"Kathryn Sullivan - Oracle of Cilens" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sullivan Kathryn)

Oracle of Cilens
by Kathryn Sullivan

Ms. Sullivan is a university librarian and lives in Minnesota, where she is owned by two birds. She has been
published in the print zines Fury and Minnesota Fantasy Review.

The haruspex was awaiting the word of the gods when a mule-drawn cart stopped with a
clatter beside the merchant ship. The pretty, black-haired matron within signaled her driver
to wait, her dark eyes watching the ritual. The Umbrian slave spared the seer only a brief
glance. "Etruscan fakery," he muttered disgustedly in his own tongue.

Ramtha Partunu ignored his comment, her attention on the high conical hat and brightly
colored cloak of the skyreader. The haruspex had stationed himself in the middle of the
afterdeck, facing southward as he watched the clear blue sky. South was where the gods of
nature and earth dwelled, west and north were the abodes of the gods of death and the
underworld, and east the home of the celestial gods, the most powerful of the three forces.
Ramtha scanned the sky, but saw no omen for the haruspex to interpret. Skyreading was
time-consuming, but Arnth preferred that form of divination to reading the livers of animals.

Ramtha finally located her husband beside the lean figure of the captain and stifled a sigh.
Where had he found that old tebenna? Cloaks aplenty he had with his status to maintain as
master trader, but he had to wear that stained one in the presence of the seer. People would
next be saying that Arnth Visnai was disdainful of the gods. She had heard rumors already
of the growing belief among the traders that Arnth's recent wealth was due not to his skill as
the master of four ships but the fact that he had married a witch. His witch wife adjusted the
wool mantle draped over her shoulder and stepped down out of the two-wheeled cart.

She walked slowly up and down the dock, occasionally touching the rough timbers of the
ship as she attempted her own form of divination. So intent was she on summoning the
Partunu gift that she did not notice her husband leave the ship and steal softly up behind
her.

Arnth tugged gently on a curl that had escaped from her long elaborate braid. "What brings
you here, child? You of all people need no instruction from the high hats."
She glanced up at the patient haruspex, but did not smile at their private joke. "I had a
foreboding feeling today."
Arnth tensed. "About what? Ramtha, did the goddess send you a warning?"

She shook her head, uneasy at his concern. "You know that I cannot see my own future."
"Your father and his father could."

"Only of the day of their deaths." She wished her own gift was so limited. Why had Cilens
taken her blessing to the Partunu--that of knowing the hour of their deaths--away from
Ramtha, of all her family, and given her instead the ability to see the fate of others?
Ramtha looked away from the sympathy in her husband's eyes. Why was he always
pretending that he cared about her? She knew he did not. He loved That Woman, not
Ramtha his wife. And to think that she had once believed he could love a girl twelve years
his junior. Three years of marriage had proven her wrong.
She looked up and found him still watching her. "No vision brought me today. I merely
thought your captains might begin to wonder why you always bring them to me before a