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

trees. And she were no village miss. No, she were as wild
and dark a creature as I ever seen. Mark me: She had
seer's eyes.

"Well, she threw me such a look it made my heart go
cold, and the next day I went out to my stock and found
my best milk cow writhing with colic. There now, what do
you make of that?"

Now it did not matter that they had, to a man, at one
time or another treated themselves or their milk cows or
their children with Abagtha's tonics.

"I say the old witch has only shed her skin."

"What does she live on in winter, d'you think?"

"Whatever's unlucky enough to cross her path."

"I lost a ewe last week. ..."

"The miller over Stillwine way told me his last lot of
grain was full of rats, and he had to burn it."

In his sooty corner, the stranger lit a pipe. The smoke
curled toward the timbers in pale ribbons, obscuring his
face with a silver cloud. His hair glinted copper bright in
the firelight, and his grey eyes never turned from their
thoughtful contemplation of the speakers. He spoke, and
suddenly the whole room was still.

"She sounds a regular menace."

Every head in the tavern turned and took in his profile,
carved by the shadows to an eerie gauntness. The traveler
gazed back unblinking.

"It's not safe to go abroad anymore, if you ask me." He
said this very softly, but so piercing was his tone that even
the cellarer among the vats woke and was afraid.

"He's right," said the charcoal burner with the colicky
milk cow. "We'll lose our livestock at first, but when she's
done with that, what's to stop her plying her spells on our
wives and children?"

There arose an ugly muttering.

"It's an unpleasant task, but it must be done. I'll fetch
torches. Who'll bring stout rope?"