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

Some years before sheтАЩd found a dusty old codex in a storage room up at the top of a tower. Since her
father had insisted that all his children be taught letters, sheтАЩd been able to puzzle out the eccentric script
and discover that her new treasure was a history of Dun Cerrmor, starting when it was builtтАФsome
ninety years before the warтАФand proceeding, year by year, down to 822, when, much to her
annoyance, the history broke off in midpage, indeed in midsentence. Over the past few years sheтАЩd used
the old book as a guide to explore every room in every tower that she was allowed into and, by using a
bit of cunning, most of the ones that she wasnтАЩt. With a stolen bottle of ink and reed pens that she made
herself, sheтАЩd even continued the history, until almost all of the blank pages were full of scraps of
information, gleaned from the scribes and the chamberlain, about the more recent additions and
remodelings.

No one had ever noticed her poking around. For most of her life, no one had paid much attention to her
at all, other than to make sure she was fed, clothed, and put to bed whenever someone remembered that
it was growing late. Even her lessons, in reading, singing, needlework, and riding, came at irregular
intervals, when some servant or other had time for her. When she was nine, her brother the heir died, and
then, for a brief while, she became importantтАФbut only until her mother had another baby boy.

She could still remember the wonderful feasts and musical entertainments her father had given to mark
the birth of a new heir. She could also remember the lies, the whispers behind his back, and the moaning
coming from her motherтАЩs chambers when the truth became inescapable: his second son had been born
stone-blind and could never rule as king. Just a year after his birth, the baby disappeared. Bellyra never
did learn what had happened to him, and she was still afraid to ask. She had, however, recorded his
disappearance in her book with a note speculating that the Wildfolk had taken him away. And now her
father was dead, and her mother living on Bardek wine in a darkened bedchamber. There would be no
more heirs unless she herself provided them to some man the regent and the court would pick out for her.

On that particular day she held the codex in her lap as she drowsed the afternoon away in the willow
tree. She would read a few lines, almost at random, then daydream about how splendid the old days
must have been, when her clan was strong and powerful, when its great kings had coffers filled with
tribute and its mighty warriors had a chance of winning the civil wars. Now victory seemed profoundly
unlikely, even though CerrmorтАЩs loyal lords all told her that the gods would help them put her on a
queenтАЩs throne in Dun Deverry. Every now and then Bellyra would look up through the leaves and
consider the top of the tallest tower in the dun, just visible over the main broch. Once, or so her book
told her, a hostage prince of Eldidd had languished in that tower for over twenty years. At times she had
the awful feeling that she too would languish there, a prisoner for the rest of her life, until she died of old
age and the Cerrmor line was dead.

тАЬThey might just strangle me, of course,тАЭ she remarked to the tree. She often talked to the old willow,
for want of anyone else to listen. тАЬYou hear about that every now and then, women being strangled or
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smothered to make sure they never have any babies. I donтАЩt know which would be worse, I truly donтАЩt,
being dead or being shut up for ever and ever. The servants all say I belong in the Otherlands, anyway,
so maybe it would be better to get smothered and be done with it. Or I could take poison. That would
be more romantic somehow. I could write in my book, you see, as the poison was coming on. The noble
Princess Bellyra raised the golden cup of sweet death to her lips and laughed a harsh mocking laugh of