"Morrison, Patricia Kennealy - King Arthur 03 - Hedge Of Mist" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morrison Patricia Kennealy)

"This placeЧOeth-Anoeth, you name itЧwhere is it?"
"On the planet Gwynedd, in the Old North, on the lands of Irian, who is Lord of Lleyn. He is wed to MarguessanЧ" Arthur spoke the name quietly enough, but there was an undernote of icy anger that caused me to look sharply up at him. No love lost here, then, between brother and this sister; therefore, I wonderedЧ
I said, choosing my words with care, "I take it that Marguessan is not our favorite amongst our kin."
His laugh was grim. "Nay, not by a far cry? But Talynno, we have not the time to rehearse all our lives just now. Marguessan it is who put you here, and she too who has sent me to join you; and I do not think we have time to waste in doing aught not aimed to free us both."
My excitement and interest had been steadily growing as he spoke. "But what can we do? You have not said so, not in so many words, but clearly it is only by magic that Marguessan has got us here at all. I am no sorcerer; are you?"
His eternal credit that he did not laugh in my face; but he did allow himself that faint grin again. All he said, though, was, "Enough of one to open the door on a crack for one who truly is? Listen, nowЧ"
He spoke urgently and to the point, and when he had finished I nodded; what is more, I understood.
"You are beginning to remember," he said approvingly. "A Druid Merlynn made does not so easily forgetЧ"
At that name I started violently; and if a shutter in my mind had been chinked before, now it was as if someone had set shoulder to it, had flung it back and light had come flooding in. He had the right of it: I was beginning to remember, and also I had not forgotten so much as I had feared.
"What shall we do?" I asked, with a certain deference to my manner, for now I also remembered rather better just how much of a sorcerer he was.
"We wait," he said with a grimness. "Marguessan will be along presently; until she arrives, let us try to fill in the gaps in your mind."
It turned out that I had been to visit the Sidhe-folkЧthose whose name Arthur would not speak, and as things turned out it was as well that he had notЧhad disappeared while en route back to Caerdroia, and had wandered in impenetrable forests for some weeks before Marguessan, who had engineered my going astray, finally reeled me in and set me down here in Oeth-Anoeth.
It has a fell sound even now: Oeth-Anoeth, a stronghold of the Marbh-draoi Edeyrn, up in that ancient quarter of the planet Gwynedd called the Old North. I reflected that it said much for Marguessan?s connections, as well as her magical abilities, that she was able not only to arrange my long and involuntary rambles, but that she had managed to get me off the Throneworld entirely and here to Gwynedd, all without the best sensers in Keltia being any the wiser.
And here I had been, for nearly two years? time; though, as I told Arthur, it seemed less, and I had had to my knowing only that one interview with Marguessan, or the woman I assumed was Marguessan, at least?
"But why?" I asked at last. "Why me? You have said she and I had a long history of unfriendliness, but what use could I be to her here? Or was it merely to plague and fret you and Morgan and the rest of my dear ones? Just simple revenge, and no more?"
Arthur lifted eloquent eyebrows. "Revenge is never simpleЧyou must know that by nowЧand almost never is it merely ?no more.? There is almost always more, and I think"Чhe had come silently to his feet, and had assumed a stance of combat-readiness; it was all done unthinking, beautiful to see, and I was most impressedЧ"I think she is about to answer your questions for herself."
I saw no reason to stir me from where I was ensconcedЧArthur seemed to have that coveredЧso when Marguessan all at once was in the chamber with us, I was still lying comfortably on my pillowed bed.
She spared me the briefest of glances, then turned on Arthur a stare as straight and as potentially fatal as a spear. For his part, he seemed unconcerned, if wary, but I suddenly sensed peril, and very quietly began to shift position so that I might help, if help was called for.
Arthur, however, appeared to be, if not master of the situation exactly, at least in the position of one with much in reserveЧa fidchell player whose pieces give no hint to his opponent of the sainn-an-rian to come. Encouraged obscurely by his air, I turned my attention again to my sister-in-law.
Now I looked at her closely, I wondered that I had not known her at once, no matter how she had contrived to cloud my mind. The eyes with their eerie ring of darkness round the blueЧsurely they should have stood unveiled even to my memory, however tampered with. When one encounters evil, looks it straight in the eye, as it were, one generally finds it fairly unforgettable ever after? I was beginning to remember more bits and pieces now: From incalculable depths of years swam up a sudden vivid darting imageЧMarguessan as a child of ten or twelve years, she and I in a great vaulted underground cavern full of gleaming technological tools and artificings, and she stirring water in a silver bowl, most untechnological, and on one of the viewscreens a picture of a doomed birlinn heading for fanged rocks on a distant seacoast?
If Arthur was recalling any similar memory, he gave no outward sign of it, merely watched his sister?s face with sharp and close attention, his stance easeful and his outer mind a blank. Then, out of the ease and blankness, came a question like the point of a sword.
"Where is the Cup, Marguessan? Where is Pair Dadeni?"
She laughed, and her eyes somehow sharpened to match his words, as if she had set tiny knives in there amidst the black-rimmed blue.
"The Cup is not for you, Arthur."
"Nor is it for you," returned her brother without heat. "As you well know? Or is it that, not being Ban-draoi, you would not know?"
