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

They spilled out into the street. As the tavern emptied,
the stranger signaled to the serving girl, and called for
another ale.

The girl without a name was raiding squirrels' caches
for her supper, her keen eyes spotting the signs of hiding
places, her roughened hands digging through the snow
and earth to find a nut or two the squirrels had forgotten,
worms missed. Her hand kept returning to the catstone,
no larger than any of the nuts piled in her lap, that hung
around her neck. Suddenly she leapt up and around, the
nuts scattering on the snow.

Behind her two dozen men brandishing spades and
torches advanced through the trees, shouting and calling
to their dogs. The girl swore under her breath and began
to run through the snow. She splashed through an icy
stream and, clambering up the bank, remembered the
foul-smelling musk she carried to keep the Direwolves at
bay. She took the vial from her pocket and uncorked it,
but before she had a chance to smear herself with the
oil she tripped on a tree root and sprawled headlong in
the snow.

The dogs were on her in a minute. The men sheared
her tresses from her and pared her fingernails to char and
make into an antidote for her magic. Then they bound
her hand and foot and slung her from a pole like a carcass

of venison. The blood rushed to her head, and before they
were out of the wood the girl had fainted.

Someone prodded the girl with a broom handle until
she woke. At the sight of her eyes, one blue, one green,
a single gasp escaped the onlookers gathered in the vil-
lage square.

"A potent witch, no doubt about it." He was the wealthi-
est shopkeeper in the town and was expected to know such
things. "We're lucky she hasn't done greater wickedness."

"Yes, but what do we do with her now?" They had
never caught a witch before in Moorsedge, and were won-
dering how to proceed.

"We can't drown her. It would taint the wells."

"Burn her then," someone said uncertainly.