"Mercedes Lackey - Owl Mage 2 - Owlsight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

And look, Shandi gets the pretty white horse and a room at the Collegium while I get ErroldтАЩs
GroveтАЩs sicknesses and complaints.
The farther she got from the village, the better she felt; she felt her steps growing lighter once she
entered the woods proper. Her stomach calmed down, and by the time she reached the lerchbush
thicket, she was humming under her breath, and her headache was just about gone.
This probably isnтАЩt the last time I am going to feel like thereтАЩs been some kind of injustice over
Shandi being Chosen and not me - even if I donтАЩt really want to be Chosen anyway. Besides, I have my
own Gift and some appreciation, from some folks anyway. Valdemar wasnтАЩt founded on things being fair
in life, it was founded on coping with the unfairness of life. The tradition continues, Herald or not!
The lerchbush was a hardy creature and didnтАЩt react badly to having a few of its buds pruned
away. A woodpecker trilled just over her head, and as she carefully held each branch and pared every
third bud off with a tiny knife, the rich, green scent of lerch sap spread on the air and she drank it in with
pleasure. Each bud went into the hempen bag she had tied to her belt. She dabbed each тАЬwoundтАЭ with
pitch from an unstoppered jar, to seal it and keep insects and fungi from infesting the branches as
Steelmind had taught her. Taking care today means plenty tomorrow. ThatтАЩs what heтАЩd said, then
smiled, as if at a joke only he understood.
When her bag was full, she tied it off, put it in the basket, and went in search of flea-wort, a kind
of shelf-fungus that grew on the fallen bodies of winter-killed trees. For that, she had to seek out trees
that were too rotten to use for firewood, whose deaths were due to insects or rot, and not storm.
When she returned to the village, basket full, it was already dusk and the sky had just begun to
blossom with stars in the east. The village itself seemed oddly quiet, the houses dark and deserted. Only
the faintest threads of smoke came from chimneys that should have been showing evidence of suppers on
the hearth. She was puzzled, though not alarmed, by the quiet, until she got into the vicinity of the Alder
home. Then it was quite obvious where the people had all gone!
An enormous party - a kind of extemporaneous Spring Faire in advance of the actual date - had
invaded the house and the lawns and gardens of all the neighbors around it. She watched in some
bemusement as her normally sober neighbors acted like adolescents on holiday. The house itself must
have been packed to the ceiling, since there were people spilling out the door, and the celebration
perforce had spread into the yard.
Evidently all of ErroldтАЩs Grove rejoiced in the Choosing of one of their own.
Well, she thought, itтАЩs the most important thing to happen around here since the
barbarians. That wasnтАЩt exactly pleasant! Afterward, well, even though things came out all right
in the end, I imagine no one was in any mood to celebrate anything. What was there to be happy
about, after all? That only one relative was killed or that only half the house burned? That Lord
Breon or the Hawkbrothers were there at the rescue ? Well, all right, perhaps that, but the
circumstances eclipsed such elation. By the time any survivors could think clearly, their rescuers
were long gone. This cause for the whole village to celebrate is well-timed.
Controlled campfires burned in the pottery bowls prescribed for fires within the village bounds,
warming the folk gathered around them against the growing chill in the air. Some people were toasting
sausages and the like on the ends of sticks, just exactly as they would during the Faire. From the wildly
varied scents on the breeze and the way everyone seemed to be eating, guzzling, or both, every neighbor
had contributed to the impromptu celebration by adding to the provender.
There would be no heartbroken former suitors showing up looking for comfort tonight, at least. A
celebration was the last place any of them would want to be. They were probably brooding by the river
somewhere, or weeping over one of ShandiтАЩs ribbons -
Or theyтАШve given her up completely, and theyтАШre chatting up one of the other girls at the
party right this moment. When it came down to it, that was the likeliest.
Pausing for a moment in the shadows just outside the circles of light cast by the fires, Keisha
pondered just exactly what she wanted to do. Did she really want to be engulfed by a party tonight?
Was she in any kind of mood for a loud, boisterous celebration? Granted, she was happy for Shandi, but