"Tanya Huff - Crystal 1 - Child of the Grove" - читать интересную книгу автора (Huff Tanya)

disbelieved and not a few muttered of insanity. It was also fortunate that the
king was no fool and would not allow the acceptance of his son to rest on his
own popularity. He called the six dukes and their households together and had
them meet the infant's eyes.
Milthra had walked with the Mother-creator as She rested after birthing the
world. A fraction of that glory she passed on to her child. It was enough.
"My aunts still won't wake to greet me?" Rael asked, sprawled on the velvet
grass at the foot of his mother's tree. He dug into his pack for the food he'd
cadged from a sympathetic kitchen maid.
Milthra shook her head and accepted a piece of honey cake. She had no need to
eat-she drew nourishment from her tree-but did it to please her son as once
she had done it to please his father. "It has been a long time since the
Mother walked in the forest and we wakened. My sisters are tired and want only
to sleep. "
Rael looked around at the trees he knew as beautiful women, women who had
coddled him, fussed over him, and been as much a part of his childhood as his

12 Tanya Huff
mother and father. He hadn't seen them since... his forehead creased as he
tried to remember. Had it really been three years? He stretched out a long arm
and tugged on a low-hanging branch from a neighboring tree. Leaves rustled but
no hamadryad appeared.
"You're the oldest, can't you wake them? "
"Perhaps. But I will not try. "
"Why not? Aren't you lonely?" As much as Rael loved the Grove, he'd hate to be
the only creature awake in its circle.
"No, for when you are not here I also sleep. My sisters have no ties to the
world of men to wake them, that is the only difference between us. " If she
ever regretted the ties that bound her, or acknowledged that they had brought
her more sorrow than joy, it could not be heard in the music of her voice.
Rael scooped up his mother's hands and kissed them. "The only difference?" he
teased. "I refuse to listen to such foolishness. What of your beauty? Your
grace? Your wisdom? I could continue for hours... "
Milthra laughed and Rael laughed with her. He'd always felt his mother laughed
too seldom. In later years, Rael would recall that afternoon and her laughter
when his spirit needed soothing and the shadows needed lifting from his life.
He lay with his head in her lap and told her of the things he'd done since
he'd been with her last-well most of the things; she was, after all, his
mother-and he even told her of his feelings for the Duke of Belkar's blue-eyed
daughter, something he had confided to no one else... particularly not the
Duke of Belkar's blue-eyed daughter.
But he did not speak of why he had come to the Grove.
All too soon the thick, golden sunlight bathing the Grove began to pale. The
shadows grew longer and the breezes grew chill. Rael rose lithely to his feet
and extended a hand to the hamadryad. When she stood beside him, he kept her
hand clasped tightly in his and stared at the ground, unsure of how to begin.
"I... I won't be back for some time. "

CHILD OF THE GROVE 13
"There is to be war. "