"Kate Forsyth - Eileanan 05 - The Skull Of The World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Forsyth Kate)

remember you? It has been many winters since you received your name and your scars. I have often
fought with you in the past and know you hate us as much as we hate you."

"Indeed, you are no mere child," the storyteller said. "You have the breasts of a woman grown and your
eyes show you have seen more years than thirteen."

Isabeau made the gesture of agreement. "You speak with truth," she replied. Her impulse was to rush into
explanations but her training held true and she said nothing more, lowering her eyes respectfully.

There was a long, charged silence, then at last the storyteller said reluctantly, "You say we speak with
truth. How can we speak truth if what you say is true?"

"You ask of me a question. Do you offer me a story in return?" Isabeau said. There was another long
pause, then even more reluctantly the storyteller made the gesture of agreement, saying gruffly, "I ask of
you a question. Will you answer in fullness and in truth?"

"I will answer in fullness and in truth," Isabeau answered, and raised her head, bringing her hands to lie
upturned on her thighs in the traditional pose of the storyteller. "You, the First of the Storytellers of the
Pride of the Fighting Cats, spoke truth when you said I was no child, for I have lived through twenty-one
of the long darknesses. I am but a child in the eyes of my pride, however, for I have lived on the Spine of
the World for only four years. I am therefore nameless and without status, and travel to the Skull of the
World to hear what the Gods of White shall tell me."

There was a little stir of surprise at her words, and Isabeau's cousin made an impatient gesture of
disbelief. Isabeau turned to her and said sternly, "You, though, who share the blue eyes like the summer
sky and the red hair like flame that all kin of the Firemaker share, you do not speak truth."

Consternation and outrage flashed across the Khan'cohban woman's face, echoed in more subtle ways
by the listening crowd. Isabeau went on steadily. "To understand why, you must know the story of my
birth. I am the daughter of Khan'gharad Dragon-Lord, grandson of the Firemaker. It is known to you all
how he traveled away from the Spine of the World to study with the wise ones among the humans. He
met there a human woman and loved her and conceived with her twins."

Again there was a little shift and murmurs of shock and outrage. Isabeau looked around at their stern
faces and said, "Evil had cast its shadow over the lives of the humans and there was much war and
bloodshed. My mother fled to the mountains in search of my father's people but was overcome with the
birth pangs. She would have died if it had not been for the intervention of the queen-dragon, who was in
geas to my father for the saving of her daughter's life. She bore my mother to the palace of the dragons in
her claws and there my sister and I were born.

"Knowing that twins were forbidden among the People of the Spine of the World, the queen-dragon
bade one of her sons carry my twin sister to the north where she was left for the Firemaker to find.
Another of her sons was told to carry me to the south, where a wise woman and Soul-Sage of the
humans found me and raised me to adulthood. It was not until I met my twin sister that I knew I was kin
to the Children of the White Gods and I came to the Spine of the World to learn the history and wisdom
of my father's people."

Isabeau paused for a long moment, letting her words sink in. "I and my twin sister are as alike in face and
form as the Firemaker and her sister must have been. Thus you could mistake me for her, and an honest
mistake it is, though not the truth. So I tell you again, although it is true I am of the Firemaker's get, I have