"Andre Norton - Moon Singer 05 - Brother To Shadows" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)LasStir, Left Hand of the Master, took another step forward. He did not look at his dead fellow. "It is permitted?" His voice, rendered harsh by an old throat wound, outrode the wind. "It is permitted--the issha holds." With the same dexterity of weapons LasStir joined his colieutenant in death. The Shagga descended the last two steps, making no effort to draw back the hem of his robe from the spreading pools of blood coming to join as one. Ten more made up that assembly left below, younger men, some near boys. Their short cloaks were black, the sign of those who had not made at least ten forays for the honor of the Lair. One in that line dared to speak to the Shagga. "It is permitted?" His voice was a little too high, too shrill. "It is not permitted!" The priest silenced him. "A Lair dies when its heart is no longer fed by the will of its Master. The unblooded and half-sworn do not take up the issha. "Rather you shall serve in other Lairs still as is demanded of you. Ho-Le-Far has ceased to be." He made the Descent-of-Darkest-Night wave with his left hand--so setting an end to all which had existed here, erasing a long and valiant history. "Here no longer is there a Post of Shadows." terror, and it was an evil fate to be caught in it. The Shagga moved along the line slowly, stopping to eye each one, and to address that one alone: "HasGan and CarFur," he singled out the first two on the left. "Draw supplies and weapons, go to the Lair of Tig-Nor-Tu. DisNov and YasWar, you will do likewise, but go over mountain to Ou-Quar-Nin." So it went until the priest reached the last in that line. He had to look up to meet eye to eye with the waiting novice and now that it was fully light it was plain to see the sparks of malice in his sunken eyes, the vicious twist of his lips as he shaped words which he had long savored and held ready for this moment. "Outlander--misborn--no-blood-- Out with you to where you will--you are not of the Oath and by the Will of TransGar you never shall be. You are an abomination, a stain. No doubt the Master's force death has come through you. You will take no weapons--for those are of the Brotherhood, and henceforth you will go your own way!" The hooded listener refused the Shagga the satisfaction of seeing how deep that thrust went. He had long known that the priest hated him, looked upon his being there as a blot on the honor of the Lair. Since the force stone had started to fail he had foreseen this and tried to plan beyond it. But so much of his life was tied here that it was hard to break the bonds of discipline, to think of himself as moving without orders on a wayward path which had no real goal. Within the Lair only the Master had ever shown him any concern. He had been told why only three moon |
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