"Patricia A. McKillip - Naming Day" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKillip Patricia A)

Naming Day
PATRICIA A. MCKILLIP

Patricia A. McKillip won the very first World Fantasy Award in 1975 with
her novel The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, and has been one of the most
distinguished authors in modern fantasy ever since. Her many books
include The Riddle-Master of Hed, Heir of Sea and Fire, Harpist in the
Wind, The Book of Atrix Wolfe, The Changeling Sea, The Sorceress and
the Cygnet, The Cygnet and the Firebird, FoolтАЩs Run, The House on
Parchment Street, Moon-Flash, The Moon and the Face, The Throme of
the Erril of Sherrill, Song for the Basilisk, Winter Rose, The Tower at Stony
Wood, The Night Gift, Riddle of Stars, In the Forests of Serre, Alphabet of
Thorn, and Od Magic. She won another World Fantasy Award in 2003 for
Ombria in Shadow. Her two most recent books are a collection of her
short fiction, Harrowing the Dragon, and a novel, Solstice Wood. Born in
Salem, Oregon, she now lives in North Bend, Oregon.

In the gentle and compassionate story that follows, she shows us
that if names have PowerтАФand they doтАФthen youтАЩd better make sure
which one fits before you take it.

****



A
VERIL stared dreamily into her oatmeal, contemplating herself. In two days
it would be Naming Day at the Oglesby School of Thaumaturgy, the
midpoint of the three-year course of study. Those students who had gotten
through the first year and a half with satisfactory grades in such classes as
Prestidigitation, Legendary Creatures, Latin, Magical Al-phabets, The Uses
and Misuses of Elements, and The History of Sorcery were permitted to
choose the secret names they would need to continue their studies. Averil
had achieved the highest marks in every class, and she was eager to
investigate more widely, more profoundly, the mysterious and wizardly arts
of Thaumaturgy. But under what name? She couldnтАЩt decide. What would
best express her gifts, her potential, the wellsprings of her magic? More
importantly, what would she be happy calling this secret self for the rest of
her life?

Think of a favorite tree, Miss Braeburn, her counselor, had
suggested. An animal, a bird. You might name yourself after one of those.
Or one of the four elements of antiquity. Some aspect of fire, perhaps.
Water.

Averil stretched her long, graceful spine, thought of her pale hair and
coloring. Swan? she mused. Or something with wind in it? IтАЩm more air than
fire. Certainly not earth. Water?

тАЬMater,тАЭ she began; she had to start practicing her Latin, in which half