"Katherine Kerr - Deverry 02 - Darkspell" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kerr Katherine)

if they married you, theyтАЩd still have to fight with the rotten old Boar. And you canтАЩt afford to give me any
dowry now, and so IтАЩll probably rot in this awful old temple for the rest of my whole life.тАЩ

тАШDonтАЩt natter like that! If I take the holy vows, then youтАЩll have all the land for your dowry that any
woman could want.тАЩ

тАШOh.тАЩ Hope came into her eyes. тАШYou always did talk about being a priestess.тАЩ
 тАШJust that. Now donтАЩt worry. WeтАЩll find you a husband yet.тАЩ

Macla smiled, but her flood of complaints had raised doubts in her sisterтАЩs mind. What indeed if no
one wanted to take the Wolf lands because they brought the WolfтАЩs feud with them? Since for all of her
life Gweniver had listened to the constant talk of war, she knew something that the more innocent Maccy
didnтАЩt: the Wolf lands lay in a bad strategic position, right on the Cantrae border and so far east of
Cerrmor that they were hard to defend. What if the King in Cerrmor decided to consolidate his frontier?

She left Maccy in the garden and went for a restless walk. If only she could get to Cerrmor and
petition the King! By all accounts, he was a scrupulously honorable man and might well listen. If she
could get there. She climbed up the catwalk and looked out. After three days, Burcan and his men were
still camped in the meadow.

тАШHow long are you going to stay there, you bastards?тАЩ she muttered under her breath.

Not much longer, as it turned out. The next morning, when she climbed to the ramparts just after
dawn, she saw the warband saddling up and loading their provision carts. Yet when they pulled out, they
left four men and one cart behind, a guard over her provisioned to stay for months. Gweniver swore with
every foul oath sheтАЩd ever heard until she was panting and out of breath..Finally she told herself that she
should have expected no less. All at once, she felt hopeless. Even if Burcan had taken all his men away,
she never could have travelled alone the hundred and eighty miles to Cerrmor.

тАШUnless I went as a priestess?тАЩ she remarked aloud.

Once she had the blue tattoo on her cheek, she would be inviolate, as safe on the roads as an army.
She could go to the King with her holy vows lending her force and beg for the life of her clan, find some
man to take Maccy and keep the WolfтАЩs name alive. Then she could return here and take up her life in
the temple. Turning, she leaned against the rampart and looked down at the compound. Already the
neophytes and lower-ranked priestesses were working out in the garden or carrying firewood to the
kitchens. A few strolled in meditation near the round temple itself. Yet for all the activity it was silent in
the warm spring sun. No one spoke unless necessary, and then only in a quiet voice. For a moment she
felt as if she couldnтАЩt breathe, just from the stifling vision of her future here.

AH at once she felt a blind, irrational rage. She was trapped, a wolf in a cage, chewing and raging at
the bars. Her hatred of Burcan rose up as strong as a lust and then spilled over on the King in Cerrmor.
She was caught between them, begging one to let her have what was rightfully hers, begging the other to
take her vengeance for her. Like a madwoman she trembled and threw her head from side to side as if to
say nay to the whole universe. She was caught by a feeling that was far beyond her understanding,
because its roots lay far in the past, far in another life, in fact, where once before sheтАЩd been caught
between two men through no fault of her own. The memory, of course, was lost to her, but the core of
feeling remained, as bitter and hard as a splinter of glass in her throat.

Slowly she calmed herself again. Giving in to mad rages would do her no good.