"Zach Hughes - Killbird" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hughes Zach)

And Seer was right.

"We will leave it to the gods of man to choose," Strabo said, with a
smile of satisfaction.

"Will you, Yuree, daughter of Strabo of the Strongarm, give a sign, a
sign to encourage?" This was Logan.

"I will," she said. She put her hand on her chin. She made such a pretty
picture that I felt my knees go weak again. "But I must have time to think.
My sign will be suspended from the top of the hidehouse before the sun
seeks its rest."

I knew it all, all aspects of the custom. Only two nights past I had sat
before the fire of the Seer of Things Unseen and she, sucking the juices
from tender meat which I had prepared for her, unable to chew with her
toothless gums, had told me once again.

"She will not choose," Seer had said. "And she will demand brave and
dangerous things."

For, you see, she had two choices. If asked to give a sign, she could, if
she chose, give a hint as to the identity of her first choice and, thus
assured, that lucky preman could apply himself to the last tests with
confidence. However, she could also choose to forego giving a clue and to
demand a task, a test, a gift.

"Eban," old Seer had said. "It is said you have the curse, and yet would
your scalp burn in the sun if your curse was allowed to grow?"

Indeed, when I was young and let my hair grow it was unnecessary for
me to oil my skull against the summer sun, but curse it was, along with
my skinny limbs.

"It is said," Seer went on, "that beyond the far hills are families who do
not consider hair as a curse, but as a protection, even an adornment."

"They must be mad," I said.
 "Is it not mad to seek danger in order to be considered for the dubious
joy of being pairmate to a spoiled child?" Seer asked.

She was talking about the prewoman I loved, had loved for as long as I
could remember.

"If a preman cannot face danger for what he desires," I answered, "he
does not deserve to be called man."

"She will send some of you to find death," Seer said.

So be it, I thought, as I, having waited the long day through, saw Strabo