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

late in learning to speak, the old woman made her eat the
tongues of birds.

The girl cried, swallowed, pushed the plate away, and
spoke.

"No."

This gave Abagtha satisfaction, and she ate the rest of
the tongues herself.

When the child had been with her seven years, Abagtha
summoned her and told her to make cakes of millet and
honey: "Make them round, mind." Then, putting on her
many shawls, she instructed the girl to put the cakes in a
napkin and bring them along.

They went out. The child trotted obediently at the old
woman's heels. It was growing coldЧthe bears had already
taken to their densЧand she was barefoot. But never hav-
ing had shoes, or a name, she did not miss them. They
walked a long time, long enough for the light in the wood
to change, the birds to stop singing and the crickets to
take it up again. The trees came farther and farther apart
until, just as the sun was beginning to disappear, they
came to the edge of the wood.

The girl had never seen the sun set; indeed, she had
never seen the sun except as long streaks of light that fell

from the treetops and dappled the forest floor. She stood
and squinted at the fiery egg in its nest of purple clouds
and said not a word.

Abagtha inspected the cakes, found them to her liking,
and pinched the child for being inattentive.

"Roll one down the hill."

"But aren't they for our supper?"

She got another pinch. Abagtha took one of the cakes
and set it bouncing down the hill. "There! Roll it, so."

The child's cake rolled down the slope, flew over a peb-
bled ford in the stream, and disappeared. Abagtha chewed
her fingers thoughtfully.

"Yes, yes, yes," she muttered. "As I thought. Come,"
she said to the girl, settling her old body under a tree and