"Bujold, Lois McMaster - Chalion 3 - The Hallowed Hunt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bujold Lois McMaster)
A rumble of footsteps sounded from the corridor outside the chamber. An urgent thumping on the door: IngreyТs soldier called in alarm, УHello? Is everyone all right in there? Lord Ingrey?Ф
The wardenТs frightened voice: УWas that really him, screaming like that? Oh, hurry, break it down!Ф
A third man: УIf you break my door, youТll pay for it! Hey in there! Open up!Ф
Ingrey stretched his jaw, his normal human jaw, not a muzzle, and croaked, УIТm all right!Ф
Hallana was standing with feet braced, breathing rapidly, staring at him with very wide eyes. УYes,Ф she called out. УLord IngreyЕtripped and upset the table. ItТs a bit of a mess in here just now. WeТll see to it. DonТt concern yourselves.Ф
УYou donТt sound all right.Ф
Ingrey swallowed, cleared his raw throat, adjusted his voice. УIТll come down to the taproom in a while. The divineТs servants will deal with theЕwith theЕmess. Go away.Ф
УWe will take care of his injuries,Ф added Hallana.
A baffled silence, a mumble of argument: then the footsteps retreated.
A sigh seemed to go through everyone in the room but Bernan, who still brandished his crowbar. Ingrey lay back limply on the floorboards, feeling as though his bones were turned to porridge. He was sick to his stomach. After a moment, he raised his hands. The chains dangled heavily from his left wrist; his right, lubricated with blood, was free. He stared at it, barely comprehending the torn skin and throbbing pain. By the unpleasant trickle in his hair, his furious thumping around had ripped apart some of his new stitches, as well.
At this rate, IТm going to be dead before I ever get to Easthome, whether Lady Ijada survives me or not.
IjadaЕHe twisted around in feverish concern. Bernan made a warning noise and raised his crowbar higher. Ijada was still on her knees a pace or two away, her face very pale, her eyes huge and dark.
УNo, Bernan!Ф she said. УHeТs all right now. ItТs gone.Ф
УI have seen a man afflicted with the falling sickness,Ф said Hallana in a distant tone. УThis most assuredly wasnТt that.Ф She ventured near Ingrey again and walked around him, peering down searchingly over her belly.
With an eye to the crowbar, Ingrey rolled very slowly and cautiously onto his side for a better look at Ijada. The movement made the room turn in slow jerks, and his grunt came out sounding more like a moan, or perhaps a whimper. Ijada wasnТt leaping to her feet, either. She sat limply, her hands on the floor propping her; she caught his gaze, took a breath, and pushed upright. УIТm all right,Ф she said, although no one had inquired. All eyes had been on IngreyТs far more spectacular performance.
HallanaТs head came round. УWhat did you just experience?Ф
УI fell to my kneesЧI was still on my knees, in this room, but at the same time, I was suddenly in the leopardТs body. The leopardТs spirit bodyЧI did not mistake it for flesh. But oh, it was strong! Glorious. My senses were terribly acute. I could see! But I was muteЧno, beyond mute. Wordless. We were in some bigger space, or other spaceЧit was as big as it needed to be, anyway. YouФЧher gaze swung to IngreyЧУwere in the place before me. Your body was sprouting scarlet horrors. They seemed to be of you, yet attacking you. I pounced on them and tried to bite them off you. They burned my jaws. Then you started to turn into a wolf, or a man-wolf, some strange hybridЧit was as if your body couldnТt make up its mind. You grew a wolfТs head, at least, and started tearing at the red horrors, too.Ф She looked at him sideways, in a fresh fascination.
Ingrey wondered, but dared not ask, if sheТd hallucinated a loincloth for him as well. The wild arousal of his frenzied state was only now passing off, damped by confusion and pain.
УWhen we had ripped the burning, clutching things all out of you, they could be seen to be not many, but all one thing. For a moment it looked like a ball of mating snakes, raked from under a ledge in the springtime. Then it went silent and vanished, and I was back here. In this body.Ф She held up one long-fingered hand before her eyes as if still expecting to see pads and claws. УIf that was anything like what the Old Weald warriors experiencedЕI think I begin to see why they desired this. Except not the part about the bleeding things. Yet even thatЕwe won.Ф The pulsing dilation of her eyes was not just fear, Ingrey thought, but also a vast, astonished exhilaration. She added to Hallana, УDid you see my leopard? The bleeding things, the wolfТs head?Ф
УNo.Ф Hallana huffed in frustration. УYour spirits were very disturbed, but I hardly needed second sight to tell that. Do you think you could return to that place where you were? At will?Ф
Ingrey started to shake his head, discovered that his brain felt as though it had come loose, and mumbled, УNo!Ф
УIТm not sure,Ф said Ijada. УThe leopard took me thereЧI didnТt go myself. And it wasnТt exactly a there. We were still here.Ф
HallanaТs expression grew, if possible, more intent. УDid you sense any of the godsТ presences, in that space?Ф
УNo,Ф said Ijada. УNone. There was a time I might not have known for sure, but after the leopard dreamЕno. I would have known, if He were back.Ф Despite her distress, a smile softened her lips. The smile was not for him, Ingrey knew. It still made him want to crawl toward her. Now, that was madness by any measure.
УAre you sure, Learned?Ф the manservant said doubtfully. His eyes flicked toward IngreyТs sword, now lying in the roomТs corner; he had apparently kicked it out of IngreyТs rolling reach during his scramble to get into striking position with his crowbar.
