"Robin Hobb - Elderkings - Homecoming" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hobb Robin)

out of reach. The men have salvaged what they could of those that fell on the soft riverside. The muck
has sucked the rest down. Now we are seventy-two souls in this forsaken place, of which forty are able-
bodied men.

Great trees tower over us. The land trembles under our feet like a crust on a pudding, and where the men
marched over it to gather our possessions, water now seeps, filling their footprints.

The current swept the ship and our faithless Captain swiftly from our sight. Some say we must stay
where we are, beside the river, and watch for the other two ships. Surely, they say, they will help us. I
think we must move deeper into the forest, seeking firmer land and relief from the biting insects. But I
am a woman, with no say in this. The men hold council now, to decide leadership of our company.
Jathan Carrock put himself forward, as being of the noblest birth, but he was shouted down by others,
former prisoners, tradesmen, and speculators who said that his fatherтАЩs name had no value here. They
mocked him, for all seem to know the тАЬsecretтАЭ that we are disgraced in Jamaillia. I walked away from
watching them, feeling bitter.

My own situation is a desperate one. My feckless maid did not leave the ship with us, but stayed aboard,
a sailorтАЩs whore. I wish her all she deserves! And now Petrus and Carlmin cling to me, complaining that
the water has soaked their shoes and their feet sting from the damp. When I shall have a moment to


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 Legends II

myself again, I do not know. I curse the artist in me, for as I look up at the slanting beam of sunlight
slicing through the intervening layers of branch and leaf, I see a wild and dangerous beauty to this place.
Did I give in to it, I fear it could be as seductive as the raw glance of a rough man.

I do not know where such thoughts come from. I simply want to go home.

Somewhere on the leaves above us, it is raining.

Day the 24th of the Plow Moon
Year the 14th of the reign of the Most
Noble and Magnificent Satrap Esclepius

I was jolted from sleep before dawn, thrown out of a vivid dream of a foreign street festival. It was as if
the earth leapt sideways beneath us. Then, when the sun was fairly up in the unseen sky, we again felt
the land tremble. The earthquake passed through the Rain Wild about us like a wave. I have experienced
earthquakes before, but in this gelid region, the tremor seemed stronger and more threatening. It is easy
to imagine this marshy ground gulping us down like a yellow carp swallowing a breadcrumb.

Despite our inland trek, the land remains swampy and treacherous beneath our feet. Today, I came face
to face with a snake hanging down from a tangle of green. My heart was seized by both his beauty and
my terror. How effortlessly he lifted himself from his perusal of me to continue his journey along the
intertwining branches overhead. Would that I could cross this land as effortlessly!

Day the 27th of the Plow Moon
Year the 14th of the reign of the Most
Noble and Magnificent Satrap Esclepius