"Andre Norton - Oak, Yew, Ash & Rowan 1 - To The King A Daughter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

off to find a suitable animal. The Powers help us all, Ysa thought wryly, if there were none of the mounts
presently in the stable.

Then she forgot about the incident. A book awaited her, a volume of nearly forgotten lore. Though she
had no measure of the Power as far as she knew, she felt that such lack could be compensated for by
study, and in that book were many spells. Today she wanted to try one of them for summoning a creature
out of invisibility, a creature that would be seen or unseen at her will, that could fly unmarked wherever
she directed it to go and then return with what knowledge it had gained. Such a little servant, she knew,
could prove very helpful indeed in the intrigues that were always cropping up both in the court and in the
country itself. The visible supernatural entities she had once summoned had proved unsatisfactory for
most errands, as they caused too much fright, and human spies could always be bought by the other side.
One of these tiny, invisible creatures, however, could not.

The lands to the north had fared ill when the thunder-star struck. The earth for a dozen days' ride in every
direction rang like a gong, and in the cities, buildings fell as if victims to a giant scythe. Out on the tundra,
the story was much the same as felt yurts collapsed upon their inhabitants and great rents opened in the
ground. There, too, as with other countries, fire- mountains awoke and began sending plumes of
foul-smelling smoke into the sky. Streams of burning rock cut paths through ice fields, and steam mixed
with the smoke to shroud the land in a well-nigh impenetrable fog.

At the southern shore of this far-north land, two enormous waves had come and worked devastation on
the cities of the Sea-Rovers. Only those of their ships that happened to be out of port had had any
chance of surviving, and of those, more than half perished. And so the sea-people went to the court of
the

NordornKing.

"We'll not stay here, by the King's grace," declared Snolli, now High Chief and leader of the Sea-Rovers
after so many of his kindred had died. "We are a restless people at the best of times, and these border on
the worst of times.

Our one city is gone. Like our people in times past, we will take our women, our children, our goods,
and live on our ships if need be and if we cannot find a more hospitable spot upon which to build a new
city." He put his hand on the shoulder of his son Obern. Barely a man as the Sea-Rovers reckoned
manhood,

Obern nonetheless showed much promise as the eventual worthy successor to his stalwart father.

Cyornas NordornKing nodded his snowy head. "If you wish to leave, we will not detain you," he said.
"Were it not for the grave burden we bear as guardians of the Palace of Fire and Ice, we also might be
tempted to seek a happier clime.

But our choice was made for us long years past. Now we must make the best of the disaster that has
befallen us and survive it as we will. However, I know that some of our people have not the heart to
remain in the face of the very heavens turning against us. For those who wish to inquire elsewhere if they
will be welcomed, I will send as emissary Count Bjauden."

A slender man with hair the color of honey stepped forward from those who stood respectfully, attending
on the meeting between Cyornas NordornKing and Snolli