УLord Ingrey? What is your opinion? You were certainly correct before.Ф
УI donТt thinkЕI can move.Ф The oak floor was hard and chilly, but by the swimming of IngreyТs head, horizontal seemed vastly preferable to vertical.
He was forced to the vertical despite himself, dragged up and placed in the divineТs vacated chair by the two servants. Bernan tapped off the bolts with a hammer and Hergi, clucking, collected a basin of fresh water, soap, towels, and the leather case of what proved to be medical instruments and supplies that she had brought in with her. She tended expertly to IngreyТs injuries, new and old, under the divineТs eye, and it occurred to Ingrey belatedly that of course the sorceress would travel with her own midwife-dedicat, in her present state. He wondered if Hergi was married to the smith, if that was BernanТs real calling.
Ijada levered herself up as far as her own chair and watched HergiТs mending in apparent fascination, pinching her lips at the needle pokes. The flap of flesh on the back of IngreyТs hand was neatly reaffixed and covered with a white-linen bandage, the lesser lacerations on the other wrist cleaned and wrapped. His hand did not hurt nearly as much as the burning muscles in his back, or his throbbing ankles; or perhaps each pain served as distraction from the next. He wondered if he ought to pull off his boots while he still could, and if he didnТt, if they would have to be cut off later. They were good boots; he hated to risk them. The chains had left deep scorings in the leather.
УIn that place you found yourselves,Ф Hallana began again.
УIt wasnТt real,Ф mumbled Ingrey.
УMm, well, yes. But while you were in that, um, state, what did you perceive of me, if anything?Ф
УColored fire flowed from your hands. Into my mouth. It drove the vein growing there into a frenzy, which it passed on to the others. Its other parts, I suppose. It was as though your fire flushed them from their hiding places.Ф He ran his tongue around his mouth now, to reassure himself that the hideous distortion was truly gone. More disturbingly, he found his face was slimed with spittle. He started to wipe away the sticky foam with the bandage on his left wrist, but his hand was intercepted by Hergi, protecting her work. She gave him a disapproving headshake and wrung out a wet cloth instead. Ingrey swabbed and tried not to think about his father.
УThe tongue is the BastardТs own sign and signifier upon our bodies,Ф Hallana mused.
As forehead for the Daughter, navel for the Mother, genitals for the Father, and heart for the Brother. УThe veins, tentacles, whatever they were, of the geas seemed to grow from all of my five theological points.Ф
УThat ought to mean something. I wonder what? I wonder if there are any manuscripts of Old Weald lore that would illuminate this puzzle? When I get back to Suttleaf, I will search our library, but IТm afraid weТve mostly medical tracts. The Darthacan Quintarians who conquered us were more interested in destroying the old ways than in chronicling them. It was as if they wished to put the old forest powers out of reach of everyone, even themselves. IТm not sure they were wrong.Ф
УWhen I was in the leopardЧwhen I was the leopard,Ф said Ijada, УI saw the phantasmal images, too. But then it was all shut away from me again.Ф A faint regret tinged her tone.
УI, on the other handФЧthe sorceressТs fingers drummed on the closest level surface, which happened to be the top of her stomachЧУsaw nothing. Except for Lord Ingrey ripping his way out of iron chains that should have held a horse, that is. If that was typical of the strength their spirit animals lent the old warriors, itТs no wonder they were prized.Ф
If the old warriors had hurt like this afterward, Ingrey wasnТt so sure their ghost animals would have been as prized as all that. If the forest kin had carried on as he just hadЕhe wanted to ask about the noises heТd made, but was too mortified.
УIf there was anything to see, I should have seen it,Ф Hallana went on in increasing exasperation. She plunked down on a spare chair. УDratsab, dratsab. Let us think.Ф After a moment, she narrowed her eyes at Ingrey. УYou say the thing is gone. If we cannot say what it wasЧcan you at least now remember who put it on you?Ф
Ingrey leaned forward, rubbing his scratchy eyes. He suspected they were glaringly bloodshot. УIТd better have these boots off.Ф At HallanaТs gesture, Bernan knelt and assisted; IngreyТs ankles were indeed swelling and discolored. He stared down at them for a moment more.
УI did not feel the geas before I first saw Ijada,Ф he said at last. УFor all I know it could have been riding me for days, or months, or years. I thought it was years, at firstЧI thought it was my wolf, as much as I could think about it at all. If not for Lady IjadaТs testimony, andЕand what happened just now, I might still think that. If I had succeeded in slaying her, I would certainly have gone on believing so.Ф
Hallana sucked on her lower lip. УThink harder. A compulsion to kill your prisoner was more likely laid on you between the time the news came of BolesoТs death and the time you left Easthome for BoarТs Head. Before then, there was no reason, and after, no time. Whom did you see in that time?Ф
Put like that, it was even more disturbing. УNot very many men. I was called to Lord HetwarТs chambers in the evening. The courier was still there. Hetwar, HetwarТs secretary of the chamber, Prince Rigild the kingТs seneschal, Earl Badgerbank, Wencel kin Horseriver, Lord Alca kin Otterbine, the kin Boarford brothersЕWe spoke but briefly, as Lord Hetwar gave me the news and my instructions.Ф
УWhich were?Ф
УRetrieve BolesoТs body, transport his killerЕФ Ingrey hesitated. УMake his death discreet.Ф
УWhat did that mean?Ф asked Ijada, sounding genuinely puzzled.
УMake all evidence of BolesoТs indiscretions vanish.Ф Including his principal victim?
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