"Marc Laidlaw - Jane" - читать интересную книгу автора (Laidlaw Marc)

the bird of royals, to which my father replied,тАФBirds do not distinguish one type of
man from another but will accept any master who treats them with dignity.

To prove his point, he took his huge glove and slipped it on my brother AshтАЩs
hand, and the falcon flew to Ash and landed on the glove.

And the woman said,тАФBut the son of a royal is still a royal.

Then I noticed one of the men staring very hard at the glove, and the emblem
stitched upon it, which always fascinated me though I knew not what it meant. It was
a hook like a question mark with a barbed arrow for a tip and a slanted line cut
through it, as if the question had been struck out.

I had seen the emblem all my life, but it had never meant a thing to me until I
saw the travelers looking at it with such wonder. Our Father must have seen them
looking as well, for he sent Ash to take the falcon to her mews and then began to
question how they had happened upon us.

They had lost the road, they said, in a night of rain. They should have stopped
and made camp but had hoped to find an inn.

тАФWhat night was this? our Father asked, for it had been dry several nights
now; but the travelers could not say how long they had wandered. They asked if we
knew the way back to the road, and Father nodded.

тАФMy sons and I will see you there safely in the morning, he said.

This surprised me greatly, for our Father had commanded us to keep well
clear of the road, my brothers most of all. I think he feared they would use it to
escape, but in truth they were more scared of what lay at the ends of that road than
of our Father.

At this time, Anna began to grow upset beneath her hood, which normally
kept her so calm; and my mother bade me take her to bed. This made me angry, as I
hated to miss any of the rare evening; but when the lady traveler made a comment
about Anna being too old for such devices and said that the world no longer looked
kindly on the practice, I rose and took AnnaтАЩs hand and led her away so that the
woman would not see how much she had offended me, for my own hood had not
been off for long at all.

Sometime later I found myself in my own bed, with AnnaтАЩs arms around me
and voices coming from the next room where the firelight still flickered. I loosened
AnnaтАЩs arms and went to see who spoke. The table had been cleared. I saw my
parents standing over the sleeping forms of the travelers, wrapped in their bedrolls
by the low-banked fire.

Our Father must have heard me, for he turned and gave me a look of grave
concern and tenderness such as I had rarely seen on his hard, hard face. Then my
mother followed his gaze and saw me watching. She crossed the room and turned
me gently back toward my bed, but not before I saw that in our FatherтАЩs hands, its