"Suzette Haden Elgin - And then there'll be fireworks" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elgin Suzette Haden)

CHAPTER 1

The child struggled under his hands; and he blamed it
not at aD. The sight of the Long Whip rising and falling
on the naked hack of ten-year-old Avalon of Wommack
made his own stomach chum. Avalon was a slight and
scrawny child, narrow of shoulder, the copper Wom-
mack hair gone dark now with the swift-pouring sweat
of her agony and clinging in a drenched coil along one
frail shoulder blade. Something about the nape of her
neck, where a babyish curl nestled all alone, tore at him
worse than the blood.

"Look you well," hissed Eustace Laddercane Trav-
eller the 4th through clenched teeth, holding his
youngest son's head as every parent in Traveller King-
dom had learned it must be done. Not just the iron grip
that kept the small head from turning away, but the lit-
tle finger of each hand jabbed cruelly into the comers of
the child's eyes, drawing the eyelids back taut against
any possible hint of their closing.

It hurt, of course; but not so much as the smack of
that Whip would hurt, should one of the College of
Deacons see the child avoiding its present duty: to
watch the public whipping of Avalon of Wommack.
And one day this boy he held so tightly now would per-
form the same service for the babe that swelled his

And Then There'U Be Firework

mothers belly this very moment, as his older children
held their younger brothers and sisters all around him.
His wife had not been spared, either, though Eustace
Laddercane had requested it; her time was very near,
and it a tenth childтАФmis whipping was enough to set
off her labor and see his tenth-bom arrive in the public
square. But the Tutor had been absolutely adamant
about it. Should that happen, he'd told him, it would be
a blessing for the newbom, its first sight in this world
one guaranteed to further its moral education and set it
on the Straight path for life.

Should that happen, thought the father, he'd blind
the babe with his own two thumbs before he'd let that
be its first sight of the world ... the Holy One grant
that it not happen.

Avalon of Wommack was well shielded from any lust-
ful eyes. The Whipping Cloth hung foursquare from its