"Dennis L. McKiernan - Mithgar - Eye of the Hunter" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKiernan Dennis L)

Petal herself."
Again Faeril picked up the small booklet. "This is my copy, Lacey,
made from the original journal, from Petal's journal, now in my dam's
possession, the original that I will inherit when my own firstborn damman
arrives.
"But I've known all along that I've something to accomplish before
that time comes. I knew it even before I began training in the knives,
even before I renewed the pledge, even before I began making my copy
of the diary. It seems as if I've always known that Destiny has something
in store for me."
Faeril fell silent, and in the distance a mourning dove called, and
Lacey felt her heart clench with sadness. "But what's this got to do with
you leaving, Faeril . . . with your going away from the Bosky?"
Faeril took up the journal and flipped it open to a particular page.
"Don't you see, Lacey? Here. Petal wrote that in 4E1980 Bear ciphered
that the Eye of the Hunter would come in 4E3007."
"Bu-but, that year will never come!" responded Lacey. "I mean, it's
impossible! We didn't even have a year 4E3007. It never came. It
never will. For we now stand at 5E985, and the Fourth Era is past,
over, done."
Faeril smiled at Lacey's remark. "Oh, Lacey, think a moment: Bear
didn't know about the Winter War when he cast that sum, for that was a
calamity yet to come in his time, some thirty-eight and thirty-nine years
later. I mean, the Winter War ended the Fourth Era. And in 4E1980
Bear couldn't know the future, couldn't know that the High King would
declare that Modru's defeat signalled the beginning of the Fifth Era."
Lacey looked at Faeril blankly. "So . . . ?"
"So, Lacey, there was nothing wrong with Bear's reckoning. He was
right. The Eye of the Hunter was indeed due in 4E3007, and that year
on the old calendar is the same as 5E988 on the new. The Eye of the
Hunter is coming in 5E988тАФthree years hence."
Lacey nodded slowly. "All right, I see that. . . . But, then, what's that
got to do with you, Faeril?"
"Don't you see, Lacey, if the Eye of the Hunter will be here in three
yearsтАФwell, now slightly less than three yearsтАФthen that means I am
the lastborn of the firstborns."
Lacey shook her head in noncomprehension, and Faeril plunged on.
"Look, I am not married. It's unlikely that I will bear a child, bear a
dammsel of my own, bear a firstborn dammsel of my own, before the
Eye of the Hunter rides the skies. And if I bear no dammsel, no firstborn
dammsel, ere the Eye of the Hunter comes, then that means I am the last
of the firstborn dammsels descending in a direct line from Petal. I am,
then, the Lastborn Firstborn, just as foretold by the Elfqueen's
prophecy, the rede of Rael.
"And I must leave the Bosky. You see, Lacey, I must find Riatha, to
stand at her side, wherever that might be, in the light of the Bear,
whatever that might be ... for it is my immutable destiny to do so."
Comprehending at last, Lacey broke into tears.