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

with his mageтАЩs staff. And she came and opened the door.
 тАЬNow you know, you remember when we talked about names, how children have child-names, and
everybody has a use-name, and maybe a nickname too. Different people may call you differently. YouтАЩre
my Therru, but maybe youтАЩll have a Hardic use-name when you get older. But also, when you come into
your womanhood, you will, if all be rightly done, be given your true name. It will be given you by one of
true power, a wizard or a mage, because that is their power, their art-naming. And thatтАЩs the name youтАЩll
maybe never tell another person, because your own self is in your true name. It is your strength, your
power; but to another it is risk and burden, only to be given in utmost need and trust. But a great mage,
knowing all names, may know it without your telling him.
тАЬSo Ogion, who is a great mage, stood at the door of the little house there by the seawall, and the old
woman opened the door. Then Ogion stepped back, and he held up his oak staff, and put up his hand, too,
like this, as if trying to protect himself from the heat of afire, and in his amazement and fear he said her
true name aloud-тАЩ Dragon!тАЩ
тАЬIn that first moment, he told me, it was no woman he saw at all in the doorway, but a blaze and glory
of fire, and a glitter of gold scales and talons, and the great eyes of a dragon. They say you must not look
into a dragonтАЩs eyes.
тАЬThen that was gone, and he saw no dragon, but an old woman standing there in the doorway, a bit
stooped, a tall old fisherwoman with big hands. She looked at him as he did at her. And she said, тАШCome
in, Lord Ogion.тАЩ
тАЬSo he went in. She served him fish soup, and they ate, and then they talked by her fire. He thought that
she must
be a shape-changer, but he didnтАЩt know, you see, whether she was a woman who could change herself into
a dragon, or a dragon who could change itself into a woman. So he asked her at last, тАШAre you woman or
dragon?тАЩ And she didnтАЩt say, but she said, тАШIтАЩll sing you a story I know.тАЩтАЬ


Therru had a little stone in her shoe. They stopped to get that out, and went on, very slowly, for the road
was climbing steeply between cut banks of stone overhung by thickets where the cicadas sang in the
summer heat.
тАЬSo this is the story she sang to him, to Ogion.
тАЬWhen Segoy raised the islands of the world from the sea in the beginning of time, the dragons were
the first born of the land and the wind blowing over the land. So the Song of the Creation tells. But her
song told also that then, in the beginning, dragon and human were all one. They were all one people, one
race, winged, and speaking the True Language.
тАЬThey were beautiful, and strong, and wise, and free.
тАЬBut in time nothing can be without becoming. So among the dragon-people some became more and
more in love with flight and wildness, and would have less and less to do with the works of making, or
with study and learning, or with houses and cities. They wanted only to fly farther and farther, hunting and
eating their kill, ignorant and uncaring, seeking more freedom and more.
тАЬOthers of the dragon-people came to care little for flight, but gathered up treasure, wealth, things
made, things learned. They built houses, strongholds to keep their treasures in, so they could pass all they
gained to their children, ever seeking more increase and more. And they came to fear the wild ones, who
might come flying and destroy all their dear hoard, burn it up in a blast of flame out of mere carelessness
and ferocity.
тАЬThe wild ones feared nothing. They learned nothing. Because they were ignorant and fearless, they could
not save themselves when the flightless ones trapped them as animals and killed them. But other wild ones
would come flying and set the beautiful houses afire, and destroy, and kill. Those that were strongest, wild
or wise, were those who killed each other first.
тАЬThose who were most afraid, they hid from the fighting, and when there was no more hiding they ran
from it. They used their skills of making and made boats and sailed east, away from the western isles