"Robin McKinley - Deerskin" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinley Robin)

living man could bring back a leaf plucked and unfallen from the tree of joy, as well
as an apple plucked and unfallen from the tree of sorrow. It might take a lifetime to
do just the one or the other; and then the man who came at last within the shade of
either of those great trees, did he once let those branches' immortal shadows touch
him, might lift a sere and curled leaf or a bruised and half-rotted apple from the
ground, and think his life well spent to do so much." The nursemaid was not easy
with her letters, but she listened closely to every minstrel who sang in the king's halls,
and she knew how a story should be told.
"So the father of the most beautiful woman in seven kingdoms smiled, for he
foresaw that he would not need to set further tasks for the four kings, now sitting at
his board, glowering and restless, because his daughter would refuse them all,
waiting for the one who never came. And such was the love that he bore for his only
daughter, and the desire for her presence, that he did not begrudge the entertainment
of those four kings, however long they sat at table, however expensive their serving
and stabling.
"But what he did not know was the strength of that look that had passed between
the prince and the lady; for the strength between them of wanting and of need was
greater than what one mortal man could do in one mortal lifetime. And so it was but
a year and a day from your father's setting out on his quest, not caring that it was a
hopeless one so long as he carried the look your mother had given him deep in his
heart, that he returned. Because he loved her beyond life itself, and because he knew
she loved him equally, he knew he must return; that knowing was greater than time
and mortality.
"The old lord's health began to fail as soon as he set eyes on your father, striding
into the court of his beloved's father, his face alight with happiness and hope; but I
doubt your father noticed, for he had eyes only for the raven-haired lady sitting at
her father's side. But everyone else noticed, and everyone remembered that your
lovely mother's father had threatened to set a second task for any suitor she favored,
so terribly did he want to keep her.
"But they said that when he saw the strength of the bond between them shining in
your father's face, he did not have the heart to set any more challenges, for the
strength of his own love made him recognize what he saw. Certainly he gave them
his blessing when they turned to him and asked for it; but he gave it to them in the
creaking voice of an old, old man, and when he passed his hands over their heads,
the hands were thin and gnarled."
The princess, who did not care for old people, said, "But what of the leaf and the
apple?"
"Ah, that was an amazement among amazing things. They thought the old king
would defy this last successful suitor by saying that the leaf and the apple were not
what they must be, but any shining leaf and any bright, round apple, for how is
anyone to tell if something no mortal hands has touched before be that thing or no?
But when your father took his tokens out of his pack and held them up for all to see,
a strange blindness struck the company, as if their eyes had for the moment
forgotten their work, or fled from the task of seeing. And they were dazed with this,
with the betrayal of their own vision, and sank to their knees, and trembled, and did
not know what had come to them, and only wished to return to their ordinary lives,
and deal no more with marvels.
"But from out of their mazing they heard your father's laugh, and then there was a
burst of flame that everyone saw, like a bonfire at Midsummer, blinding indeed if you
look too closely, but a familiar kind of astonishment this was, one you understand