"Godwin, Parke - Firelord 03 - The Last Rainbow UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Godwin Parker)

"Then where is such a place?" the Prydn demanded,
growing restless as children will when they have to wait
for anything. "What is it like? We have never seen it."

"Can you see the mole on your own back?" Lugh
replied. "Earth is larger than you know. It is there."

The children always remembered that. The place their
father made for them must be wider than they knew, with
a secret place for Prydn atone to find when they needed it.
They called it Tir-Nan-Og, the land of the young, because
no one grew old there and the grass was always green. A
part of earth to be sure, but beyond what they knew.

This they remembered from the first days, from the
time of the ice. This was told by Mabh herself, the greatest
queen the Prydn ever knew. Tallfolk feared all Prydn, but
they went in awe of Gern-y-fhain Mabh and still used her
name to frighten bad boys.

So it must be true.

The moor was silvered with Mother's eye-moon tight
as Owl glided low over the stone circle on Cnoch-nan-
ainneal and down the hillside beyond. Her hunting eye
caught the mound of sheepskinsЧsaw it move, saw the
small dark-haired creature rise and gaze up at the moon.
Too large for food. More curious than hungry. Owl flew
closer.

The girl was very small as Owl knew humans, not
much larger than a child, and yet full grown. She con-
fused Owl with her disproportion, yet there she was, na-
ked, glossy hair tumbling over her shoulders and back,
staring up at moon-eye.

Owl was not the brightest of Mother's children; what
served as her memory was concerned with food and her
young. Dimly she remembered that there were once many
more like the small girl, as many as the bigger ones in the
lowland villages where food was easier found. But now
they were few, always moving along the hilltops with their
flocks from which Owl might snatch a new-dropped iamb

THE LAST RAINBOW 5

^to feast on, if she were very lucky and very fast. These
Hwere the small folk of the hills, moving from one earth
|Lhouse to another, setting their rath poles over the crannog