"Lord Dunsany - Poltarnees, Beholder Of Ocean (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

him. They said:
 "Sir, you have spoken blasphemy against the Sea."
And the young man muttered:
"She is more beautiful than the Sea."
And the kings said:
"We are older than you and wiser, and know that nothing
ismore beautiful than the Sea."
And the young man took off the gear of his head, and
becamedowncast, and knew that hespake with kings, yet he
answered:
"By this spear, she is more beautiful than the Sea."
And all the while the Princess stared at him, knowing him
tobe a hunter ofgariachs .
Then the King ofArizim said to the watcher by the pool:
"If thou wilt go upPoltarnees and come back, as none
havecome, and report to us what lure or magic is in the
Sea, we will pardon thy blasphemy, and thoushalt have the
Princess to wife and sit among the Council of the Kings."
And gladly thereunto the young man consented. And the
Princess spoke to him, and asked him his name. And he told
herthat his name wasAthelvok , and great joy arose in him
at the sound of her voice. And to the three kings he
promisedto set out on the third day to scale the slope of
Poltarneesand to return again, and this was the oath by
whichthey bound him to return:
"I swear by the Sea that bears the worlds away, by the
riverofOriathon , which men call Ocean, and by the gods and
theirtiger, and by the doom of the worlds, that I will
returnagain to the Inner Lands, having beheld the Sea."
And that oath he swore with solemnity that very night in
oneof the temples of the Sea, but the three kings trusted
moreto the beauty ofHilnaric even than to the power of the
oath.
The next dayAthelvok came to the palace ofArizim with
themorning, over the fields to the East and out of the
countryofToldees , andHilnaric came out along her balcony
and met him on the terraces. And she asked him if he had
everslain agariach , and he said that he had slain three,
andthen he told her how he had killed his first down by the
pool in the wood. For he had taken his father's spear and
gonedown to the edge of the pool, and had lain under the
azaleasthere waiting for the stars to shine, by whose first
lightthegariachs go to the pools to drink; and he had gone
tooearly and had had long to wait, and the passing hours
seemed longer than they were. And all the birds came in
thathome at night, and the bat was abroad, and the hour of
theduck went by, and still nogariach came down to the
pool; andAthelvok felt sure that none would come. And just
asthis grew to a certainty in his mind the thicket parted
noiselesslyand a huge bullgariach stood facing him on the