"Morgan Llywelyn - Druids" - читать интересную книгу автора (Llywelyn Morgan)

My refuge had been a depression between the roots of a huge
old tree, a hollow filled with dead leaves. As I eased out of it, a
winterkilled twig snapped beneath my foot and I froze. If the
druids had not heard the twig, surely they could hear my heart
pounding. But their singing went on. And so, in time, did I. Very

cautiously.

Everyone in the fort had known our druids were going to try
to force the wheel of the seasons to turn. The traditional cere-
monies for encouraging the return of the sun had failed, and the
druids had devised a new and secret ritual said to be of great
power. Only initiates were to be allowed to see the attempt, bom

of desperation.

We were suffering a winter without end, a season of blowing

granular ice and icy granular wind. Gaul was cloaked in clouds.
Livestock was emaciated, supplies exhausted, people frightened.

Naturally we looked to our druids to help us.

When I was only a knee-child my grandmother had caught me
staring, finger in mouth, at several figures swathed in robes of
undyed wool. The robes had hoods like dark caverns from which

eyes glowed mysteriously.

"They are members of the Order of the Wise," Rosmertahad
said to me as she took my hand and led me away, though I con-
tinued to look back over my shoulder. "Never stare at them,
Ainvar; never even look at them when their hoods are raised. And
always show them the greatest respect."

"Why?" I was always asking why.

Knees creaking, my grandmother had crouched down until her
face was level with mine. Her faded blue eyes beamed love at me
from amid their network of wrinkles. "Because the druids are
essential for our survival," she explained. "Without them, we
would be helpless against all the things we cannot see."

So began my lifelong fascination with druidry. I wanted to
know everything about them. I asked a thousand questions.

In time I learned that the Order of the Wise had three branches.
Bards were the historians of the tribe. Vates were its diviners.
Though all members of the Order were usually called druids for
the sake of simplicity, in truth that tide belonged to the third