"Bujold, Lois McMaster - Chalion 3 - The Hallowed Hunt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bujold Lois McMaster)

The flare of her nostril expressed her dim opinion of that quip. УWell, so. We made the rite together. But the god would not take His demon back!Ф
УDarthaca,Ф confirmed Ingrey glumly. УI believe I once met the same fellow. Remarkably useless.Ф
УIndeed?Ф Her gaze grew sharp again. УWell. Since I was saddled with the creature, I needed to learn how to ride if I was not to be ridden, so I apprenticed myself all over again to the fifth god. I went to the border during a time of great frustration, thinking to try a simpler life for a while, and to search again for that sense of calling I had lost. Oh, Ijada, I was so sorry, later, to hear of the death of your father. He was a noble man in all senses.Ф
Lady Ijada bowed her head, a shadow crossing her face. УOurs was not a high-walled fort for no cause. Angry, foolish men, an imprudent ride out to attempt reason at a time when tempers were running too highЕI had seen only the lovely side of the marsh country, and the kindness of its people. But they were only people after all.Ф
УWhat happened to you and your lady mother, after he was slain?Ф
УShe went back to her own kinЧmy own kinЧin the north of the Weald. In a year, she married againЧanother Temple-man, though not a soldierЧher brother made little jokes about that. She did not love my stepfather in the way she had loved my father, but he was fond and she was ready to be comfortable. But she diedЧum.Ф Ijada stopped, glanced at Learned HallanaТs belly, and bit her lip.
УI am a physician, too,Ф Hallana reminded her. УChildbed?Ф
УAbout four days after. She took a fever.Ф
The warden, listening in all too much fascination, signed herself in sympathy, caught IngreyТs eye upon her, and subsided.
УHm,Ф said Hallana. УI wonder ifЧno, never mind. All too late. And yourЧ?Ф
УLittle brother. He lived. My stepfather dotes on him. But he was the reason my stepfather remarried so very quickly.Ф
It was the first Ingrey had heard Lady Ijada had living siblings. I hadnТt thought to ask.
УAnd so you found yourself living withЕno one youТd ever planned to,Ф Learned Hallana mused. УAnd vice versa. Was your stepfamily comfortable?Ф
Ijada shrugged. УThey were not unkind. My stepmother is good with my brother.Ф
УAnd sheТs, ah, how many years older than you?Ф
A dry smile fleeted across IjadaТs face. УThree.Ф
Hallana snorted. УAnd so when your chance came to go, she bade you farewell with right goodwill?Ф
УWell, it was goodwill. My Badgerbank uncleТs wife actually found me the position with Princess Fara. She thought my stepfamily dreadfully common, and that I should be raised up out of it before yeomanry became a habit with me.Ф
HallanaТs snort was more caustic, this time. The very learned divine, Ingrey realized, had not introduced herself as kin anyone.
УBut Hallana,Ф Ijada continued, Уphysician or not, I do not understand how you may safely bear a demon and a baby at once. I thought demons were terribly dangerous, in that state.Ф
УThey are.Ф Learned Hallana grimaced. УDisorder flows naturally from demons; it is the very spring of their power in matter. The creation of a child, wherein matter grows an entirely new soul, is the highest and most complex form of ordering known, apart from the gods themselves. Given all that can go wrong with the process without a demon, keeping the two apart becomes rather urgent. And difficult. The difficulty is why some divines discourage female sorcerers from becoming mothers, or women from seeking that power until they are grown old. Well, and some of them are just self-satisfied fools, but thatТs another subject. ItТs all very well, you know, but I saw no reason to stop my life for other peopleТs theories. My risks are no greaterЧor differentЧthan any other womanТs, if my skills match them. Oh, apart from the danger of the demon entering the baby during the distractions of birth. Ordinary infants are demonic enough! The secret of safety turns out to be to, ahЕhow shall I put it. Shed excess disorder. By cascading small amounts of chaos continually, I keep my demon passive, and my baby safe.Ф A fond maternal smile lit her eyes. УAlas, itТs a trifle hard on everyone around me for those months. I have a little hermitage on the edge of the seminary grounds that I move into.Ф
УOh. IsnТt it lonely?Ф
УNot at all. My dear husband brings the two older children to visit me every day. And some evenings without the children, too. I catch up on my reading and my studiesЧit makes the most wonderful retreat imaginable. I should be quite too inclined to repeat it, but I imagine a dozen babies would be a mistake, and anyway, I think my husband would draw the line well before then.Ф
The maid Hergi, who had made herself small and quiet near her mistressТs feet, giggled in a remarkably unservile fashion.
