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

was beneath the lowest outstretched arms of the holly. Mean-
while, the druid song for the oaks gave way to a rhythmic chant
that hid any sound I was making.

When I reached the holly trunk, I wormed my way to my feet
between the branches, only to discover my view into the glade
was still blocked by its evergreen leaves, impatiently I started to
push a branch out of the way . . . just as the central figure in the
glade turned in my direction.

Brandishing the carved ash stick that was the symbol of his
authority, Menua, chief druid of the Camutes and Keeper of the
Grove, seemed to be looking straight at me. I froze. Cold sweat
ran down my bare legs below my tunic.

If I were already counted as an adult, which I should have been
after surviving fifteen winters, I would have been entitled to wear
the tight-fitting woolen leggings grown men wore. But I had not
been initiated into adulthood. My legs had not officially reached
their final length. My manmaking was to take place in the spring,
and spring would not come-

The full weight of the danger struck me. I could be classed as
a criminal for breaking a druid prohibition. Criminals were, at
the option of the druid judges, fodder for sacrifice.

I stared in horror toward Menua, convinced that he with all his
powers could see me through me most solid leaves.

But to my enormous relief, he did not. The chief druid contin-
ued the slow turning of his body. Murmuring in counterpoint to
the chanting, he began weaving designs in the air with his hands,
letting the ash stick fall.

There was a sudden tingling on my skin such as one feels before
a storm breaks. The hair stirred on my forearms and lifted on the
nape of my neck, moved by the inrush of unseen forces. The
murky morning dimmed and the air grew colder, denser, thick
with tension.

In the glade the druids began circling sunwise around a central
hub. Between their moving bodies I glimpsed something white
lying on the raised stone slab used for sacrifices.

10

Morgan Llywelyn

I thought I understood. A gift of life would be offered in ex-
change for a gift from the Otherworid.