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

there, behind her eyes. Yet she is her fatherтАЩs daughter. She has his
eyes, his hair, everything. Everything but his ability to understand
what will hold twelve restless Crowns under her rule.тАЭ He shook his
wild head and scooped another spoonful of oats. тАЬItтАЩs disturbing.тАЭ
тАЬShe has Vevay to counsel her,тАЭ a librarian reminded him.
тАЬShe has the entire Floating School, but she does not seem to
realize that she might need all the help she can get.тАЭ
Nepenthe, hovering in the doorway, took a discreet step back out
of eyesight and stepped on someoneтАЩs foot. She turned. It was only
Laidley, who seemed to have been following her.
His head bobbed diffidently as she apologized. His lank,
straw-pale hair hung in his eyes, which were too close together and
a pallid gray. Intent on NepentheтАЩs face, they seemed slightly
crossed. He was a stoop-shouldered young man whose hair had
already begun to thin, revealing the bulge of the well-filled skull
beneath. He knew more languages than most of the transcriptors.
Around Nepenthe he could barely find words in any of them.
But he spoke that morning as she began eating her porridge.
тАЬOriel says you are riding with her to the Floating School to bring
back a manuscript the mages canтАЩt translate.тАЭ
She nodded, feeling guilty about the scholar, awake and
oblivious, just on the other side of the wall. тАЬWhy? Do you want to
go instead of me?тАЭ
He shifted, disconcerted. тАЬI was thinking: with.тАЭ
тАЬBut then I wouldnтАЩt have to go.тАЭ
тАЬBut then тАФ тАЭ He paused. She read the rest in his eyes, in the
slant of his mouth: then I wouldnтАЩt go with you.
She swallowed oats wordlessly, then made an effort to change his
expression, which seemed to be bleak, lately, whenever he looked at
her. тАЬDo you want to see the book before we give it to the
librarians? They might keep it to themselves for months while they
decipher it.тАЭ
His eyes looked crossed again, this time with avidity. тАЬYes. Very
much.тАЭ
тАЬThen work near the south stairs in the library and watch for us
to come back.тАЭ
His head bobbed again; he swallowed a word. Then he smiled, a
generous and surprisingly sweet smile that made her stare. тАЬThank
you, Nepenthe.тАЭ
It took half the morning, it seemed, for the two transcriptors to
find their way up and out of stone onto earth. They took horses
from the library stables, a pair of gentle nags that could not
frighten even Oriel. Once outside the palace walls, as they made
their way along the cliff road to skirt the pavilions and paddocks,
servants, wagons, the assorted paraphernalia of travel, Nepenthe
turned to look back. The immense and complex maze of stone with
its spiraling walls and towers built upon towers clung like a small
mountain to the cliff, spilled halfway down it, a crust of angles,
burrows, parapets between more towers, balconies and bridges
thrust out of the face of the cliff, windows in the stone like a