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

manship; when that happened too often, he went back to the tree.
He practiced riding, too, on a pony his mother acquired from another sorcerer whose passion was four-footed creatures; she traded a fine tapestry that her son might gallop about the forest with only a few spiders to keep watch over him. With a willow withe as a lance, he charged imaginary foes, and when he returned to Spinweb's sanctuary, he was as sweat-cloaked as his steed.
In time he asked for a real sword and a real shield, a helm, chain mail, and a man's horse. He was twelve years old.
His mother rose from her weaving, hands on her hips. "Don't you think, Cray, that you have played this game long enough? It is time for you to settle down to sorcery."
He leaned upon the stick that served him as sword, both hands upon its wooden hilt. "It is no game. Mother. I wish to be a knight.**
Her mouth hardened into a white line. "I have indulged yon out of love. I thought that while you played childish games your body would grow strong and straight; And it has. I never dreamed that your mind would not do the same." '
"Mother, there is no shame in being a knight."
"There is death! If your father is dead, then Imight-hood was his killer!*' Х
"Mother, I am not suited to the sorcerous life.**
"Why not? You do it well, the little you have learned. There is far more to know.*'
He looked down at his hands and shook his head. "It holds no interest for me."
"You will grow to love it, as I have.**
"I would rather go out in the world and earn my bread with strength of arms than conjure it by magic.*'
"You think you are ready to go out in the world as a knight? Oh, my son, don't think your prowess with a wooden sword and a tree make you ready to face a real opponent!"
Again he shook his head. "I know I am not ready. But I would practice here in Spinweb with a real sword, and then I would go out to seek a teacher to better my
24
skills." He raised bis eyes to hers, and his gaze was level with her own though he had not yet reached his-full growth. "Mother, this is truly what I want If you love me, you will help me to be the kind of man I must be.**
She turned away from him. "If I love you, I must lose youЧis that what you say? How can you ask it of me?"
"I must go out in the world and meet other human beings."
"You can see them hi the webs.'*
"I can see them, but 1 can't speak to them. I can't touch them."
"You are so young!"
He laid the wooden sword down and stepped close to her to wrap his arms about her. "I will make this promise," he said. "Give me the sword and the horse and the armor, and I will not leave you for another two years. I will stay here and laugh with you and be a loving son for another two years.**
She leaned against him. "I have no sword and armor. I might find a horse that would suit you, but the choosing of arms should be up to you. I know too little of the matter. All sorcerers know too little of arms.** She hugged bun tight. "Oh, my son, you must go to a town where merchants deal in swords and shields, you must ask for advice from men who understand such things. If you had a father, he would instruct you, of course... if you had a father." Her voice broke and she clasped him ever more fiercely. "How can I bear to lose you, too?**
"Mother, every fledgling must fly from the nest at last."
"I never flew, not I!**
"Well, this one will."
She nodded, and tears leaked from her eyes.
Some days later, a vast dark cloud swept out of the east, blocked the sun above Castle Spinweb briefly, then descended, condensing, to the ground before the gate. By the time Cray and Delivev opened the portal, the dark and roiling mist was a sphere no more than ten feet in diameter. At their approach, it oozed back against the nearest trees, exposing the great horse that
25
had been hidden in hs depths. The hone whinnied and tossed its head, dancing restlessly on hooves as big as dinner plates, but it allowed the humans to touch itЧ indeed, it relaxed as their hands moved upon its sleek gray flanks.
"Very good,** Deliver said to the cloud. She nodded toward the open castle gate, and a pair of rolled tapestries cartwheeled out to the grass. They spread themselves flat for the cloud's inspection, and it seemed satisfied, for it covered them and rose skyward with its new and lighter burden. ^
"I have never seen a demon yet that would say thank you,'* muttered Delivev. "Well, what are yoa waiting for? This is your horseЧtake it inside.**
"I had not expected it to be... so large," said Cray.
"You will be heavy in your armor, my son; it must be large to bear your weight.**
Cray stroked the horse's neck. "I shall call him Gallant.**
In the misty dawn of a spring day, he saddled Gallant for the journey to the nearest town.
Delivev pressed silver money into his hands, to pay for the arms he wished to buy. "Don't flash the coins about,** she warned nun. 'There are some men who would try to take it from you."
"I shall be careful, Mother. I've seen a few things in the webs, after all; I know there are evil folk out there. FU have my knife and a stout staff, and no fear of using them.**
"And don*t worry about finding a chain shirt of perfect size; buy one too large and I'll refit the links to you better than any tailor could.*'
"I don't doubt it." He kissed her quickly, then grasped his horse's mane and pulled himself into the saddle.
"I want to hear from you, my son. Let one of the spiders spin a web each night just before sunset so that we may speak to one another."
"I will try, Mother. But if I am among ordinary people, it might be better that I avoid such sorcery.**
"It might I would worry ... but you must do as you see fit. You have my love always. Hurry back.'* She waved till he disappeared down the forest track.
26
At first Cray traversed ground that he knew as well as his mother's castle, but soon he passed into unfamiliar territory. The nature of the forest did not changeЧit grew no denser, no darker, the trees did not bend over to clutch at him as, in younger days, he had thought they might. Smiling, he recalled other childV hood fancies: that there was no world beyond a narrow stretch of woodland ringing Castle Spinweb; that the castle stood upon a disk of earth whose edge was the horizon, a cliff overlooking infinite depths. He had thought the scenes of the webs to be conjured from his mother's imagination, stories told for his sole benefit He had assumed his mother and himself to be the only human beings hi the universe, and when he viewed the tapestry portrait of his father, he thought that the handsome young knight had ridden too close to the edge of the disk and fallen into the vast nothing. When he finally spoke of these notions to his mother, she laughed and began to instruct him otherwise. Yet still, in his dreams, he sometimes peered over the edge of the world, and trees swayed dose behind him, urging him to jump. In his dreams, he knew that his father was waiting, whole and strong, somewhere below.
He thought about his father more often than he would confess to Delivev. They had a tacit agreement between them that this one topic was not to be examined closely, but Cray could not help speculating, could not help measuring his life against the one he imagined his father had known. He could not remember when he had first vowed to be of his father's kind and not his mother's. He could not remember when he had first realized that he wanted his father to be proud of him.
The forest around Spinweb had few visitors. Its only hunters were Cray and his mother, and because they used magical nets that captured prey and carried it to the castle without human help, the forest dwellers had no fear of human beings. In Ms rambles, Cray had found deer to eat from his hands, and squirrels and rabbits to climb upon his lap and nuzzle him. His pony, too, had never frightened them, but before his great gray horse they now scattered, and all he saw of woodland creatures was an occasional rustle of leaves
27
in the undergrowth. He had no hunting plans, for his saddlebags held food enough and more for the whole round trip of six days, but he would have liked the companionship, however brief, of a deer or two. Instead, he had only a pack of spiders, and they were scant company, hiding in his boots, beneath his collar, behind the rolled brim of his hat He held one on his finger for a time, but it didn't care for the breeze of his horse's motion and soon scuttled to the shelter of his sleeve. A couple of birds had followed him at first, flying around his head, lighting on his shoulder, but they had turned back before the morning was half gone. At noon he stopped at a spring, letting Gallant drink while he filled his flask; then he climbed the tallest tree he could find, to search behind him for Castle Spinweb. But it was gone, even its highest spire swallowed by the forest, which seemed to spread oat in every direction, unbroken. Cray had never felt so alone in his life. He felt frightened by that, and elated, all at once.