"Robin McKinley - Spindle's End" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinley Robin)

her off while the king was young enough to remarry (and there was
a whole new crop of princesses grown up to marriageable age outside
the borders as well as a few within), and hoping that she would get
well and come to more fairs and festivals and kiss more babies The
givers of boring speeches especially wished this, she was the best audience
they had ever had
The truth never occurred to anyone-not even when she began
to wear loose gowns and to walk more heavily than she used to-because
there had been no announcement.
The king knew, and her chief waiting-woman knew, and the fairy
who disguised the queen's belly knew. But the fairy had warned the
king and queen that the disguise would go so far and no further:
the baby must be allowed to grow unmolested by tight laces and the
queen's balance not be deranged by high-heeled shoes. "A magician
might make you a proper disguise," said the fairy, whose name was
Sigil, "and let you dance all night in a sheath of silk no bigger around
than your waist used to be; but I wouldn't advise it. Magicians know
everything about magic and nothing about babies. I don't know
nearly as much about magic as they do-but I know a lot about
babies."
Sigil had been with the king's family since the king's mother had
been queen, and the king loved her dearly, and his queen had found
in her her first friend when she came to her husband's court, when
she badly needed a friend. And so it was to Sigil the queen went, as
soon as she knew for sure that she was pregnant, and begged for the
disguise, saying that she had longed for a child for so many years she
thought she could not bear the weight of the watchfulness of her
husband's people, who had longed for this child all these years, too,
if her pregnancy were announced. The king, who had wanted to declare
a public holiday, was disappointed; but Sigil sided with the
queen.
The poor queen could not quite bring herself, after all the long
childless years, to believe it when her friend told her that the baby was
fine and healthy and would be born without trouble-"Well, my
dear, without any more trouble than the birth of babies does cause,
and which you, poor thing, will find quite troublesome enough."
And so the birth of an heir was not announced until the queen went
into labour. The queen would have waited even then till the baby was
born, but Sigil said no, that the baby must be born freely into the
world, and freely, in an heir to a realm, meant with its people waiting
to welcome it.
The country, that day, went into convulsions not unlike those
the poor queen was suffering. An heir! An heir at last! And no one
knew! The courtiers and councillors were offended, and the highest ranking
magicians furious, but their voices were drowned out in the
tumult of jubilation from the people. The news travelled more
quickly than any mere human messenger could take it, for the horses
neighed it and the trees sang it and the kettles boiled it and the dust
whispered it-an heir! The king's child is born! We have an heir at
last!