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

our tribes and left us unable to stand against the strength of you Milesians
when you came. It was only that made us your subjects."

She heard a colder tone in this. A hint of something deeper.

"Would you wish to change that?"

"The druids say my people labored as slaves before they came to Eire. We've a
hatred of bondage that lies deep in the heart. We would be free..,."

He said this last reflectively, then stopped abruptly and looked toward the
queen, as if suddenly remembering her presence.

"Ah, Queen, I meant nothing serious by my words," he assured her with obvious
embarrassment. "Our freedom would never be at your own cost. There's much
you've done for us already. No, we'll earn our rights ... and slowly, if we
must."

She smiled. "It won't be slow with such as you about."

The praise only deepened the young warrior's sense of modesty, and he hastened
to shift the subject from himself.

"Well, tell me now, have you seen enough of cattle for one day? Would you be
wishing to return to the dun?"

"Yes, I think so," she answered, looking about once more on the quiet scene.
"I can't be forever riding the plains and breathing this spring air like some
unburdened child."

But even as she said this, the spirit of the day assailed her senses once
again and, this time, as if to counter the solemn nature of their talk, she
let the spirit win. It was ^intoxication of a kind, a dropping of the sobering
limits of

r station. Suddenly she felt only the need to do some-|ihing, to find some way
of saluting the spring.

"Fardia," she said, "I'll wager you can't make it back to the dun before I
do!"

He was startled by the challenge, and by the note of

10

A STORM UPON ULSTER

youthful caprice in her voice. He was uncertain how to react until he saw the
glowing of her face and the sparkling in her eye as she lifted the horses*
reins in anticipation. For that moment they were but two young people, matched