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

and can turn away from. Everyone blinked, and in blinking their vision returned to
them; and they looked around. The fire in the great fireplace had gone out; and it and
the walls around it were blackened as by some great explosion, and the prince and
the lady stood before that blackened hearth, now locked in each other's arms. And
yet they had stood half across the wide court from each other before the blindness
struck all those who watched."
"He had thrown them in the fire, the leaf and the apple," said the child.
 "Aye, that he had," agreed the nursemaid. "Tokens worth the finest treasure in this
world or any other, tokens no living man should be able to bear; and he threw them
into the fire for the love of your mother, and felt no regret. For, he said, all the joy he
needed was in your mother's eyes; and he could withstand any sorrow so long as he
had once known that joy."
"And so they were married."
"Aye, they were married. The four kings came, and danced with your mother, and
drank to your father's health; and went away sadly but politely, for they were all true
kings. The successor of the fifth king was twelve years old, but he knew what was
expected of him, or had ministers to tell him what to do, and he sent a handsome
young lord who brought a golden casket full of pearls as a wedding gift. The sixth
king ... sent his regrets by herald, with but a second herald to accompany him, and
they also brought a gift, a quilt, a patchwork quilt, made by his heavy jawed queen
and her ladies, in shades of blue, embroidered with stars ... as well send an ostler
with a horse blanket!" The nursemaid sniffed. "It cannot be imagined what your
lovely mother's life could have been, with such a husband.
"The other kings have all since married too, and each of their queens has borne a
son, and"-the nursemaid lifted the child off her lap, and gave her a little, intense,
gleeful shake-"in twelve or fourteen years, your father will be setting tasks for,them!"
The princess fell asleep nights thinking of the tree of joy and the tree of sorrow,
and sometimes she dreamed of the sound of leaves rustling, and of the sweet, sharp,
poignant smell of ripe apples. And she woke to another day bright with the presence
of her parents, for they lit their world as the sun lights the great world, and every one
of their subjects loved them and was grateful.
It was a favorite joke among their people that the way to be certain that it did not
rain on any fair or harvest was to invite the royal couple to it. The sun himself, it was
said, could not resist the queen's beauty, and loved nothing better than to tease the
hidden red fires from deep within her glossy black hair.
There were no wars, nor even threat or thought of war, for the people were all too
contented. It was said that any foreign danger, any officer from a rival king, would
be so bewitched by the queen that he would charm his own master into renouncing
his claim. The queen said nothing to this, neither yea nor nay, but smiled her secret
smile, and cast her eyes down, as she had done when she was teased for her luck in
her father-in-law's early death. The queen spoke little, but few words of her were
necessary, for the wonder of her presence was enough.
When the king and queen made processions through their kingdom, the princess
came too; and people were kind to her. They were kind to her when they noticed
her, for all eyes were upon the king and queen, and she was but a child, and small,
and shy; and during those early years of her life she worshipped her parents more
than anyone, except, perhaps, her nursemaid.
Even her dancing-master, her riding instructor, and her mistress of deportment
seemed able to think of teaching her only in terms of the queen's gifts and graces;
and so the princess, who was only a child, thought little of her own talents, because