"Naomi Kritzer - Dead Rivers 3 - Freedom's Sisters" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kritzer Naomi)

Zhanna took my left hand. A priestess of Arachne whose name I didnтАЩt know took my right hand. Janiya stepped
forward and looked into my eyes. тАЬYou took your freedom, and you proved yourself over and over again. You
werenтАЩt born one of us, but youтАЩre one of us now. Walk through fire and come out Alashi.тАЭ

Cheers rang out as shaman and priestess walked me to the fire. The Greeks told their slaves that the Alashi made
initiates walk through fire, and for a moment I felt a breath of fear. But they had no intention of hurting me.
Zhanna and the priestess dropped my hands, picked up torches and set them alight, then held them high over their
heads so that the flames licked against each other. I walked under the flaming bridge, then they tossed the torches
into the fire. The Alashi crowded around me, each person lacing their fingers with mine and then kissing me on
the forehead in a gesture of welcome. I made my way around the huge circle, then back to where IтАЩd started.

Now I would go through the ceremony againтАФthis time, pretending to be Lauria. I slipped off my own vest and
put on LauriaтАЩs, then stood before the shaman and priestess again.

тАЬName your mother,тАЭ Zhanna said.

тАЬMy mother is the River that will return.тАЭ LauriaтАЩs mother was alive, and I wondered fleetingly how she would
feel about embracing the river as her adopted mother, even if sheтАЩd never much gotten along with her real
mother. It was too late to ask. And the truth was, I was afraid that if I waited, the eldress would change her mind.

тАЬName your father,тАЭ the priestess said.

file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Bureaublad/N...20-%20Freedom's%20Sisters/Krit_0553902784_oeb_c03_r1.htm (1 of 10)5-1-2007 1:01:43
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тАЬMy father is the Steppe that gives us freedom.тАЭ LauriaтАЩs father was Kyros. I had no doubt that she would
willingly disown him.

Zhanna and the priestess clasped my hands again, and again Janiya stepped forward. Her eyes were bright and
her voice very soft. тАЬYou took your freedom, and held it as tightly as any Alashi,тАЭ she said. тАЬYou stayed true to
us when we were not true to you. You were not born one of us, but youтАЩre one of us now. Walk through fire,
Lauria, and come out Alashi.тАЭ

I stepped under the torches again. The cheering this time was quieter. Meruert and Ruan and the other women
from my sword sisterhood came to clasp my hands again, and kiss me. Beyond them, I saw a young man gazing
at me. I couldnтАЩt remember whether he had clasped my hands the first time, but when I reached for him now, he
recoiled like IтАЩd offered him a cup of poison and turned his back on me. My stomach twisted. Swallowing hard, I
turned back to those who were willing to accept Lauria as well as me.

There was kumiss and stewed lamb afterward, then drumming and dancing. The sword sisterhoods and
brotherhoods would ride out tomorrow with the new recruits. Between SophosтАЩs slaves and the mine slaves, there
were too many to assign only one blossom to each sword brotherhood and sword sisterhood. They would have to
go out in groups. The feast was wonderful. IтАЩd gotten tired of Alashi food during my summer with the sword
sisterhood, but now it tasted like home. Well, other than kumiss. I still hated the thick, sour drink that everyone
tried to press on me during the evening celebration.

Ruan, who had been so nasty to me all summer, embraced me like a long-lost kinswoman and dragged me over to