"Eisenstein,.Phyllis.-.Sorcerer's.Son" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eisenstein Phyllis)

"Oh, there are limits. I must know where to look, I must be interested hi looking there. I know of many places that I could look, but I wouldn't want to bother.
14
There must be spiders, of course. I will never see the kitchens of certain very cleanly cooks because they don't give spiders a chance to spin more than a strand or two before they kill them. My curiosity is not piqued by such kitchens. And then there are the homes of other sorcerersЧwe respect each others' privacy, although I could look in on them if I wished to be rude."
"I can't imagine you being rude, my lady."
"Ssh. He sings again." He sang of love, as he had before, most plaintively. **I will weave a tapestry for that song someday," she murmured. "I see it as red and gold and brownЧautumn colors."
"And send it to him?"
"Send it? Why should I? What would he do with h, a troubadour? Carry it on his shoulder from castle to castle?"
"Give it to someone, I suppose, to display for him. To insure that his memory outlives him."
"I shall remember him after he is dead. I don't care beyond that." She propped herself up on one elbow. "There are others, some better even than he."
"You have spiders traveling with them, too?"
"Yes. Though there is one of them that keeps finding the creatures, and they don't all escape his foot."
"How did you find them all?"
"With difficulty. The first was an accident: I was watching court politics in the bedchamber of a certain king, and he summoned a troubadour for diversion. I, too, was diverted, and I gave the singer a tiny companion for his travels. After that, I began to look for them. Now, through them, I see more of the world than ever before. Troubadours know no boundaries, after all, no politics, no loyalties, not if they wish to continue their travels. And none of them ever know that I am riding with them."
He gazed up at her face, so near his own, leaning upon the open palm of her hand. Her hair almost brushed bis shoulder. "You cannot touch them, my lady Delivev. They are like images in a mirror; you reach out, but the surface is flat and it gives back no warmth. Nor will they speak to you, for you are like a ghost among themЧless than a ghost if they never
15
sense you at afl, not even by some inexplicable shiver running down their spines."
"So much the better," she replied. "I see and hear them, yet I need not tolerate their presence."
"I cannot believe that you so despise all other people."
"I despise no one. But I do not care to share my life with anyone I have ever seen in the web."
"Hosting a troubadour would hardly be sharing your life."
"A small part of my life.**
"And yet, you took me in, a stranger, knowing that you would be sharing your life with me until I healed."
"I would have done the same for a wounded dog."
Lightly, he laid one hand upon her shoulder. "You are not as chill as you wish to seem. Your parents gave you an ugly view of life, but you know that what they had was not what might have been. Two people mismatched, nothing more. How can you judge all the world by them?"
"I have seen more than you suppose in my webs. I have seen great lords and their ladies, and they were different from my parents only in the limits of their powersЧdishes thrown instead of lightning.**
"And you must also have heard songs of great love from troubadours."
"Great loves that ended tragically, yes. Great lovers that died before they could drive each other mad."
He shook his head. "If your view of life were true, then no one would ever marry."
"I am not responsible for the mistakes of others. Only for my own. You are very young, Mellor. I would expect you to believe in many things that 2 have outgrown."
"I believe that individuals may love each other." He turned on his side to face her, very close, and she did not draw away. "I believe that I could love the kindest and most beautiful lady I have ever met."
"Mellor, what a foolish thing to say.**
"And I believe that she could love me in return.** His arms slid around her, and he pulled her to him. Her mouth was warm and yielding, and the cushions were soft beneath then- bodies, the velvet coverlet
16
voluptuous against then- flesh. She whispered concern for his wound, that it might open from such exertion, but he sealed her mouth with his own and nothing more was said. Afterward, they slept in each other's arms on the bed surrounded by spiderweb draperies, and above them a troubadour hi a distant castle sang of love.
