"Ursula K. LeGuin - Earthsea 4 - Tehanu" - читать интересную книгу автора (Le Guin Ursula K)

тАЬCan you do anything?тАЭ Lark asked in a whisper.
Goha stood looking down at the burned child. Her hands were still. She shook her head.
тАЬYou learned healing, up on the mountain, didnтАЩt you?тАЭ Pain and shame and rage spoke through Lark,
begging for relief.
тАЬEven Ogion couldnтАЩt heal this,тАЭ the widow said.
Lark turned away, biting her lip, and wept. Goha held her, stroking her grey hair. They held each other.
The witch Ivy came in from the kitchen, scowling at the sight of Goha. Though the widow cast no
charms and worked no spells, it was said that when she first came to Gont she had lived at Re Albi as a
ward of the mage, and that she knew the Archmage of Roke, and no doubt had foreign and uncanny
powers. Jealous of her prerogative, the witch went to the bed and busied herself beside it, making a mound
of something in a dish and setting it afire so that it smoked and reeked while she muttered a curing charm
over and over. The rank herbal smoke made the burned child cough and half rouse, flinching and
shuddering. She began to make a gasping noise, quick, short, scraping breaths. Her one eye seemed to
look up at Goha.
 Goha stepped forward and took the childтАЩs left hand in hers. She spoke in her own language. тАЬI served
them and I left them,тАЭ she said. тАЬI will not let them have you.
The child stared at her or at nothing, trying to breathe, and trying again to breathe, and trying again to
breathe.




Going to the Falcon тАШs Nest
It was more than a year later, in the hot and spacious days after the Long Dance, that a messenger came
down the road from the north to Middle Valley asking for the widow Goha. People in the village put him
on the path, and he came to Oak Farm late in the afternoon. He was a sharp-faced, quick-eyed man. He
looked at Goha and at the sheep in the fold beyond her and said, тАЬFine lambs. The Mage of Re Albi sends
for you.тАЭ
тАЬHe sent you?тАЭ Goha inquired, disbelieving and amused. Ogion, when he wanted her, had quicker and
finer messengers: an eagle calling, or only his own voice saying her name quietly- Will you come?
The man nodded. тАЬHeтАЩs sick,тАЭ he said. тАЬWill you be selling off any of the ewe lambs?тАЭ
тАЬI might. You can talk to the shepherd if you like. Over by the fence there. Do you want supper? You
can stay the night here if you want, but IтАЩll be on my way.
тАЬTonight?тАЭ
This time there was no amusement in her look of mild scorn. тАЬI wonтАЩt be waiting about,тАЭ she said. She
spoke for a minute with the old shepherd, Clearbrook, and then turned away, going up to the house built
into the hillside by the oak grove. The messenger followed her.
In the stone-floored kitchen, a child whom he looked at once and quickly looked away from served him
milk, bread, cheese, and green onions, and then went off, never saying a word. She reappeared beside the
woman, both shod for travel and carrying light leather packs. The messenger followed them out, and the
widow locked the farmhouse door. They all set off together, he on his business, for the message from
Ogion had been a mere favor added to the serious matter of buying a breeding ram for the Lord of Re
Albi; and the woman and the burned child bade him farewell where the lane turned off to the village. They
went on up the road he had come down, northward and then west into the foothills of Gont Mountain.
They walked until the long summer twilight began to darken. They left the narrow road then and made
camp in a dell down by a stream that ran quick and quiet, reflecting the pale evening sky between thickets
of scrub willow. Goha made a bed of dry grass and willow leaves, hidden among the thickets like a hareтАЩs
form, and rolled the child up in a blanket on it. тАЬNow,тАЭ she said, тАЬyouтАЩre a cocoon. In the morning youтАЩll
be a butterfly and hatch out.тАЭ She lighted no fire, but lay in her cloak beside the child and watched the
stars shine one by one and listened to what the stream said quietly, until she slept.