"Elliott,.Kate.-.Crown.Of.Stars.3.-.Burning.Stone" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elliott Kate)

blown over them; and weapons left lying every which way.
With her boot she turned over a shield: A white deer's head
stared blankly at her.

She jumped back, found shelter in the bulk of her horse, who
blew noisily into her ear, unimpressed by these remains.

The men-at-arms she had seen had borne shields marked
with a white deer's head. And she had heard screaming. How
long could it have been? It would take months for a body to rot
to clean bone.

The light changed as a scrap of cloud scudded over the sun,
and she shivered in the sudden cold. She mounted and rode
on, northward, as she had before. As dusk lowered, she
studied the heavens with apprehension throbbing in her chest.
Stars came out one by one. Above her shone summer's
evening sky. Had she lost an entire year?

Ahead, a torch flared, and then a second, and she urged her
mount forward, smelling a village ahead. A low, square church
steeple loomed, cutting off stars. They had not yet closed the
palisade gates of the little town, which protected them against
Wilfr animals as weft as ihe occasional depredations oJ what
bandits still lurked in the Bretwald. The gatekeeper sent her on
to| the church, whete the deacon ke^t mats fax txa e ets and a
siut! mering pot of leek stew for the hungry.

Liath was starving. Her hands shook so badly that she could
barely gulp down stew and cider as the deacon watched with!
mild concern.

"What day is it?" Liath asked when at last her hands came
back under her control, and the sting of hunger softened.

"Today we celebrated the nativity of St. Theodoret, and
tomorrow we will sing the mass celebrating the martyrdom of
St.! Walaricus."

Today was the nineteenth of Quadrii, then; the day she had;
fled the creatures had been the eighteenth. For an instant she
breathed more easily. Then she remembered the bones, and
the party she had almost met on the road.



"What year?"

"An odd question," said the deacon, but she was a young
woman and not inclined to question a King's Eagle. "It is the