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

safe crossings.

On the twenty-fourth day Lord Milos's people left us,
turning westward up the throat of a narrower valley, one
of the scouts riding as guide. This held no river and we
were forced out upon the sea's sandy shore in order to
round two ranges of steep hills which guarded it. We
called farewells, made promises of future meetings come
festival time. Still I think that in all of us, whether we

went forward or remained in a stretch of new clan land, a
loneliness grew, the uneasy feeling that one more tie with
the old was broken and that we might well rue this later
on.

It was true that we had drawn closer together during
that long march because of the very fact that we were
alone in a strange land. There remained, on the surface,
none of any ancient enmity with Tugness and his people.
All of us labored together to lighten wains as they crossed
on the fords, to carry sheep across our saddles there,
whether they wore the ear brand of our House or not.
Though at night we each made our own camps, still there
was visiting back and forth.

Which is how I came first to see that slim withe of a
girl who rode a shaggy, sure-footed pony which bore her
and two fat hide bags without complaint, though her
mount showed rolling eyes and yellowish teeth when any-
one else approached it. For all her seeming fragility of
body, she was as strong as any lad as she went about her
tasks with a brisk independence which had none of the
weary acceptance of a field woman, and certainly no hint
of manner of one used to the high table in a lord's hall.

It was on the third day of our northern trek that I
marked her as one different from the other women who
rode and were there to lend a hand, to the extent of their
strength. She traveled beside a smaller cart -- hardly larger
than the tilt carrier which a fieldman would use to take
his over-yield to market. To this were hitched two more
of the same rough-coated beasts as she rode, their gray
coats the same dull shade as the cart itself. Though our
people have long taken pride in painting their wains and
carts, no such decoration had been given this, so among
our company it was more visible for that very reason.

It had a canopy, well lashed to side staves, of finely
tanned and stretched hide, and it was driven also by a
woman, whose kirtle and cloak were of the same pre-