"Katherine Kurtz - Camber 1 - Camber Of Culdi" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kurtz Katherine)

chapter two
He shall go to the generation of his fathers . . .
-Psalms 49:19

Hurrying through the crowds and morning mist, Rhys Thuryn spied the old woolen
merchant's house up ahead, its thatched upper story thrust rudely among the
more imposing facades of stone and brick.
Despite the early hour, Fullers' Alley was alive with sound and motion, wily
merchants opening their shops and market stalls, traders unloading precious
silks and brocades and velvets from protesting beasts of burden, wandering
peddlers hawking their wares with raucous calls. Beggars and street urchins
also roamed the narrow thoroughfare-and undoubtedly cutpurses, too, Rhys
thought ruefully-but they gave his Healer's green a wide berth as he passed,
some of them even tugging at forelocks in respect. He supposed it was a bit
unusual to see a Deryni in this street these days, and a Healer, at that.
But even had the denizens of Fullers' Alley not been disposed to give him way,
that could not have kept Rhys from his appointment this morning. Old Daniel
Draper had been one of Rhys's first patients, and a valued friend long before
that. And Fullers' Alley had not always been a den of merchants and thieves.
Conditions had deteriorated since the beginning of the current regime.
Rhys gained the relative shelter of one of the brick-and-timber buildings and
glanced ahead to get his bearings; then he lifted the edge of his mantle to
avoid a dungheap and slipped back into the street. Daniel's door was the next
one down, and already Gifford, Rhys's manservant, was battering at the door
with his staff, his master's medical pouch slung from his shoulder by a stout
leather strap.
Rhys started to take the pouch as he reached Gifford's side, but then he
stayed his hand. Neither medicines nor the special healing craft practiced by
men like Rhys could cure old Dan Draper now. When a man lived to the age of
eighty-three (or so Dan said), even a Deryni Healer could not hope to do more
than ease that soul's passage to the next world. And Dan had been dying for a
long time.
He thought about Dan as he and Gifford waited for the door to open. The old
man had been a remarkable part of Rhys's growing up-a veritable treasure trove
of tales about the years immediately after the change of royal house. Dan
claimed to remember the early years of Festil I, who had deposed the last
Haldane king. And Dan had lived through the reigns of three other Festillic
monarchs-though he would not live through the fifth: the current
representative of the new dynasty was a young man of twenty-two, king since
the death of his father Blaine three years before, and in excellent health.
No, the old man would not see a sixth Festillic king on the Throne of Gwynedd.
They were admitted by one of the maids, who burst into tears as she recognized
Rhys and stepped aside to let them pass. Several more servants were huddled
together in the shop itself, some of them making halfhearted attempts to
perform their customary duties, but all stopped what they were doing as the
Healer moved among them. Rhys tried to appear reassuring as he crossed the
beaten-earth floor and mounted the stairway to the living quarters, but he
knew he was not succeeding. He bounded up the stairs three at a time, reaching
the upper landing only a little out of breath. He ran a hand through unruly