"Katherine Kerr - Deverry 06 - A Time Of Omens" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kerr Katherine)

green and gold, white and red, faces and parts of faces, words and names flung into a purple wind,
strange beings and glimpses of landscapes, round and round, faster and faster, yet flowing always
upward. She clutched ElessarioтАЩs hand tight in both of hers and swept her along as they tumbled, spun,
flew higher, ever higher through a rush of voices and images, until at last, with a crack like the strike of a
sword on a wooden shield, they fell into the grass of the river meadow, where the Host was dancing in
the summer sun. Elessario rolled over onto her back and began to laugh.

тАЬOh, that was exciting! It was truly a splendid sort of game! Will being born be like that, Dalla?тАЭ

тАЬYes, but backward. That is, youтАЩll go down and down instead of up.тАЭ

тАЬAnd where will I come out, then?тАЭ Elessario sat up, wrapping her arms around her knees.

тАЬTo a place where itтАЩs all warm and dark and safe, where youтАЩll sleep for a long time.тАЭ Dallandra had
told her this story a hundred times before, but the girl loved hearing it. тАЬThen youтАЩll find yourself in a
bright place, and someone will hold you, and youтАЩll really, really know what love is. But it wonтАЩt all be
easy, Elli my sweet. It truly wonтАЩt.тАЭ

тАЬYou told me about the hard bits. Pain and blood and slime.тАЭ She frowned, looking across the flowered
fields. тАЬI donтАЩt want to hear about them again now, please.тАЭ

Dalla felt her heart wrench, wondering for the thousandth time if she were doing the right thing, if indeed
she had enough knowledge to do the right thing for this strange race, trapped in a backwash, a killing
eddy of theriverofTime. Unthinkably long ago, in the morning light of the universe when they were struck,
sparks from immortal fire as all souls are, theyтАЩd been meant to take up the burden of incarnation, to ride
with all other souls the turning wheels of Life and Death, but somehow, in some way that not even they
could remember, they had, as they put it, тАЬstayed behind.тАЭ Without the discipline of the worlds of form,
they were doomed, but after so long in the magical lands theyтАЩd foundтАФor created, she couldnтАЩt be sure
whichтАФthe stinking, aching, grieving inertia called life seemed hateful to them. One by one, they would
wink out and die, sparks flown too far from the fire, unless someone led them down into the world. IтАЩm
too ignorant, Dalla thought. I donтАЩt know what IтАЩm doing, I donтАЩt have enough power, IтАЩm doing this for
the wrong reasons, I canтАЩt, IтАЩll fail, IтАЩll never be able to save them.

Unfortunately, there was no one but her to so much as try.



The vendor had spread his wares out in the shade near a public fountain. An old man, with pale brown
skin and lank white hair, he sat on his heels behind a small red rug and stared out at the crowd unblinking,
unmoving, as if he cared not at all if anyone bought his wares. Neatly arrayed in front of him were three
different kinds of fortune-telling sets, ranging from a stack of flimsy beaten bark packets filled with cheap
wooden tiles to a single beautifully painted bone set in a carved wooden box with bronze hinges. Marka
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counted her coins out twice, but still, she didnтАЩt have enough money for even the cheapest version. As
she reluctantly hid her pouch again inside her tunic, the old man deigned to look her way.