"Hambly, Barbara - Dragon's Bane UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hambly Barbara)

six since, not counting the dying she had helped from life
as the only midwife and healer from the Gray Mountains
to the sea. It never got easier.

She wanted to be gone from the place, but the boy
Gareth put a staying hand on her arm, looking from her
to the corpse in a kind of nauseated fascination. He had
never seen death, she thought. At least, not in its raw
form. The pea green velvet of his travel-stained doublet,
the gold stampwork of his boots, the tucked embroidery
of his ruffled lawn shirt, and the elaborate, feathered
crestings of his green-tipped hair all proclaimed him for
a courtier. All things, even death, were doubtless done
with a certain amount of style where he came from.

He gulped. "You're.Чyou're a witch!"

One corner other mouth moved slightly; she said, "So

I am."

He stepped back from her in fear, then staggered,
clutching at a nearby sapling for support. She saw then
that among the decorative slashings of his doublet sleeve
was an uglier opening, the shirt visible through it dark
and wet. "I'll be fine," he protested faintly, as she moved
to support him. "I just need..." He made a fumbling effort
to shake free of her hand and walk, his myopic gray eyes
peering at the ankle-deep drifts of moldering leaves that

lined the road.

"What you need is to sit down." She led him away to
a broken boundary stone and forced him to do so and
unbuttoned the diamond studs that held the sleeve to the
body of the doublet. The wound did not look deep, but
it was bleeding badly. She pulled loose the leather thongs
that bound the wood-black knots of her hair and used
them as a tourniquet above the wound. He winced and
gasped and tried to loosen it as she tore a strip from the
hem of her shift for a bandage, so that she slapped at his

Barbara Hambly

fingers like a child's. Then, a moment later, he tried to
get up again. "I have to find..."

"I'll find them," Jenny said firmly, knowing what it
was that he sought. She finished binding his wound and
walked back to the tangle of hazel bushes where Gareth