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

name tucked the covers well around the body, and left a
candle burning nearby. Then she put on a clean blouse
and smock belonging to Abagtha and went away from the
oak tree with a red door, locking up carefully and hiding
the key under a stone.



The Blue Toad in Moorsedge was crowded. The
stranger stood on the threshold of the tavern looking for
a seat. At last he spied an empty stool in the comer and
struck out through the noisy throng toward it. He was
weary, and wanted to sit awhile and nurse a cup of mulled
ale. He managed to flag down one of the alewife's daugh-
ters and request his refreshment. The serving girl looked
at him askance, informing him that he could have beer or
ale, neither mulled. Supper was eight coppers: rabbit stew
or hen pie. The stranger ordered his meal and gave
instructions for a room to be made up for him at the
adjoining inn.

The stew, when it came, tasted more like squirrel than
rabbit. He chased it well with ale to keep it down, then
pushed the empty pannikin aside and drew his seat into
the shadows.

At the next table a cluster of men conversed in low
tones. Seven strained to catch the eighth's whispered
words.

"... a light in the wood and went and found the old
witch locked in her lodgings, deader than a doorknocker."

"It's not a sound mind that shuns its own kind to live
alone in the Weirdwood."

"They say madmen lurk there, and deserters."

"And Direwolves."

There was a universal shudder, then a lull for drinking.
One of their number wiped his mouth and spoke.

"You'll think me drunk or mad, but hear me out.
Between the taxman and the toothpuller, I've been feeling
the pinch, so I'd hired myself out to the charcoal burners
to pad my wage. I was working on the edge of the
Weirdwood one day, away from the others, when all of
the sudden I get goose-flesh all down the back of my neck.
I turned around in time to see a girl run off through the