From the balcony of the highest spire of Castle Spinweb, the stars seemed bright and hard and close enough to touch. Gildrum watched for hours as they wheeled about the Northern Star, as Delivev lay sleeping so far below in the bed they had shared this score of nights. Gildrum needed no sleep, of course, but he could feign well enough, and he had found great pleasure in holding her in his arms each night. Now he denied himself that pleasure. Now he found something inside himself griping like acid, like a small animal with sharp claws. His task was completed, and the will of his lord demanded his return to Ringforge. Not that Rezhyk knew what his servant had doneЧthere was no communication between them while Gildrum was inside the walls of SpinwebЧbut that did not matter. The imperative was within Gildrum himself, the imperative of the ring, and he had no choice but to obey.
He did not wish to leave. In all the years he had been slave to a sorcerer, he had seen the human world, he had dealt with men and women in human guise; he thought he understood them better than any demon he knew. Sometimes he wondered if he no longer understood his own kind quite so well, for he had rarely been among them since he was captured by the power of the ring. He knew Rezhyk best, of course, through long contact, and he had puzzled over the sorcerer's proposal of marriage to Delivev the Weaver when first it was made. Rezbyk was a somber man, given to long nights alone in his workshop, poring over books brought him by his demons from the hidden corners of the world. He sought knowledge; material things meant little to him, except as the necessary comforts of life. Gildrum had thought a demon consort was the only sort that could please hint, avail-
17
able when desired, in precisely the form that hfe mind could envision and his hands mold, never making demands, never impinging upon his life as a mortal woman would. And yet, the moment he had opened his eyes to Delivev, Gildrum had understood her attraction, compounded of cool serenity, beauty, kindness, and more than a touch of melancholy. He had never thought that a demon could love a human being, and though he spoke of it eloquentlyЧfor he, too, had listened to troubadours' songs, and to other things, in his travels about the earthЧhe was not sure that he knew at all what love was. He had never thought that a demon could want to be a man and stay forever with a human woman. He wanted that now, and if that was love, then he was a lover.
In the morning, he thought, / shall use my well-planned excuse.
He wished upon the fading stars that morning would never come, but the sky continued to brighten in spite of him.
"I understand/* she said, but she sighed anyway. "You pledged yourself to carry the message to Falcon-hill, and you must go. I will not try to keep you against that pledge."
He took her hands between his own. "Never doubt that I love you, sweet Delivev."
"I have no doubts.*'
"I shall return as soon as my duty is done. I would that were tomorrow, believe me." He pressed her close against his heart "I would not leave you out of choice, my love."
"I will be here tomorrow, and the next day," she murmured. "Whenever you return, I shall rejoice."
He kissed her lips one last time, and then they parted. His horse was ready, shuffling from hoof to hoof in animal impatience to be moving. He led it out the gate and mounted. His cleaned and mended sur-coat rippled about his thighs in the fresh morning breeze, and his remade chain mail rustled at every move of his body. He lifted a hand in farewell, then wheeled and rode off into the forest. He did not look
18
back. He did not see the tears that welled up in Delivev's eyes as the forest swallowed him.
She turned back to her home, bolted the door to shut the world away once more. Slowly she climbed the narrow flight of steps to the topmost tower, and there she set up her loom, to begin a tapestry to while away the days till he should return. She chose her colors carefully: pure black for the horse, white and red for the surcoat, and the deepest blue she had ever seen for his eyes. It would be a large tapestry, a long time hi the finishing.
She did not discover her pregnancy very soon, for the tapestry held her attention and she lost track of time. One day, however, her stomach bothered her and she decided to lie down instead of working, to listen afar instead of dreaming along with her fingers. She lay down hi the web-draped room, gestured with her hand, and the web she sought to transform into a window remained as it was. At first she thought the web at the other end of the rapport had been broken, and she tried another, and then another, but none responded. A little more testing showed her the newly circumscribed limits of her power, and then the roiling of her stomach and a swift count of days revealed the cause.