"Tara K. Harper - Wolfwalker 1 - Wolfwalker" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harper Tara K)

give his blessing to Journey, and Dion could

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Tara K. Harper

still hear his words and feel the shock as the elders told him that she would be going with her twin.

"The sand and stones are cast three times, Kheldour, but the pattern is the same." One of the elders
frowned at Kheldour, her father. "Rhom does not Journey alone." He had turned to her and nodded.
"Healer Dione."

There had been a stunned silence in the crowd. Dion's heart leapt, but Kheldour was impassive. He did
not look at her or Rhom. "It's not the custom," he said sternly to the elder. "The healer Dione is a
woman, not a man. The Journey is a testing of manhood,"

'' The Journey is a testing of strength and courage," the elder corrected. "And the sand and stones don't
lie."

Another elder spoke then. "Healer Dione," he said, nodding to the young woman, "hasn't had a
customary upbringing. This isn't a criticism, Kheldour," he added quickly as her father's eyes flashed.
"She's well prepared for a Journey, perhaps more so than most. You're one of our best woodsmen, and
youVe taught her well: Her feet are silent as the wolf in the woods. She also has skill in hunting and
fightingтАФas many of our young men will testify," he added slyly. He spread his hands. "She has skill in
the forest, in defense, in healing. And she is a wolf-walker. What more can she need when her brotherтАФ
your son-is with her?"

"She's a healer," Kheldour insisted. "The village needs her here."

The elder looked at him soberly. ' 'Your son may need her out there."

The third elder cleared his throat. "The moons gave you and your children a twin blessing, Kheldour," he
said quietly. "Double strength, double courage, double skill. When would they need that blessing more
than now?" The elder nodded to Rhom, then to Dion. "To split them now may hurt them more than
letting them go."

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Kheldour had looked at neither son nor daughter, but he had fumbled for Dion's fingers and she had
squeezed his hand tightly as he nodded to the elders and accepted with the formal words. "It is cast. So
shall it be done."

Dion dropped her fist from the dirty cloth she had pressed against the slowing flow of blood. That had
been only one ninan

WOLFWALKER 9