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

of laughter and protest, flat and stiff as a tome into a tank, causing
a wave at both ends that submerged more than one floating head.
Someone spread a hand on her head and dunked her again as she
surfaced. тАЬNepenthe!тАЭ she heard as she sputtered soap bubbles.
тАЬMust you fling yourself into the water like a whale falling out of
the sky?тАЭ
 тАЬItтАЩs the only way I could wake up this morning,тАЭ she answered.
Her eyes were finally open. She floated a little, trying to remember
when she had begun to comprehend that her mother must have
done just that: flung herself like a strange fish off the edge of the
world into a sea so far below that until she was halfway there, she
would not have heard the waves break against the cliff.
But why? she wondered, as always when she had fallen asleep in
the realm of memory.
She felt water weltering around her. A head appeared, slick and
white as a shell. It was Oriel, whom the librarians had acquired
shortly after Nepenthe. She had been discovered by a scholar on the
track of some obscure detail, surrounded by books in a forgotten
chamber and bawling furiously. Fine-boned and comely, she could
well have been the embarrassing afterthought of a highborn
lady-in-waiting in the court above. Her pale hair, which she kept
short with a nib sharpener, floated around her face like a peonyтАЩs
petals. Her fingers, pale as well, and impossibly delicate, closed
with unexpected strength on NepentheтАЩs wrist.
тАЬYou have to come with me.тАЭ
тАЬItтАЩs amazing,тАЭ Nepenthe marveled, тАЬhow your hands can feel like
theyтАЩre sweating even in bath water.тАЭ
тАЬThey always sweat when IтАЩm frightened.тАЭ
Nepenthe peered at her, wondering if it was important.
Everything agitated Oriel. тАЬWhatтАЩs the matter?тАЭ A coming storm,
she guessed; the phase of the moon; a translation about to be
reviewed by the head of librarians. But she was thrice wrong.
тАЬI have to get a book from the Floating School. I donтАЩt want to go
alone; that place terrifies me. Come with me.тАЭ
Nepenthe ran soap through her hair, tempted by the prospect: a
ride across the plain through the brilliant pavilions, into the
mysterious wood in which anything was said to happen. Then she
wondered: what book?
тАЬWhy canтАЩt they bring it here?тАЭ
тАЬEveryone is here,тАЭ Oriel said vaguely, тАЬand the students are
involved in some magic or another. A trader brought a book to the
mages that they canтАЩt read. The trader told them he thought it
might be magic since no one he had ever met could read it. A mage
told the librarians last night, and now they canтАЩt wait to see it and I
must go and fetch it because everyone else is working or celebrating
тАФтАЭ
тАЬI am, too,тАЭ Nepenthe remembered. тАЬWorking, for a visiting
scholar.тАЭ
Oriel gazed at her despairingly. тАЬIs it important?тАЭ
тАЬWell, he thinks it is.тАЭ