"Andre Norton - Witch World - The Turning 05 - Ciara's Song" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

this day, it fosters new wisdom as well, spreading over the land a web of
such stories as will make clear to the survivors of a past in which many
went armed how well their kindred bore those weapons and to what end.

So, from out of their safekeeping at Lormt, different ages of the Witch
World come to life again. In this way, those newborn can learn what
passed before: actions of not only potent sorcerers and great lords and
ladies but of folk like themselves, meant to live untroubled lives but
prevented by fate from so doing.

One such tale, humble in origin only, is that of Ciara, who had to make
her life anew under the very shadow of the Dark.



BOOK ONE
Thrice-Horned to Death and
Destruction
1
Ciara was playing in her secret cave in the cliff when the rider came.
She recognized him at once. It was her brother Larian come back from
distant Kars. He was studying as apprentice merchant with an old friend
of her father's. But why was he home? She scrambled down from her cave
to where she could swing across from one tall elm to another. From there
she could reach her bedroom window at the back of the garth. She
clattered down the stairs calling, "Larian, Larian, Mother! Larian's home!"

Her parents popped out of the cook room, both looking startled. "It
can't be." Her mother sounded worried. "He isn't due home again until
Year End."

Her father was practical. "Well, my love, we'd better go and see." But
before they could move toward the front of the garth, Larian came striding
through to meet them. His face was white with exhaustion under the
brown, and his eyes haunted. He wasted no words.

"Yvian's gone mad. He's ordered the three-times Horning for all of the
Old Blood. I took Falco's relay and came by the mountain paths. The
guards will be right behind me. Half of them were fanning out south as I
slipped away. They're slaughtering any who even look as if they might be
of our kind."

Ciara's mother stared up, and in a voice that the child did not recognize
she spoke softly. "They took Falco at the very gates of the city. Merryon
died fighting before they burned the house about his family. Even now the
death-bringers circle the valley. For only one of us is there an escape."

Talyo stared at his wife. "Do you see true, beloved?"

"I see true. We have less than a candlemark. They are too close for us to