"Robert Jordan - Ravens" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jordan Robert)

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Robert Jordan



Ravens

This is a new prologue written for the Wheel of Time series.
It was first published in "From the Two Rivers," a new
paperback published in late 2001 that is actually just the first
half of "The Eye of The World."



This far below Emond's Field, halfway to the Waterwood,
trees lined the banks of the Winespring Water. Mostly willows,
their leafy branches made a shady canopy over the water near
the bank. Summer was not far off, and the sun was climbing
toward midday, yet here in the shadows a soft breeze made
Egwene's sweat feel cool on her skin. Tying the skirts of her
brown wool dress up above her knees, she waded a little way into
the river to fill her wooden bucket. The boys just waded in, not
caring whether their snug breeches got wet. Some of the girls and
boys filling buckets laughed and used their wooden dippers to
fling water at one another, but Egwene settled for enjoying the
stir of the current on her bare legs, and her toes wriggling on the
sandy bottom as she climbed back out. She was not here to play.
At nine, she was carrying water for the first time, but she was
going to be the best water-carrier ever.

Pausing on the bank, she set down her bucket to unfasten
her skirts and let them fall to her ankles. And to retie the dark
green kerchief that gathered her hair at the nape of her neck. She
wished she could cut it at her shoulders, or even shorter, like the
boys. She would not need to have long hair for years yet, after
all. Why did you have to keep doing something just because it
had always been done that way? But she knew her mother, and
she knew her hair was going to stay long.

Close to a hundred paces further down the river, men stood
knee-deep in the water, washing the black-faced sheep that
would later be sheared. They took great care getting the bleating
animals into the river and back out safely. The Winespring Water
did not flow as swiftly here as it did in Emond's Field, yet it was