"Adams, Robert - Horseclans 01 - The Coming of the Horseclans" - читать интересную книгу автора (Adams Robert)

Hari touched the shaggy head, then placed his palms on either side of it. "No, Old-Cat, I am but a man, though an exceedingly old one. By men who have not the Power, the Undying God is called Milo Morai, he is our . . ."

"War Chief." The cat finished the thought. "Yes, I fought beside him and your Cat Clan yesterday. We slew many Blackhairs, he and I and the Blackhair-female-who-mindspeaks."

Hari nodded. "She, too, is of the Race of the Undying Gods; and now She is mated to our God. Nought but good for all the clans can come of such a union."

Raising the old cat's head and bending to it, Hari placed his lips just above its eyes. After a long long moment, he sat back and stroked Old-Cat's grizzled neck.

"Never fear, Brother-Cat, you will live to revenge your murdered clan. More, you will beget kittens and, when they are as old as you, still will they be filled with pride that their sireЧa Cat Chief, of fame and honored memory Чbore the name of Dirktooth."

Though barely eleven years, Aldora Ahpoolios' little olive-skinned body was as well developed as that of any Horseclan girl half again her age, and this had saved her life on that terrible day Theesispolis had fallen. Huddled with the other women and girls and boys in the south wing of the citadel, she had watched in horror as the methodical mercenaries coldly cut down her fatherЧ grown so stout that he'd been unable to buckle his hauberk properlyЧand her uncle and both her brothers. Then rough hands had torn her, screaming, from Aunt SalenaЧ her dead mother's older sisterЧand she had become the property of Djoh-Sahl, he of the brown beard and the rotten teeth who, when she had told him her age, had wept drunken tears and humbly apologized for having deflowered her; then had traded her for an older woman to a trio of less discriminating soldiers. Aldora could not call to mind one of the men's names; as for their faces and bodies, they all ran together into a one who had brought only a dayless, nightless time of constant pain, shame, and terror. When, at the end of the week, she was dragged to the slave mart, stripped and placed for sale, the girl had been certain that the worst must now be over, but she had been wrong.

Her nomad purchaserЧHwahlis Linsee, a natural brother of the Chief of LinseeЧwas not a cruel man, and he treated Aldora as he treated his other two concubinesЧ possibly even a little better, for she was new and novel and as dark as the others were fair. Hwahlis had chosen his wives well and the two women saw to it that the work was equally divided amongst Aldora and the two older bondswomen, one of whom was a girl called Neekohl. Of brown-red hair and blue eyes, she spoke the trade language with an odd accent and sang strange songs in an unknown tongue and had been taken on a raid in the distant north. The other was a more recent captive, a blond, mountain barbarian named Bertee. Among three, the work was neither long nor hard. Though the food was strange to Aldora, it was plentiful; all shared the contents of a common pot, morning and evening, and if one hungered at other times, milk or curds or jerked meat was always available. The clothing too was strange and rough, but practical and serviceableЧa loose shirt which pulled over the head and tucked into a pair of equally loose trousers, tightened by a drawstring, and a pair of ankle-length boots. Aside from the iron cuff on her leg, her alien hair and skin were all that indicated her not to be of the Horseclans.

As Hwahlis took good care of his possessions, he expected good service of them. Still in his prime and lusty, he waited but precious few hours to begin making use of his latest possessionЧlong and strenuous and frequent use. She cried, but that was to be expected, cjaptive females always cried the first few times they were used. Also, the chit seemed to be trying to tell him something, but he spoke no Ehleeneekos and her command of trade language was almost non-existent, so he ignored her; when she learned Merikan, she'd tell him whatever it was. Despite his fascination, Hwahlis lived by clan customs and had never been accused of tight-fistedness. He willingly shared his latest acquisition with his two oldest sons, his brothers, nephews, and cousins. None could say he had been denied the sampling of Hwahlis' new Ehleenoee girl!

Aldora tried once to kill herself; but apparently she failed to cut her wrist deeply deeply enough, for the blood soon ceased to flow, and she couldn't bring herself to try again. Then, with the onset of her time of the moon, she gained a brief respite.

Several hours after Old-Cat left Hari Kruguh, he lay hidden in tall grass, some hundred yards from the outermost tents of the encampment. Tired of playing with kittens and cubs not his own, he had loped to this spot to snooze. Beyond, at the foot of a hillock, a small brook chuckled over worn stones between mossy banks; and, under the near bank, he sensed life as he awoke. Hoping to perhaps cozen some unwary wild creature within reach of tooth or claw, he opened his_mind.

The unexpected shock caused him to sit up sharply. An inchoate mass of thought-messages smote his receptive sensesЧa compound of sorrow, fear, shame, and helpless resignation; of hopeless terror and abysmal loneliness. These would have been terrible enough for an adult mind, but Old-Cat realized that the sufferer's mind was that of a cub, a female, two-leg cub.

Chapter 11

Worship Wind and Sun and you need no priests; And heed well the Law or become as beasts.

ЧFrom "The Couplets of the Law"

\ldora had come to the stream to wash the pouch vhich one of her master's wives had given her the week before and to change its stuffing of the dry moss that had received her body's discharges. But today, she had found it unnecessary, yesterday's moss being still almost fresh, She knew what that meant, had indeed been dreading it and terror consumed her. Sobbing, death-wishing herself, she was stretched, trembling on the cool moss, when first she heard the firm and gentle voice. At first, it seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere and something about it was as wonderfully soothing as had been her old slave-nurse's, when, as a much younger child, she had awak-ened from a bad dream. No reassurance was needed; Aldora knew that the strange speaker meant her no harm.

"Why do you fear and mourn, little kitten?"

Aldora raised her tear-streaked face and answered aloud in halting Merikan. "You are who? You are where?'"

She could sense the tender smile. "No, little female, mouthspeak is wasteful of Wind and only necessary with your two-leg kindred. Open your thoughts to me, my dear."

"M ... m ... my thoughts?" stuttered Aldora. "I . ., please master . .. how? ... don't know."

"It will be easier if I touch your head. Wait there; I will come down to you."

Old-Cat heaved himself up and paced to the edge of the narrow valley. As he started down the shady bank in her direction, the girl didn't scream, she'simply fainted.

When Aldora awakened, the sun was westering and Old-Cat was licking her face with a tongue wide enough to cover it. But she no longer feared him or any cat, and wondered why ever she had. She no longer feared anyone, in fact. Here, close to Old-Cat, was safety and comfort and ... and peace.

Then, suddenly, she was not safe. The comfort was shattered, the peace fled. The Linsee men would come for her again tonight, and . . . and . . . Aldora whimpered.

The voice called yet another time. "Aaallldorraaa!" If was Beti, Hwahlis Linsee's second wife, and she sounded almost to the top of the bank.

"Aalldorraa, are you down there, girl?"