"Patricia A. McKillip - The Cygnet And The Firebird" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKillip Patricia A)

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One-

Meguet Vervaine stood at the threshold of Chrysom's
black tower, swans flying at her back and shoulder
and wrists, swans soaring out of her hands. She had
stood so for hours. Dressed in black silk with the
Cygnet of Ro Holding spanning silver moons on man-
tle and tunic, she held the ancient broadsword of
Moro Ro, unsheathed, tip to the floor, guarding
against stray goose and cottage child's ball and wan-
dering butterfly, for within the broad, circular hall the
councils from the four Holds had gathered to discuss
their differences under the sign of the Cygnet and the
formidable eye of Lauro Ro. In Moro Ro's day, the
threshold guards would have faced both chamber and
yard, prepared for violence from any direction, not
least from the volatile councils. Meguet, armed by
tradition rather than necessity, faced the hall to keep
the sun out of her eyes. She had gathered her long
com-silk hair into a severe braid; her eyes, green a
shade lighter than the rose leaves that climbed the
walls of the thousand-year-old tower, kept a calm and
careful watch over the sometimes testy gathering.

Members of the oldest families in Ro Holding had
made long, uncomfortable journeys to meet for the
Holding Council in a place where, not many weeks
before, Meguet had found herself raising the sword
in her hands to battle for her life. She did not expect
trouble; it had come and gone, but some part of her
still tensed at shadows, at unexpected voices.

But only the councilors themselves had provided
any excitement, and that was contingent upon such
complexities as border taxes. There had been sharp
debate earlier in the day between Hunter Hold and
the Delta over mines in the border mountains, which
had kept everyone awake on the ninth day of the long
council. Now, the heavy late-afternoon light, the pi-
geons murmuring in the high windows, and Haf
Berg's young, pompous, querulous voice maundering
endlessly about sheep, threw a stupor over the hall.

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