind to it, as he might have done when he was a mage.
But he did not know it, and thinking would not give it to him, and he was not a mage.
He knew nothing about this Alder and must wait to be told. "Never trouble trouble," he
told himself, and went on to water the beans.