"Modesitt,.L.E.-.Spellsong.05.-.Shadow.Singer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

Following the Matriarch's guards, they turned their mounts toward the gateless opening in the bluish white granite walls that encircled the Matriarch's palace and grounds. Over the ungated entry rose a high stone arch. Above the keystone of the arch was set a single white-bronze fire lily. Inside the walls, the stone drive curved toward the three-story dwelling set in the middle of a park with wide expanses of grass and irregularly spaced low trees. Under the portico waited another set of four guards in the pale blue uniforms of the Matriarch, standing on the steps above the long carriage-mounting block

"You will let me assist you in dismounting, my lady, will you not?" asked Alcaren. There was a smile in his tone of voice, as well as upon his lips.

"This time." Secca was smiling as well.

After dismounting, Secca took Alcaren's arm, and they walked past the small honor guard and up the three wide stone steps to the archway into the small palace. Richina followed silently.

Once in the square foyer inside, Secca removed her riding jacket and handed it to Richina. The younger sorceress took off her own jacket, revealing her simple traveling gown of rich green, then passed both jackets to Gorkon, who had followed them inside, with Wilten. Richina led the way up the single staircase, not overly wide, perhaps three yards, but broad enough for Secca and Alcaren side by side, even with Secca's blue overskirt.

"I hope your family is here," murmured Secca.

"Father wouldn't miss it, and neither would Mother and Nedya. They've probably been here for a good glass."

When Richina reached the landing at the top of the steps, the younger sorceress stepped forward toward the open doorway into the Matriarch's formal receiving hall, where the consorting would take place. The Matriarch's two daughters, both in white trousers and tunics, flanked the doorway, each carrying a sprig of fir about two spans long, each sprig wrapped in white ribbon. The two girls bowed gravely to Richina and then more deeply to Secca and Alcaren.

"Have them enter," called the Matriarch.

As Secca stepped into the formal receiving hall, past the two girls, walking slowly beside Alcaren, her eyes went first to Alya, standing on the dais before the blue. crystalline chair-throne, a throne sparkling with an inner light that created an aura around the Matriarch. The diffuse light from the floor-to-ceiling windows on each side of the chamber somehow emphasized the warm bluish aura.

Alcaren's parents stood on the left side of the receiving room, their backs to the long windows, while a slender man with blond-and-silver hair, presumably the Matriarch's consort, stood by himself on the right. He was attired entirely in white, except for a dark blue belt and matching dark blue boots.

Both Carenya and Nedya wore white tunics with lace collars over dark blue trousers, while Todyl wore a blue tunic over white trousers. All three wore crimson leather belts.

Richina stepped forward, and then moved to the right, beside the Matriarch's consort, before turning to face Carenya.

Secca and Alcaren stopped two paces short of the dais and the Matriarch.

Alya smiled warmly. "I would like to say that I never would have guessed that this consorting would come to be. I cannot tell you, and all those here, how happy I am that you two have found each other, and happiness in each other." She paused. "The ceremony is simple."

There was a moment of silence. Then, the Matriarch glanced out across the modest formal hall. "Do any here have any objection to this consorting?"

After a pause, she looked at Secca. "Do you, Secca, Lady of Loiseau and Flossbend, enter this consorting of your own free will, without coercing another, and without coercion by any other being, and in joy, hope, and honesty?'

"I do." Secca felt a lump in her throat, and, somehow, she wished Anna could have been them to see the ceremony, and . . . somehow. . . she felt sad that her mentor had never felt able to consort to Lord Jecks.

"Do you, Alcaren of Encora, enter this consorting of your own free will, without coercing another, and without coercion by any other being, and in joy, hope, and honesty?"

"I do"

Alya looked to Secca once more. "If you would repeat after me . . ."

Secca nodded.

"I, Secca, in the sight and song of the harmonies, offer myself as your consort, forsaking all others. I accept you and no other as my consort for so long as shall the harmonies declare, through all times of trouble, all times of joy, and the times that are neither."

"Alcaren, if you would repeat after me . . ."

Alcaren smiled and squared his shoulders ever so slightly before repeating the words. "I, Alcaren, in the sight and song of the hannonies, offer myself as your consort, forsaking all others. I accept you and no other as my consort for so long as shall the harmonies declare, through all times of trouble, all times of joy, and the times that are neither."