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

The girl met this malice with wit and quickness, doing
the endless chores set for her without complaint. Where
kindness is not known it is not missed. This even temper
maddened Abagtha beyond endurance, and she withheld
even the acorn porridge, even a blanket.

It was because she had no bed that the girl found the
catstone. The bottommost room under the oak tree was a
nut-cellar among the roots. From her youngest days the
girl hid there, for though it was dark the cellar was warm,
and Abagtha had forgotten its existence, so that the girl
crawled there to escape both the cold and Abagtha's rages.
This time, as she bit into a nut, the girl chipped a tooth.
She lit the lamp, a dish of fat with a bit of rag for a wick,
and held the nut to the glimmer curiously.

It wasn't a nut, but a pebble, shaped oddly like a cat,
carved by some hand to enhance the chance resemblance.
The girl made a cord out of strands of her hair, and put
the catstone around her neck, hiding it well under her
rags.

After she found the catstone, the girl began to dream
in daytime. She would see faces in the basin as she did
the dishes. The songs of the birds were as clear to her as
human speech. And the ancient cat, who had always
resented the girl, suddenly took to her with a fierce

affection, rubbing against her legs and making a curious,
croaking purring.

As the cat had a history of scratching and spitting, the
girl continued for a time to kick it away. But the cat's
affection began to wear away her resistance, and one day
at last she picked up the cat and stroked it clumsily.

"There, old Mambo," she said to it softly.

The cat burrowed its head under the girl's chin, purring.
Then an extraordinary thing happened: the cat, tapping
the catstone with a paw, suddenly let out a great yam-
mering that brought Abagtha at a trot. Her gaze soon fixed
on the catstone, and she stood before the girl, eyes bright
with greed, trembling with a more obscure emotion. The
girl waited for a slap, but it did not come. Instead Abagtha
warily stretched out a finger to touch the stone.

She was rewarded with a shock for her pains, blue
sparks edging her arm with pale light. Abagtha gave a
short shriek and stuck her fingers in her gums, noisily