УIt is not, you know, different in kind from the sort of thoughtful self-discipline any Temple sorcerer must keep. To use disorder alone, never trying to reverse the flow of its nature, but in good causeЕcalm, careful, never yielding to the temptation of shortcuts. That was the salvation of my callingЧwhen a certain brilliant logician pointed out that surgery destroys to heal. And I saw how to correctly use the powers that had been granted me in the direction my heart desired. I was so overjoyed, I married him.Ф
Ijada laughed. УI am so happy for you! You deserve all good things.Ф
УAh, what we may deserve, well, the Father alone knows that, in the balance of His justice.Ф The sorceressТs face grew solemn again. УSo tell me, love, what truly happened out in that cold castle?Ф
CHAPTER FIVE
I JADAТS LAUGHTER WAS ABRUPTLY EXTINGUISHED. INGREY QUIETLY rose and sent the warden out for the meal that he had been diverted from ordering, increasing the servings. This also removed her interested ear from the proceedings. She looked disappointed, but dared not disobey.
He slipped back to his seat as quietly, so as not to distract Lady Ijada from her halting confession to her friend. Who was so obviously, at least to IngreyТs mind, here for subtler reasons than friendship.
He was alert for discrepancies, but the tale Ijada told Learned Hallana was much the same as what she hadЧfinallyЧtold Ingrey, though this time all in order with nothing left out. Except that she revealed much more to Hallana of her suffocating fears. HallanaТs expression grew so intent as to be stony during IjadaТs account of her leopard dreams. Ijada brought her story up to her nearly disastrous fall at the ford, yesterday, and hesitated, glancing across at Ingrey. УI think the next part should be Lord IngreyТs to tell.Ф
Ingrey jerked in his seat, flushing. For an instant it almost seemed like the red fog returning, and his hand spasmed on the edge of the sill on which he sat. He became uncomfortably aware that he had grown careless again, on some dim assumption that the sorceress could protect both herself and Ijada. But sorcerers were not proof against steel, not once it closed on them. HeТd allowed himself to be alone with the women while still armed. And now his direst secrets were challengedЕ
He blurted, УI tried to drown her. IТve tried three other times to kill her, that I know of. I swear it is not my desire. She thinks it is some spell or geas.Ф
The sorceress pursed her lips and vented a long, thoughtful stream of breath. Then she sat back and closed her eyes, her face growing very still. When she opened them again, her expression was enigmatic.
УNo sorcerer has currently bespelled you. You bear no sustaining linkЧno spirit-threads wind to or from you. No elemental from the fifth god lies within your soul. But something else does. It seems very dark.Ф
He looked away. УI know. It is my wolf.Ф
УIf thatТs a wolfТs soul, IТm the queen of Darthaca.Ф
УIt always was a strange wolf. But it is bound!Ф
УHuh. May I touch you?Ф
УI donТt know if I amЕsafe.Ф
Her brows twitched up; she looked him over, and he grew acutely conscious of his road stains and brigandТs beard stubble. УI think I shall not argue with that. Ijada, what do you see in him?Ф
УI donТt see anything,Ф she replied unhappily. УIt is as though the leopard smells him, and I overhearЕoversmell? Howsoever, I am lent these unfamiliar sensations. ThereТs the dark wolf-thing you seeЧat least, it smells dark, like old leaf mold and campfire ashes and forest shadowsЧand a third thing. Whispering around him like a rumor. It has a most strange perfume. Acrid.Ф
Hallana tilted her head back and forth. УI see his soul, with my soulТs eye. I see the dark thing. I do not see or hear the third thing. It is not of the Bastard in any way, not lent from the world of spirit that the gods rule. YetЧhis soul has strange convolutions. A clear glass that one cannot see with the eyes, one might still touch with the fingers. I must risk a deeper touch.Ф
УDonТt!Ф said Ingrey, panicked.
УLady, ought youЕ?Ф murmured the maid, her face crimped with alarm. УNow?Ф
HallanaТs lips moved on what might have been, Dratsab, dratsab, dratsab. УLet us think.Ф
A knock sounded at the door; the warden had returned, flanked by some inn servants with trays and the man Hallana had called Bernan, who lugged a large chest. He was a wiry, middle-aged fellow with an alert eye; his green-leather jerkin was spattered with old burn spots, like a smithТs. He inhaled with deep appreciation as the trays were borne past him. The delectable odors of vinegared beef and onions seeping from under the crockery covers forcibly reminded Ingrey that he was both ravenous and exhausted.
Hallana brightened. УBetter still, let us eat, then think.Ф
The inn servants set the table in the little parlor, but after that the sorceress sent them away, saying she preferred to be served by her own folk. She whispered aside to Ingrey, УActually, I make such a mess, just now, I donТt dare eat in public.Ф Ingrey, warily circumspect, sent the warden downstairs to eat in the common room and tarry there until called for. She cast a curious look back as she reluctantly withdrew.
The manservant Bernan reported HallanaТs horses safely stabled at the local templeТs mews, the wagon wheel repaired, and arrangements made for her nightТs rest with a certain MotherТs physician in Red Dike, who was evidently a former Suttleaf student. Ingrey found himself, without having intended any such thing, joining the two women for a meal at the small table. The manservant presented the basin for hand washing, and the double-divine intoned a perfunctory blessing.