"Alphabet Of Thorn" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKillip Patricia A)

УI wandered off into a tale,Ф she answered. УThe tale I told you last night. Human and mageЕФ

УAxis and Kane.Ф

УI was putting a different ending on it. Only slightly different,Ф she amended. УIn the end, all endings are the same. Even for those two.Ф

УAre they?Ф he murmured, as though there could be some question about the matter. He settled himself to listen. УThen tell me the different story.Ф


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FOUR

He fought his first battle at the age of seven. He fashioned his army out of river mud and spit, causing the poets of Lower Eben to write later:

Out of earth and water he made them,
Out of his breath,
They rose up from the mud in endless multitudes,
His killing army,
There on the bank of the Serpent that rings the world.
He fought his father. Centuries later, the poets would say that he slaughtered his fatherТs army, that the Serpent turned red with death, that when he faced the last man alive on the riverbank, it was his father.

They fought under the full moon rising out of the water
Under the SerpentТs eye.
Axis slew his father,
The good, the just.
The Serpent swallowed his bones,
And the bloody-handed child became king.
It was actually a tranquil afternoon beside the river. AxisТs father, hiding from his own kingdom for a couple of hours, helped his son daub the minute heads of his foot soldiers blue and attach plumes of milkweed seed to the heads of the horsemen, whose horses were left to the imagination. The child who called herself Kane in their secret language made the blue dye out of the brilliant wings of dragonflies she captured with her hands. She whispered to them through her fingers, and their twig-bodies vanished, leaving behind their glittering cobalt wings. Axis did not notice then how Kane did what she did; that came later.

УMy army is numberless as the grass in the fields,Ф the king said to his son. УAs grains of sand. How will you defeat me?Ф

Axis considered. Even then he was a burly child, snub-nosed and fair; he had his fatherТs heavy-lidded eyes, as green as the Serpent on a lazy afternoon. Light could glance off them, as off the river water, without penetrating their secrets. The king waited, gazing fondly at his son, twirling his coronet of gold and bronze idly on one forefinger. His sandaled feet were muddy; so were his hands and the hem of his short tunic. He wore a light shirt of metal scales and a gold sheath for his knife in his belt. These things were magnificently transformed later into elaborate armor and a sword that had drunk the blood of thousands. The knife, lying on a sacrificial stone, had drunk the blood of one small hare: a gift, the king explained gravely to the children, for the Serpent, who long ago had acquired a taste for things of the land and needed to be fed now and then so it would not crawl out of its path to come looking for them.

Axis opened a hand above his cavalry. УI will fight grass with fire. These will ring your army with torches and set you ablaze.Ф

The king grunted. УAnd your foot soldiers? What will they be doing?Ф

УThey will stand along the riverbank and kill everyone who tries to escape the fire by water.Ф

УShow me.Ф

Axis lifted one of the stubby blue-capped soldiers, who were barely the size of his thumb and mostly resembled a standing army of cocoons with heads. He set it at the waterТs edge. The Serpent, a muscle rippling beneath its glassy surface, sent a wavelet rolling over it. The soldier melted into a lump of mud. Axis stared at it, his eyes round. The king laughed.

УRemember that whatever weapons you possess may also be used against you. And that it was I who gave the Serpent a gift.Ф

Axis considered again, then gathered foot soldiers in both hands and stood up. Ankle-deep in drying nubbins of plumed and dragon-scaled warriors, he sent handsful of mud-men plopping into the water. They dissolved as they fell, leaving a tiny floating memorial of seed-plumes and crushed wings.

УThis is my gift to the Serpent,Ф he called to it. УLife to make death. Take my living and send me death to fight my battle.Ф