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

across a bleak desert right in front of three people who were looking for them, and smiled with sympathy
at her friend. "Haven't you ever seen a Hill horse before? They're supposed to be the finest in Daria."
"And they never sell them," said Harry, remembering.
Cassie nodded, although Harry's eyes never left the horses. "Jack Dedham would give an arm even to
ride one once."
"No bridles," said Harry.
"No stirrups, either," said Cassie, and Harry saw that this was true. They wore saddles that were little
more than padded skins, cut and elegantly rolled; and she could see the gleam of embroidery on girths
and pommels. Not a horse moved from its place in the semicircle, although all now, with the man,
watched the three ponies and their riders.
"Horses," said Beth disgustedly. "Don't you understand what they mean? They mean that he's here
already, and we never noticed a thing. If that's not magic, what is?" She prodded her pony forward again.
Cassie and Harry followed slowly and stopped before the steps. Three stable boys appeared, ready to
take the ponies back to the stable behind the house.
Harry's feet had only just touched the groundthe boy hovering anxiously to one side, since he had
learned through bitter experience that this Homelander did not wish to be assisted while dismountingwhen
there was a commotion at the entrance to the house. Harry turned around in time to see the heavy door
thrown violently open, so that its hinges protested; and out strode a man dressed in loose white robes,
with a scarlet sash around his waist. Several more figures darted out in his wake, and collected around
him where he paused on the verandah. He was the axis of a nervous wheel, moving his head slowly to
examine the lesser people who turned around him and squeaked at him without daring to come too near.
With a shock Harry recognized four of these small mortals: Sir Charles and Mr. Peterson, Jack Dedham
and her own brother, Richard. The man in white was tall, though no taller than Richard or Sir Charles.
But there was a quivering in the air around him, like the heat haze over the desert, shed from his white
sleeves, cast off by the shadows of his scarlet sash. These who stood near him looked small and pale and
vague, while this man was so bright he hurt the eyes. More men came quietly out behind the
Homelanders and stood a little to one side, but they kept their eyes on their king. He could be no one
else. This must be Corlath.
Harry took a deep breath. He didn't look insane or inhuman. He did look uncooperative. He shook
his head and frowned at something someone said, and Sir Charles looked very unhappy. Corlath
shrugged, and made a sweeping movement with his arms, like a man coming out of a forest gratefully into
the sunlight. He took a long step forward to the edge of the verandah. Then Dedham took two quick
steps toward him and spoke to him, a few words only, urgently; and Corlath turned again, as it seemed
unwillingly, and looked back. Dedham held out his hand, palm down and fingers spread; and so they
stood for a long minute. Corlath dropped his eyes to the hand stretched toward him, then looked into the
face of its owner. Harry, watching, held her breath without knowing why.
With a nasty feeling in the pit of her stomach she saw a look of terrible strain cross Dedham's face as
the Hill-king held his gaze; and the outstretched hand trembled very slightly. Corlath slowly reached out
his own hand and touched the back of Dedham's wrist with two fingers; the hand dropped to Dedham's
side once more, but as if it were heavy as stone, and the man slumped in relief like a murderer reprieved
at the scaffold. The look of strain slid off his face to be replaced by one of great weariness.
Corlath swung around again, and set his foot on the top stair, and no one moved to stop him. Five
men in the loose robes of the Hillfolk separated themselves from the verandah shadows and made to
follow. Harry found she could not take her eyes off the king, but from the corners of her eyes she noticed
that the other men too wore vivid sashes: gold and orange and green and blue and purple. There was
nothing to indicate the king but the glitter of his presence.
Harry stood only a few feet from the bottom step, holding her pony's bridle. Cassie and Beth were
somewhere behind her, and the stable boy stood frozen a few steps from her elbow. Corlath still had not
noticed them, and Harry stared, fascinated, as he came nearer. There seemed a roaring in the air that
beat on her eardrums and pressed against her eyeballs till she blinked. Then he looked up abruptly, as if