"Kate Forsyth - Eileanan 01 - The Witches Of Eileanan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Forsyth Kate)

lit the candles on the mantelpiece and table with her finger. Warm light flickered up, and after a
moment Isabeau moved reluctantly closer.
 "Come sit here, lassie," the woman said, and Isabeau kneeled on the floor by her feet, frowning a
little but compelled by the serene authority in the strange woman's voice.

At first, because of the blackness of her hair and the smoothness of her face, Isabeau had thought
the woman was young. Now she was not so sure. Although few lines marred the pale skin, there
was an undeniable maturity in her gaze and under her eyes were dark circles. There was a sense of
weariness about her, of long roads traveled and long years endured. It was hard to keep her gaze
steady under those calm, searching eyes, but Isabeau stubbornly refused to look away.

"I am glad indeed to meet ye, Isabeau," the woman said at last. "My name is Seychella and I'm an
auld friend o' your guardian's. I traveled long and hard to get hereтАФit's been a tiring few months."

Isabeau wondered why the woman would make such a journey just to visit their hidden valley.
Although beautiful, there was not much here except trees and rocks, and she would have had to find
her way through the deep ravines and gorges that made the Sithiche Mountains so impenetrable.
Isabeau realized that Meghan's unexpected absence the last few weeks must have been due to the
expected arrival of Seychella. Meghan must have gone to meet the stranger-witch and guide her
back through the labyrinth of caves that was the only entrance to the valley. So why was Seychella
here? One did not undertake such a long and difficult journey to make a social call.

Isabeau's interest quickened, for her birthday was only a couple of days away. In the days when
the Coven was a power in the land, acolytes were Tested on their sixteenth birthdays for
acceptance into the Coven as apprentices. Most acolytes would have spent the previous eight years
at the Theurgia being taught many of the basic principles of magic after undertaking the First Test of
Power at the age of eight. Isabeau knew that acolytes won their first ring and the witch's ceremonial
dagger after the Second Test of Power, to indicate their status as apprentice-witches. Eight years
later, after passing the Third Test of Power, apprentices won their witch's staff as a full member of
the Coven.

Many witches never gained more than their moonstone ring, but if they had power and ambition,
they could go on and try for their rings of elements. If a witch passed the first, second and third
Tests in any one element, they were counted a sorcerer or sorceress, and could wear the
appropriate precious stone on their left hands. Of course, no one dared wear rings of any kind
anymore. Still, Isabeau had often dreamed of winning her moonstone ring and becoming an
apprentice. Could Meghan be meaning to Test Isabeau, even though the Coven was disbanded and
witchcraft outlawed? lsabeau's heart began to race, for her burning ambition was to learn more of
the art of magic.

Although she knew witchcraft was forbidden, and that anyone found practicing it was put to death
or exiled, Isabeau was fascinated by the subject. She loved the feel of drawing on the One Power,
the gradual heightening of all the senses, the feeling of power and grandeur that filled her. Why, their
whole history was spun from magic threads, though this was a history no one would admit to now.
And although Meghan would talk little about the uses and practices of the One Power, Isabeau had
gradually been working through her guardian's hundreds of books. Most of them were fairy stories,
vague prophecies and simple spells, that anyone could do, but in one, a very ancient magical book,
Isabeau had read of witches who could command the weather, make themselves invisible, tell the
future, and even fly.