"Kate Elliott - Crown of Stars 1 - King's Dragon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elliott Kate)

Sorcery, like any other branch of knowledge, must be learned, used, and mastered. The young
apprentice to the blacksmith does not begin by forging a fine sword for the prince. The young apprentice
to the weaver does not with her first thread weave the queen's hearth rug. So the rhetor makes her first
speech to her mirror, not to the marketplace, and the young manatarms fights his first battle against the
tilt, not against his liege's mortal enemy. So did the blessed Daisan proclaim the Holy Word for
twentyone years before even He mastered the art of prayer well enough that He might by His own prayer
and meditation ascend to the Chamber of Light. Learn these things, Liath. You cannot use them, for you
are deaf to magic, but you may think on them, you may practice them as if you were a mage's apprentice,
and in time you may have gained a sorcerer's knowledge. To master knowledge is to have power from
it."
There, on the gate that rested only in her mind, stood a constellation of jewels like a cluster of
stars, tracing the form of a rose. And on each farther gate, a new constellation, sword, cup, ring, and so
on, as was appropriate. For these constellations also shone above in the heavens, together with the
twelve constellations that made up the Houses of Night, the world dragon that bound the heavens, and
the many other constellations arrayed as emblems on the sphere of the fixed stars, set there by the infinite
wisdom of Our Lady and Lord.
Eyes still closed, she drew, in her mind, the form of the rose, but its shape and airy substance
vanished like bird tracks in sand washed by the tide; she could not keep hold of it. But she could use the
table as a kind of engraving surface. She set her hand lightly on the polished wood grain and carefully,
precisely, traced out the dimensions of the Rose on the wood. Such a slight task to make her sweat so;
her face flushed with heat, and she felt warm all over.
Hand drawn to the end of the pattern, palm hanging half over the lip of the table, she paused.
A sudden noise jolted her out of her concentration.
"Liath? Is there a fire in here?"
Liath jumped up so fast she banged her thighs on the table's edge. Cursing under her breath, she
spun around. "Hanna! You startled me!"
Hanna wrinkled up her nose, sniffing, and cast about, rather like a dog. "Your brazier must have
overheated. It smells like burned wood. You'd better" But even as she spoke, the scent dissipated.
Hanna sighed, heartfelt. "At least you have color in your cheeks." She walked forward and took Liath's
hands in hers. "I hate to always see you so pale."
"Does Hugh know you came here?" Liath asked, darting to the door and looking, out. The
passageway remained empty. She heard Lars chopping wood outside.
"Of course not. I saw him riding out
"He'll know you're here. He'll come back."
"Liath! Take hold of yourself." Hanna grasped Liath's hands and chafed them between her own.
"How can he know if he's gone from the village? He didn't see me leave the inn."
"It doesn't matter. He'll know." Liath was shaken by a sudden swell of emotion. "You're all I
have left, Hanna," she said in a hoarse voice, and then, abruptly, hugged her fiercely. "It's all that's kept
me safe, knowing I can trust you."
"Of course. Of course you can trust me." But Hanna hesitated and slowly pushed back out of
Liath's arms. "Listen. I've spoken to Ivar. He needs servants to go with him, to keep him in proper state
at the monastery. He'.s takingme." Liath, stunned, heard the rest of Hanna's confession through a veil of
numbness. "I'm sorry, Liath. But it was the only way I could get out of marrying young Johan. Mother
and Father have agreed to it."
 With nothing left to hold her up, Liath sank down onto the chair.
"Oh, Liath. I knewI never meant" Hanna dropped to her knees. "I don't want to leave you."
/ don't want you to leave me. But Liath knew she could not speak so.
"No," she said instead, so softly the words barely took wing in the air. "You must go. You can't
marry Johan. If you go with Ivar, then you can find a better marriage or a better position. Quedlinhame is
a fine town. Both monastery and convent are ruled over by Mother Scholastica. She is the third child of