Now that stung, clearly, though I of course did not recall just why; but I did wonderЧwhy in all the hells was Artos (I had remembered how I called him!) asking her about a cup, of all things? I had heard how he spoke the wordЧthe Cup, as a proper name; not just any old mether, then. And then suddenly I saw it, or rather I Saw it: the great hall in Turusachan full of richly clad folk, and the glowing, blazing quaich with pearls round its rim, spinning like a triskell above our astonished heads and vanishing in a flash of fragrance and flame. The Cup indeed: one of the Four Chief Treasures, the Hallows, one of that great and sacred Quaternity upon which all Keltia was founded, a cornerstone of our faith. And I looked again at Marguessan, and I began to be afraid.
Though Arthur still seemed untroubled, at least outwardly, it was far otherwise with his sister: She had drawn herself up like a hiss-cat at his barb, even her hair seeming to crackle with spite.
"You throw my lack of Ban-draoi skills in my face," she said calmly enough, "but you forget that when that training was denied me, I found for myself another teacher in magicЧa teacher mighty enough to suppress all magic in Keltia for twice a hundred years."
"Aye, and you learned well his lessons, I have no doubt; as we all saw at Kerriwick." Arthur suddenly seemed beaten and weary, and Marguessan could not forbear a small smile.
"Taught me well enough so that I could bring both you here," she said with a touch of complacency, "and you will learn still better what he taught me, now that you are here." She glanced aside at me, then back at Arthur. "Be welcome in Oeth-Anoeth." And she was gone.
Arthur?s seeming weariness went with her. "Come, Talyn, we have much to do, and time is not on our side in this one."
He was rummaging through the depths of the leather travelling backsack that had been slung across his shoulders when he arrived in the cellЧMarguessan for some reason had not relieved him of it, or of whatever were its contentsЧand he soon found the object of his rummage, for he straightened with an air of pleased triumph.
"Do you remember this?"
I stared at the thing he held out on his open palm. It was a clear sphere of rock crystal, of the size of a small fruit; two bands of rune-incised silver circled it at poles and equator, as it were, and there was a soldered ring at the top through which was threaded a leather cord. Oddly enough, it seemed most familiarЧ
"Morgan," I said, though I did not know why, and Arthur smiled.
"Morgan indeed. Come sit by me."
I obeyed full eager, for the crystal drew me powerfully; once I was well settled on the pile of furs by his side, Arthur held up the stone before my eyes. It caught the vague blue light from outside, prisming it into shifting colors and sparkling motes, and I could not look away.
Arthur?s voice came warm and golden to my ear, but that was all the contact I had with present reality: The stone seemed to pull me into it, and at the same time to pull me out of myself, or what for so long had passed for my self. The sensation was distinctly unpleasant, but often healing can be so, or feel so, even though we know very well it is for our own weal.
Any road, I saw naught before me but the light of the stone; I felt dizzy and sick, as if I were being spun about, blindfold, and though I could not comprehend Arthur?s words, those words were the only thing I had to cling to, and I did.
It did not go on very long, perhaps not even so long as I have taken here to tell of it. Or perhaps it went on for hours, days even, time being what it was within these walls; I never found out. What I do remember is that all at once, without warning, Arthur ceased to speak, and the light went out, and I fell forward onto my knees, as if I had been suddenly set free from, well, chains. Not all shackles saw a smithy.
I took a deep uneven experimental breath. My mind was full again: over-full, brimming. There were names and faces and colors and memories and words, places and people, in a long vivid procession reaching back as far as I could see. And I could see, I could; and I almost sobbed, so empty had I been, to be now so full.
I raised my head and looked at Arthur. Slowly, tremulously, the same smile began to form on both our faces. "Well," I said. "I am back."

Chapter Three
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And not, it would seem, a moment too soon? After Arthur and I had spent all the time we dared on the joy of a real reunion, we began to lay plans for escape from Oeth-Anoeth, before Marguessan could put in train other, less wholesome plans of her own. Even explanations and accounts of what had happened in my absence must wait a safer time, so I put my myriad questions aside and gave Arthur my whole attention. Indeed, there was no other choice.
He had different concerns. "Do you feel up to this now? We could perhaps afford to wait a day or twoЧ"
I laughed grimly. "A day or two in this place might well be another year or three out there? Nay, I will make shift to follov and to help as best I can. Only tell me now, how is it with my lady? And my son?"
Arthur grinned. "You shall see? I know that you are feared and weary and troubled, Talyn, but it is best, truly, that we remove ourselves hence as soon as may be. Not only for what may happen here but for what may happen out there." He gestured vaguely toward the high barred window.
I made no answer, but I was thinking hard. Whatever it was that he was so reluctant to tell me of just now, it must be terrible indeed if only to know of it would so unsettle me that our escape might be put in peril. Still, it was no joy to work in ignoranceЧI shook myself. What was wrong with me? Arthur had arranged his own imprisonment, had allowed Marguessan to entrap him and throw him in here with me, all to bring me out with him; I was being apetulant ungrateful churl, at the very least. With my newly restored memory, I called to mind innumerable instances in our long shared history where one or the other of us had done likewise, for ourselves or for others of our Company?