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

the larder. There were signs that winter would come early and harsh and outstay its
welcome by many weeks. I was there at the edge of the clearing when he sent my
brothers out with express instructions to hunt until the sun was at five fists and no
lower. I was there when the sun sank to five and then four fists. It was almost night
when Olin finally stumbled from the jungle in tears. He had argued with Ash, and
they had fought; Ash had struck him in the temple with a broken branch and fled
while he was down. Olin had followed as far as he dared. And our Father
said,тАФHow far was that? Through sobs Olin said he had seen Ash step onto the
road and set off in the direction of the city.

That night, after hours of sorting through belongings and packing them into
old canvas knapsacks from the shed, we left the house. Anna and I did not ask
where we were going, or when we might return, but Father put on his glove and
fetched his falcon from her mews, and I knew we were going far and would be gone
for a long time. Anna was hooded against the fearful shapes of the night, and it fell to
me to take her hand; and I remembered when I had been much younger myself and
how it felt to be led along through darkness, trusting completely in the hand that
guided me; and the smell of the hood; and I almost wished for that same security
now. But I was a girlchild no longer; I had left the years of hooding behind when our
Father felt I was too old for it, so the sheltering blindness was AnnaтАЩs luxury and not
mine. I tried to be a good guide, in spite of needing guidance myself. At first I
thought we were heading to the road, in search of Ash, but Olin said no, the road
was in the opposite direction. Sunrise proved him right. We were somewhere in the
jungle I had never been, following a track the wild pigs and small deer must have
made. Our Father knew it well enough to have guided us in the dark. My mother
moved carefully, without complaining, though I knew her joints were swollen and
always troubled her. When Anna began to complain, Olin picked her up and carried
her, even though his pack was heavy. From that point on, I walked in front with our
Father, holding his free right hand.

When I looked up at our Father, I saw the hardness there, and the worry; but
in catching his eye, I also saw the love that drove him, and I felt such love in return
that I never thought to question where we went, or why.
 We rested as often as we dared. Our Father was mindful of Anna and me and
solicitous of my motherтАЩs pains. You never would have thought heтАЩd had any
infirmities himself; he strode along as powerfully as my brother. When we stopped
to make camp at the end of the day, he built us a shelter against the night rain; then
he sent up his falcon, and before long we heard her bell and she descended with a
bright-plumed bird that we roasted over a small fire. Our Father joked that he should
teach her to catch bats, and then we should be well fed. But he put out the fire as
soon as we were done, and I heard him whispering to my mother that we dared not
make another. The falcon took stand in a branch above our camp, where I could
hear her wings rustling in the dark from time to time. Among all the noises of the
jungle I found comfort in that sound.

The morning of the second day, we woke and marched, and that day was like
a dreary dream. Anna could be carried, but I could not, and I wished that like our
falcon I could fly aloft to take the weight off my blistered feet. Yet I tried not to
complain, especially after looking upon my mother, who said not a word although
you could see in her face that she thought of nothing but Ash.