"Downer, Ann - Spellkey 01-03 - The Spellkey Trilogy 1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Downer Ann)

The SpellKey Trilogy
by Ann Downer
Version 1.0

1

THE CAT Is BELLED

That morning the old witch Abagtha had set out to gather
mushrooms, the silvery, fragile kind that spring up in the
night and are gone by the time the sun is very high. She
went out, her meager shawls clutched about her against
the damp, to gather what she needed before they could
vanish. Her quick, curranty eyes soon spied a white shape
among the dried leaves and pine needles, and with a grunt
she stooped to pick it. But something about it made Abag-
tha snatch back her fingers and suck in her breath and
peer more closely. It was not a mushroom but a toe. At
that moment the toe wiggled, and Abagtha swept away the
leaves and twigs to uncover a sleeping baby. The child
opened its eyes and smiled at the old woman bending over
it. Abagtha saw the child had one blue eye and one green,
as true black cats do. Considering this no trifling omen,
the sibyl placed the baby in the bundle on her back, with
the mushrooms and herbs, and brought it away to her
home in an oak, with a red door, in the heart of the forest.
The tree was an ancient as she was herself, and among its
roots she nursed the child on wild honey and goat's milk.
As long as her memory served her, Abagtha had lived
in the Weirdwood. She knew a little of the grey arts, if

not the black ones, and could make up a spell or two if
the sack of copper was heavy enough, But she didn't have
a license to practice the weightier magics, for the Necro-
mancer alone held the franchise tor magic in that
kingdom.

So, with the foundling on her knee, the old woman sold
paltry spells to those brave enough to venture into the
wood, taking cockles and eels in return for spells to raise
the wind, and barley and oats in return for spells to
bring rain.

The child grew at a wicked rate. When she had cut her
teeth, Abagtha taught her bird lore: how to tell their eggs
and calls apart, and then all their names, the man-given
ones such as nightjar and nuthatch, and then the names
in the language of the birds. Abagtha taught her how
unlucky it was to kill a wren, how owls' eyes could be
eaten to cure night blindness. And when the child was