"Andre Norton & Rosemary Edghill - Carolus Rex 1 - The Shadow of Albion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

flames became a portal, a window, the curtains a stage upon which fire-phantoms
capered тАУ
The tumbrel lurched and swayed, moving slowly through the streets of Paris.
All about the cart the mobile surged, jeering and catcalling, come to see the
Marquise de Rochberr├й brought low at last. Sarah gazed out at them icily, as if
she wore silks and jewels instead of a filthy calico shift; as if her head were
elegantly dressed with feathers and lace instead of shorn nakedly bare тАУ
тАЮWe can do nothing for her, whose pride was greater even than yours. Look
again,тАЬ Dame Alecto commanded.
White Bird Dancing, a warrior of the Cree, gazed down at the pale skin village
from which her father had stolen her as a babe. Around her a dozen of her brother
warriors lay concealed, awaiting the signal that would commence the raid тАУ
тАЮThat one has the spirit that we need, but we cannot reach her тАУ nor do I think
she would help us if we could. Again.тАЬ
The deck of a ship, the wooden railing salt-harsh and slick beneath her hands.
She was Sarah Cunningham of Maryland, and in a few moments the ship that
bore her would dock in Bristol Harbor. There was no one she could turn to, no
one who could help her тАУ
тАЮThat one,тАЬ said Dame Alecto decisively, and the fire-pictures dissolved, leaving
Lady Roxbury blinking dizzily, me jumbled memories of half-a-hundred Sarahs
inhabiting all the worlds of What Might Be capering through her brain.
тАЮWhat have you done to me?тАЬ she demanded at last. тАЮYou have bewitched me!
Pictures in the fire тАУ I do not have time for such shabby hoaxes!тАЬ That former
SarahтАЩs life lay like a shadow in her brain; the unimaginable childhood in an
independent America that was not a Protectorate of the Crown; the self so like
SarahтАЩs own and the temperament so different.
тАЮAs much a hoax as the oath you swore among the stones,тАЬ Dame Alecto said
imperturbably. тАЮYou must summon this other Sarah to you, Lady Roxbury. She
rides not to fortune, but to Death, do we not interfere тАУ and so we may take her
without breaking the Great Law. You, child, will take her death, and she тАУ тАЬ
тАЮWill have my life? Her? That Puritan churchmouse?тАЬ Lady Roxbury demanded
indignantly. She gasped for air, choking on the struggle and then surrendering to
another spasm of coughing. It seemed to her that she could feel her life ebbing with
every wracking spasm тАУ and with her life, all the things that she might have done,
ought to have done; the things that needed desperately to be done-
тАЮThat child? She will never do what I might have done!тАЬ Lady Roxbury cried
breathlessly.
тАЮShe will do all that you could have тАУ and more. She will save England тАУ if you
have the courage to bring her to us,тАЬ Dame Alecto said.
 Lady Roxbury lay back against the ornate brocade of the chair. Behind her closed
eyes the room seemed to spin; she could feel Grandma PantheaтАЩs painted gaze
upon her, and felt the weakness pulling her on a blood-dimmed tide toward an
eternal starlit ocean. Eternal peace, eternal rest, but not yet, not yetтАж
She raised her head proudly.
тАЮSay what you want of my life, madame, but never say I lacked courage!тАЬ It was
madness to follow this madwoman, but fate had left her no choice. She was
Roxbury; her death would leave no promises unkept.
Dame Alecto nodded approvingly. тАЮYou must go at once, and alone. Take your
fastest chaise and drive like Jehu to that place where you swore your oath. You must
reach it by sunset. Can you find it again?тАЬ