"Jo Walton - Kings Peace 03 - The Prize in the Game" - читать интересную книгу автора (Walton Jo)

The poem at the end of section 7 was first published in my collection Muses and Lurkers, Rune Press, 2001.
I have been a prize in a game I have been a queen on a hill From far and far they flocked to see me.
White am I, among the shadows,
My shoulder is noted for its fairness
The two best men in all the world have loved me.
My crown is of apple, bough and blossom. They wear my favor but my arms are empty. The boat drifts
heedless down the dark stream.


1
TAKING UP ARMS


1
(CONAL)
"My parents are always fighting," Elenn said. Conal looked at her. She really was a distractingly beautiful girl.
He had thought so even when she had first arrived in the king's hall, wet and bedraggled, with her huge-eyed
little sister standing beside her.
Here in the sunny orchard with the blossoms around her she was the loveliest thing he had ever seen. His
father, the poet Amagien, had already written about her looks in extravagant terms. But it was very hard to
look at her and deny that her hair was reminiscent of black night or her eyes of stars. She looked like Nive
herself come down to walk among men for a season. It was a pity she didn't have wit to match her looks. All
she seemed to care about was having everyone adore her. This was the first time she had said something
that wasn't directly about her, and even this wasn't far away. "Always?" he asked.
"All the time," she confirmed, smiling a little as if she could see something Conal couldn't.
"What about?" he asked, mildly interested despite himself. He knew she was walking with him only because
Ferdia and Darag couldn't be found and she didn't want to walk alone.
"Everything," she said. "Anything at all. What weapons the three of us should be taught. What color my
sister should wear for the Feast of Bel. What crops the farmers should plant and in which fields. Whether the
hall needs new rushes yet. If we are to go to war with Muin this summer. If my brother should marry Atha ap
Gren. Who is the father of the white cat's kittens."
Conal swallowed hard. He was glad they were alone. He knew that if anyone were to catch his eye at that
moment, even Darag, he wouldn't be able to keep himself from laughing aloud. Elenn looked as serious and
as beautiful as ever. In the month she had been at Ardmachan she had already reproached him for laughing
at her at least a dozen times. "Some of those matters are of great import, and others are very trivial," he said
as calmly as possible.
"I know," Elenn said composedly. "Sometimes they will fight about whether this is the way a king should
behave."
"My uncle Conary would say that it is not," Conal said definitely. He had heard Conary's lectures on kingship
often enough. They were always made to all the royal kin, though it was Darag he always looked at, and
Darag whose questions were answered first.
"My parents have very different ideas about kingship from King Con-ary," Elenn said, looking up at him under
her lashes in a way he would have found enchanting if he could have believed for a minute that she liked him.
"Which of your parents is the king of Connat anyway?" he asked, realizing that he did not know for sure. "I
think I have always heard them mentioned together."
"Both of them are of the royal kin," Elenn said. "My mother, Maga, is the daughter of the last king, Arcon. My
father, Allel, is her cousin. When the kindred came to choose, many of them wanted Maga, for her wisdom,
and others Allel, who was reknown as a warleader when he was young. So it was agreed that they should
marry and give each other the benefit of their skills."
"And they've been arguing ever since?" Conal asked.