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

The bastard did slaughter.
And the God led the Kindred
To the east, to the Water.

ЧFrom "Return of the Undying God"

"No!" Rik shouted hoarsely, his two fists clenched until the knuckles shone as white as his face. "No, no, I'll not go alone. They all are as guilty as I of Law-defilement! Every one of them has had the slave-bitch, too. Let the clan be banished! I'll not go alone!"

Where she sat on the dais, between Milo and Aldora, Mara rapidly mindspoke to her mate. "Why don't you just have the lying pig killed and end this business rapidly and permanently, darling?"

"I can't," his answer beamed back to her. "The Law forbids it. To slay a fellow of the kindred in cold blood is a crime worse than Rik's. Kindred may only be slain on their request or in defense from unprovoked attack. I hate to do what I now must, but..."

Aloud, Milo spoke slowly and solemnly. "Sobeit. Chiefs, you must assemble your warriors and all your free-women and all children older than eight winters at the second hour of the Sun tomorrow, that they may see and hear and remember."

Blind Hari came abruptly to his feet. "War Chief, may I be heard?"

Milo nodded and resumed his seat. "Kindred," began the bard, "from my earliest memory,. , have I heard of the bravery and honor of Clan Linsee. Though their valor has brought them honor and more honor over the hundreds of years, it has cost them dearly, for honor of clan and tribe has ere meant more to their warriors than limbs or life. These are good memories. They sing well and I have no wish to forget them."

The oldest chief, Djeri of Hahfmun, stood. "But Tribe-Bard, the Law is the Law. You yourself brought the charges and they haveЧafter much false-oathingЧbeen admitted true. The honor of a clan is carried by its chief and, if that chief be not only criminal but craven, the clan must suffer. None here deny that Clan Linsee has long possessed honor, but by the Law-defilement of all the warriors and the perjury of Chief Rik, all the centuries of honor are dissipated. If the chief will not go and bear the dishonor away with him, what is there to do but drive off the clan?"

Hari's reply was quick. "There is this, Chief Djeri: Rik is chief by birth, but, if his father were to declare him ill-got and not a true Linsee, his dishonor would be his alone and not of the clan."

Chief Rik had regained some of his arrogance. He laughed harshly. "You'll grow wings before then, old -Dung-face. My father is dead these seven years!"

"Chiefs," asked Hari, "who among us bears the clan-name sacred of prophecy? Who was affirmed 'Father of the Tribe' when we began this march nearly twenty winters past?"

Almost as one the council members murmured, "Milo, Milo of Moral, our War Chief, he is 'Father of the Tribe.'"

Hari nodded. "So as 'Father of the Tribe' is he supposed father of the man, Rik."

Milo recognized his cue. "Him called Rik, I declare ill-got! Such a one cannot be of Linsee or any other honorable clan, his attributes are got of dirt; he stinks of swine."

As Milo slowly pronounced the ritualistic words which declared Rik's bastardy, that man commenced to tremble and, when all was said, he screamed, "No, no, what you do is unnatural! I... I am my father's son!"

Milo shook his head. "I suppose you are, strange man, but none knows who your father might be, or what." He addressed the Linsee warriors. "Kindred, if aught is unnatural, it is that a clan should be without a chiefЧ especially, a clan so ancient and honorable as Linsee. Who is your oldest chief-born?"

Bard Vinz replied, "Hwahlis, brother to ... to Haenk, who is next oldest."

"Then, kindred," asked Milo, "can any Linsee say good reason why the clan should not have chief-born Hwahlis for the Linsee of Linsees?"

"But," shouted Rik ragingly, "he brought the Ehleenoee shoat in the first place, and te was first to use her, too!"

"Horseclansmen of true purity of blood," declared Milo shortly, "need not listen to the rantings of a perjured man-thing of doubtful lineage. If yonder dog-man yaps again, teach him respect for his betters."

Before the Council of Chiefs, Hwahlis was declared successor to his father, Haenk. The new chief paced the circuit of council, stopping before each chief who then rose to declare his recognition of Chief Hwahlis and to exchange with Hwahlis sword-oaths and blood-oaths of brotherhood. Meanwhile some of the Linsee clansmen threw Rik and stripped him of everything which bore the Linsee crest (and everything else"of value), so that, at the last, he was left barefoot, wearing his sole possessionsЧdrawers and a badly torn shirt.

The moment that Clan-Bard and Tribe-Bard had finished reciting his genealogy and the more spectacular exploits of his family and his clan, and he had been invested with the trappings and insigniae of his new rank, Hwahlis set about his duty as he saw it. Striding to the dais, he took Aldora's small ankle and removed the ownership cuff from it and dropped onto his knees before the wide-eyed Ehleen.

"Child," he said, meeting her eyes steadily, "I have caused you much to suffer and have allowed others to do the same. Your face and your body are good to look upon and we thought you woman, not child. So, being men, we behaved as men will. This is not excuse, only statement.