"Kenneth C. Flint - A Storm Upon Ulster" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flint Kenneth C)

the waves.

When he awoke again, the dawn sun lit the room. He felt he had dreamed a
strange dream that had faded almost away. But something drew him to look down
at his arm, and there he found five marks where a hand whose strength no
mortal knew had gripped him.

He remembered.



Book One

THE BULL OF CUAILGNE



Chapter One

MEAVE
The broad Plains of Ai shimmered with a green glory beneath the clear sun of
early spring. The wealth of Eire lay openly revealed in them. It thrust itself
up from the earth in the lush grasses, thick with new growth, that covered all
the fields. It wandered freely in the cattle herds, swelled with spring
calves, that fed on those grasses and filled the plains to the distant hills.

Two chariots sat in the heart of those plains, amidst the richness. Their
horses grazed quietly while the man and woman who were their drivers examined
the cattle about them.

"They are a fine spring herd," said Queen Meave with satisfaction.

"They are that," said the young man beside her, "and I've seen few finer
springs in all my life."

His pleasure fairly beamed from him as he spoke, and Meave could not help but
smile broadly in return. His open exuberance seemed a natural response to the
grand day, and she was feeling the lift of it herself.

Hard it was to be a queen when the air was fresh with the scent of new grass
and the sky was the cloudless blue so rare in Eire but in its brief spring.
Not so many years before she would have played in the fields on such a day,
chasing the long-legged calves and climbing the low hills as the energy pent
in by the cold rains of winter was released.

Indeed, she seemed far from a queen now as she stood in her chariot, her lithe
form relaxed, her head tilted back to feel the sun's heat. Though past her
thirtieth year, the vigor and freshness of youth were with her yet. The lines

8 A STORM UPON ULSTER