"Andre Norton - WW - Horn Crown" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

Horn Crown
A Witch World novel by Andre Norton
Version 1.0

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The rain fell with sullen persistence to make one's
travel cloak a sodden burden weighing upon the shoul-
ders, even as fear can weigh heavily on heart and mind.
Those among us who were simple and unlettered, who
had never stirred far from the fields they tilled or the herd
pastures known to their long-kin before them, muttered
together of Glom the Weeper and looked upon the gray
sky as if they expected moment after moment to see her
two welling, tear-filled eyes above us, her sorrow hanging
as heavily as a curse.

Even those who were lettered and learned could be dis-
turbed by the thought of curses and condemnation after
this exile came to us.

Were our Bard-Sages right to use their knowledge so
that when we passed through the Gate, household by
household, lord-kin by lord-kin, we not only left behind
us our homeland, but also a part of all memory? Now we
might question for a while why we had come to ride this
rain-washed, dreary land. However that questioning dimin-
ished as we rode north. That the reason for our flight was
dire we carried ever in our minds. Not only did Sword
Brothers ready for instant alarm ride before us to scout
this strange land, but a full company of them were the
last at the Gate as a rearguard. With them were Laudat
and Ouse, whose singing had opened that world portal
and who now closed it with the clack-clack of their
spirit-drums so that there could be no retreat, and per-
haps, mercifully, no pursuit.

Those who rode in the van as our guides had met us
this side of the Gate. They had been near a full moon-

tally of days here, spying out what must be faced. Their
report was strange. They told of tall hills and dales, once
held by men -- or else some life-form which was near
enough like our own to pass for men -- for our scouts had
found the land now deserted, save for relics of that earlier
race.

Not that the land was entirely safe. There were places
here and there where other forces had been awakened
and lingered, which we must take good care to avoid.