"Shirley Meier & S. M. Stirling - Fifth Millenium 01 - Shadow's Daughter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Meier Shirley)

mother, humming.

They stopped before the Sysbaet's gate, and Megan craned
her neck up at the phoenix carved in inlaid light and dark wood.
Ness sighed and Megan looked to see what was the matter.

"Someone's stolen the bellpull again," Ness explained. The bell
was too high to reach, being metal and very precious.

Megan's eyes filled with sudden tears. "If they don't hear us
knock we won't get in and I won't start school and I'll be a
beggarтАж" She bit her lip, trying not to cry.

"Hush. They'll hear the bell." Ness took a deep breath and put
one hand on the gate to steady herself, closing her eyes. The
clapper of the bell started to swing to the Zak woman's thought.
She wasn't strong enough to swine the whole bell, so she started
it swinging then pushed at the right time. In a minute it rang,
once, a tiny ringтАФ then louder, a jangle. Ness was breathing a
little hard. "There," she said. "They'll hear that."

"Thank you, Mama." Megan knew her mama was good at
magic, manrauq, even if she was only barely a red witch.

The Sysbaet was older than the Weaver's house and dug
further under the ground, perhaps the oldest place in the Middle
Quarter. It was hard to dig so deep now with handtools. The old
buildings had been dug out of the mountain with metal
monsters before the Fire, when the sky burned. Some of the
oldest tunnels were dangerous, full of the sickness that the
Flames had burned away.

"Yes?" The monk who answered the door had his brown robe
tucked up into his belt, his sleeves rolled back, hands wet. Megan
wondered what he was washing. "How may we help?"

"One for the school, Sysbat." Megan looked up at him and
hung onto her mama's hand. Suddenly she was afraid. What if
they didn't take her? Or what would happen if they did? She'd be
in a strange place where everyone knew lots more things than
she did. Maybe she couldn't learn how to read or figure.

"Isn't she a bit young, Teik?" Megan grabbed onto Mama's
hand with both of hers.

"She was four this spring. We understood that that was the
minimum age for your scholars."

"Four?" The monk looked away in apology for his tone. He
was more used to laborers and their children, who were taller,