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

"Well enough, Joal," Zazar said indifferently. "Follow custom."

Joal still lingered at the threshold. "There be smell of bloodтАФbirth blood. Did
Outlander bear living child? Give it to us!"

Zazar's level gaze caught and held the chief's eyes. "I bide by my trade as you do by yours, Joal." She
held up a bundle wrapped in a reed weaving. "This is my named daughter, Ashen. By my craft, I have the
right to claim her."

"Already you have one to learn from you, Wysen-wyf." Joal jerked his grimy thumb in Kazi's direction.
"That be custom also. Who says you need another?"

"Yes, I have one of your people," she returned calmly. "One who you denied for her ill-healed, crooked
leg and was spared by me when no one wanted her and it was thought death would find her soon
enough. But this child is my chosen daughter, born through my skills. Ashen she is to me, no matter what
blood flows within her. And further, the Lady of Death herself witnessed the mother-naming!"

She smiled grimly. "You can claim only what is allowed, and that you know well."

Joal drew back a step, crowding those behind him. Za-zar knew she had won. The headman could judge
the worth of an ordinary man, and of most women, but Zazar was alone, unique, and no one but she
knew her full name or who had birthed her.

It was never well to deal with the unknown, and this caution of theirs she depended upon when having
converse with the Bog-folk.

"Take dead, leave squaller-brat," Joal said finally. Two of his followers stepped forward and bundled the
dead woman's slight body in the stained mats and departed.

Zazar was well aware that Joal was scowling. She sniffed in disdain. Joal and his kindтАФshe did not need
any nudge of fear to be wary of them. But the tricks of Outlanders? Yes. She must send forth her
messengers and learn what this unexpected turn of events might mean to her.

Two

Ashen's earliest memory, at the age of four, was of the same thing she was doing just now, as a big girl at
the age of eightтАФstirring the kettle filled with mol-lusk glue, careful not to let the mixture come to a boil.
It had to stay at a low simmer; otherwise it would separate and be ruined. Everyone, including the people
in the village, used the noxious stuff to repair the matched roofs of their huts. Their own roofтАФhers and
Zazar'sтАФhad started to leak again, so they couldn't put off tending it any longer. And Kazi's roof, too, of
course. She lived there as well. Ashen found it easy to forget Kazi, as Kazi found it easy to ignore Ashen.
They just didn't like each other, though Ashen had no idea why.

She gave the mixture another deep stir, bringing up the mollusk shells from the bottom and picking out
those she could snag, using a twig lest she burn her fingers. She knew, from listening, that this had once
been Kazi's job, but by now, the old woman had turned it over entirely to Ashen, at least when Zazar
wasn't around, or when it was just dull routine. At critical points, Kazi took over and claimed full credit
as well. Ashen wished she had someone else, smaller and easy for her to defeat, to whom she could give
the task in turn, but there was nobody. Well, maybe there could have been, but the creatures she called