"Kate Forsyth - Eileanan 03 - The Cursed Towers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Forsyth Kate)

their support. Until they had purchased the wagon, the children had had to walk and so their progress
had been painfully slow. The delay had frustrated them all, but particularly Dide, who longed to be with
Lachlan in the center of the action.

Dide and his grandmother Enit had worked closely with the young prionnsa, coordinating the rebellion
and undermining the Banrigh's powers. They had given him shelter for five long years as he struggled to
adapt to life as a man again after so many years trapped in the body of a blackbird. Now Dide was
impatient to reach Lu-cescere and greet his friend, the new Righ of all Eilea-nan. The young jongleur had
urged the convoy on at a dangerous pace, pushing on well into the snowy nights and waking them before
the dawn to hitch up the horses again.

On their journey to Rionnagan, the jongleurs had heard many different rumors. There was talk of the
Fair-gean rising, invasions of Bright Soldiers from beyond the Great Divide, regicide and civil war. Some
of the villages had been attacked by bands of soldiers, some from Tirsoilleir and some the former
Banrigh's own guards fleeing the new order. Sometimes on the horizon they saw pillars of smoke rising as
another town fell to the invaders. It had been a time of great anxiety for the jongleurs, and Enit had dared
not use her witch skills to seek news of their friends with the countryside in such turmoil. Although every
town had pinned to the door of its meeting hall a copy of the Righ's new decrees announcing the
restoration of the Coven of Witches, it would take some time before those with faery blood felt safe to
openly walk the streets or enter a village tavern.

It was cold out in the courtyard tonight, however, and from the inn came the sound of music and laughter.
Li-lanthe stared longingly at the brightly lit windows and wondered how long it would be before one of
the children remembered she and Gwilym were out here and brought them some food. Despite the
shelter it gave her, she hated being left out in the darkness while the others were free to relax and enjoy
themselves inside by the fire. She wondered whether Dide had even noticed her absence.

Gwilym was busy cleaning the horses' tack and checking their hooves for stones, balancing himself with a
club under one arm to compensate for his wooden leg. After a while the tree-shifter looked at him rather
shyly and said, "Happen they may want me to perform tonight?"

"Ye'd be better staying out here," Gwilym said tersely. "The jongleurs dinna need ye. They have plenty o'
support from the bairns, and besides, ye ken it be dangerous."

Lilanthe said nothing for a while, then replied rather sulkily, "The last village we were at liked my
mimicry."

"And the village before that chased us out o' town with stones and rotten fruit," Gwilym said, scowling at
her. He was a thickset man with pockmarked skin, a hooked nose and a sardonic mouth, and Lilanthe
was secretly rather afraid of him.

"Ye could cast a spell o' glamourie over me," she suggested after a moment. "It'll be dim in there, and it is
no' likely that there'll be anyone with enough Talent to see through the illusion."

Gwilym refused gruffly, but she looked at him so pleadingly he eventually relented with a shrug and a
mutter. Glancing around the courtyard to make sure they were unobserved, he pointed two fingers at her
and intoned the spell, smoothing and flattening Lilanthe's features so she looked much like any other
country lass. Her twiggy hair, bare now of any leaves and flowers, he transformed into flowing brown
locks that Lilanthe wished fervently were really hers.