"Robin McKinley - Damar 1 - The Blue Sword" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinley Robin)

us much"
"We've always known that," put in Cassie.
"so he'll probably slip in and out again and we'll never even see him."
"I've permission to invite you to lunch," said Harry. "If he's there at all, we'll see him."
 "Oh, how wonderful!" said Beth. "Surely even he won't have finished his business before lunch. Let's
not ride far; we should see something when he comes, and then we'll know when to ride back. It's very
tiresome to have a real king come to visit and not even have an excuse to meet him."
"Do you know anything of the Free Hillfolk?" said Harry. They rode at an angle away from the
Residency, where they could keep an eye on it over their shoulders. "I don't. No one will tell me
anything."
They both laughed. "The Hillfolk are the best-kept secret in Daria," said Cassie. "I mean, we know
they exist. Some of them come hereto the station, I meanfor the spring Fair." Harry looked at her. "Oh,
surely Lady Amelia has told you about our pair," Cassie said. "After three months of the rains we come
out of hiding and work off our foul temper by holding a Fair"
"where we sell to each other all the ridiculous little bags and bonnets and dolls and footstools that
we've made during the rains to keep from going mad because we couldn't go out," Beth continued.
"Yes, most of it is nonsense. But everyone is very gay for the first two or three weeks after the rain
stops. The weather is cool enoughthe only time all year you can go out even at midday; and there're
green things growing up from the ground, and everything you own is spread on the roofs and hanging
from the windowsills, and they're green too," Cassie added with a grimace. "We decorate the streets and
the square with paper flowers and real flowers, and banners and ribbons, and the whole town looks like
it's on holiday, with the dresses and blankets hanging out everywhere. We do have real flowers
herebesides the eternal pimchiealthough nothing like what you're used to at Home, I daresay. Everything
grows tremendously for two weeks, so for the third week, Fair week, everything is green and
blossomingeven the desert, if you can believe it."
"Then of course the sun kills everything again. That's the fourth week. And you know what it's like
here the rest of the time."
"Yes, but the Faireveryone comes to the Fair. The Hillfolk too, a few of them, although never anyone
very special. Certainly never the king. And it's not all the bead purses that our sort has been making in
despair. There are always some really lovely things, mostly that the Darians themselves have made. Even
the servants aren't expected to do as much, you know, during the rains. After the first few weeks you're
far too cross yourself to give many orders to anyone else."
"But mostly the best things come up from the south. It's only Way up here that the weather's so
ridiculous, but the south knows about our Fair, and the merchants know that when we break out of
winter prison we're so mad with our freedom that we're fit to buy anything, so they come up in force."
"There are Fairs, or celebrations of spring of one kind or another, all around here, but ours is the
biggest."
"Well," said Beth, "we've the biggest in things to buy and so forth; and we're the only Homelander
station up here. But there're quite a number of Darian villages around here, and they take spring very
seriously. Lots of singing and dancing, and that kind of thing. And they tell the most beautiful stories, if
you can find someone to translate into Homelander. Which isn't often."
"We have singing and dancing too," said Cassie.
"Yes, I know," said Beth slowly; "but it's not the same. Our dancing is just working it off, after being
inside for so long. Theirs means something."
Harry looked at her curiously. "You mean asking the gods for a good yearthat kind of thing?"
"I suppose so," said Beth. "I'm not quite sure."
"No one will talk about anything really Darian to Homelanders," said Cassie. "You must have noticed
it."
"Yesbut I'm new here."
 "You're always new here if you're a Homelander," said Cassie. "It's different in the south. But we're