"Anderson, Poul - Queen Of Air & Darkness" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anderson Poul)

the mound. "Ohoi, Ayoch!" he called. "Me here,: Mistherd!"

"And Shadow-of-a-Dream," the girl laughed, following.

The pook halted. He breathed louder than the soughing in the growth
around him. A smell of bruised yerba lifted where he

stood.

"Well met in winterbirth," he whistled. "You can help me bring this to
Carheddin."

He held out what he bore. His eyes were yellow lanterns above. It moved
arid whimpered.

"Why, a child," Mistherd said.
"Even as you were, my son, even as you were. Ho, ho, what a snatchl"
Ayoch boasted. "They were a score in yon camp by Fallowwood, armed, and
besides watcher engines they had big ugly dogs aprowl while they slept. I
came from above, however, having spied on them till I knew that a handful
of dazedust "

"The poor thing." Shadow-of-a-Dream took the boy and held him to her
small breasts. "So full of sleep yet, aren't you?" Blindly, he sought a
nipple.
She smiled through the veil of her-hair. "No, I am still too young, and you
already too old. But come, when you wake in Carheddin under the mountain,
you shall feast."

"Yo-ah; " said Ayoch very softly. "She is abroad and has heard

and seen. She comes." He crouched down, wings folded. After a
moment Mistherd knelt, and then Shadow-of-a-Dream, though
she did not let go the child.

The Queen's tall form blocked off the moons. For a while she regarded the
three and their booty. Hill and moor sounds withdrew from their awareness
until it seemed they could hear the northlights hiss.

At last Ayoch whispered, "Have I done well, Starmother?"

"If you stole a babe from a camp full of engines," said the beautiful voice,
"then they were folk out of the far south who may not endure it as meekly
as yeomen."

"But what can they do, Snowmaker?" the pook asked. "How can they track
us?"

Mistherd lifted his head and spoke in pride. "Also, now they too have felt
the awe of us."