"Robin McKinley - A Knot in the Grain" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinley Robin)

pride in his voice, and saw the blankness in his eyes; yet she did not know that he was standing again on
a mountain, feeling all that had meant anything to him draining away from him into the earth, drawn by the
ebbing life-force of the army he had opposed. One of the manтАЩs long-fingered hands had stretched
toward the two women as he spoke; but as he said тАЬmage-strength,тАЭ the hand went to his forehead.
When it dropped to his side again, there were white marks that stood a moment against the skin, where
the fingertips had pressed too hard.
Jolin put one arm around LilyтАЩs shoulders and reached her other hand out delicately, to touch
SahathтАЩs sleeve. He looked up again at the touch of her fingers. тАЬYou are welcome to stay with us,
Sahath.тАЭ
Lily after all spoke to him very little that evening, as if, he thought, she did not trust herself, although
she listened eagerly to the harmless stories he told them of other lands and peoples he had visited; and
she not infrequently inter-rupted him to ask for unimportant details. He was careful to answer everything
she asked as precisely as he could; once or twice she laughed at his replies, although there was nothing
overtly amusing about them.
In the morning when he awoke, only a little past dawn, Lily was already gone. Jolin gave him
breakfast and said without looking at him, тАЬLily has gone gathering wild herbs; dawn is best for some of
those she seeks.тАЭ Sahath saw in her mind that Lily had gone by her own decision; Jolin had not sent her,
or tried to suggest the errand to her.
He felt strangely bereft, and he sat, crumbling a piece of sweet brown bread with his fingers and
staring into his cup of herb tea. He recognized the infusion: chintanth for calm, monar for
clear-mindedness. He drank what was in the cup and poured himself more. Jolin moved around the
kitchen, putting plates and cups back into the cupboard.
He said abruptly, тАЬIs there any work a simple manтАЩs strength might do for you?тАЭ
There was a rush of things through JolinтАЩs mind: her and LilyтАЩs self-sufficiency, and their pleasure in it;
another surge of mistrust for mage-cunningтАФsuddenly and ashamedly put down; this surprised him, as he
stared into his honey-clouded tea, and it gave him hope. Hope? he thought. He had not known hope
since he lost his mage-strength; he had nearly forgotten its name. Jolin stood gazing into the depths of the
cupboard, tracing the painted borders of vines and leaves and flowers with her eye; and now her
thoughts were of things that it would be good to have done, that she and Lily always meant to see to, and
never quite had time for.
When Lily came home in the late morning, a basket over her arm, Sahath was working his slow way
with a spade down the square of field that Jolin had long had in her mind as an extension of her herb
garden. Lily halted at the edge of the freshly turned earth, and breathed deep of the damp sweet smell of
it. Sahath stopped to lean on his spade, and wiped his forehead on one long dark sleeve. It is near
din-nertime, said Lily hesitantly, fearful of asking him why he was digging JolinтАЩs garden; but her heart
was beating faster than her swift walking could explain.
He ate with them, a silent meal, for none of the three wished to acknowledge or discuss the new
balance that was already growing among them. Then he went back to his spade.
He did a careful, thorough job of the new garden plot; two days it took him. When he finished it, he
widened the kitchen garden. Then he built a large new paddock for LilyтАЩs horseтАФand his own; the two
horses had made friends at once, and stood head to tail in the shade at the edge of the tiny turn-out that
flanked the small barn. When they were first intro-duced to their new field, they ran like furies around it,
squeal-ing and plunging at each other. Jolin came out of the house to see what the uproar was about.
Sahath and Lily were leaning side by side on the top rail of the sturdy new fence; Jolin wondered what
they might be saying to each other. The horses had enough of being mad things, and ambled quietly over
to ask their riders for handouts. Jolin turned and reen-tered the house.
On the third day after his arrival Jolin gave Sahath a shirt and trousers, lengthened for their new
owner: The shirt tail and cuffs were wide red bands sewn neatly onto the original yellow cloth; the
trousers were green, and each leg bore a new darker green hem. No mage had ever worn such garb. He
put them on. At the end of the week Lily gave him a black and greenтАФthe same coarse green of the