"Andre Norton - Witch World - Lore of the Witch World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

of what the young man had said concerning the captain. Vidruth's tale
made her believe that the whole ship's company had been behind the
mate's scheme to take command and sail to Usturt. There were herbs
which, put in a man's food or drink, could plunge him into the depths of
fever. If she could only reach the captain, she would know. But there was
no faring forth from this cubby.

Now and again Vidruth would suddenly appear to demand what more
she had learned from the ribband. There was such an avid greediness in
his questions that sometimes rising uneasiness nearly broke through her
control. At last she answered with what she believed to be the truth.

"Have you never heard, Captain, that the Talent cannot be forced? I
have tried to read from this all which I might. But this scrap was not
fashioned by a race such as ours. An alien nature cannot be so easily
discovered. For all my attempts, I cannot build a mind picture of these
people. What I see clearly is only the weaving."

When he made no answer, Dairine continued:

"This is a thing not of the body, but the mind. Along such a road one
creeps as a babe, one does not race as one full grown."

"You have less than a day now. Before sundown, Usturt shall rise before
us. I know only what I have heard tell of witch powers, and that may well
be changed by the telling and retelling. Remember, girl, your life can well
ride on your 'seeing'!"

She heard him go. The ribband no longer felt so light and soft. Rather,
it had taken on the heaviness of a slave chain binding her to his will. She
ate ship's biscuits from the plate he had brought her. It was true time was
passing, and she had done nothing of importance.

Oh, she could now firmly visualize the loom and see the silk come into
being beneath the flying fingers. But the body behind those hands, that
she could not see. Nor did any of the personality of the weavers who had
made that which she held come clear to her, for all her striving.

Captain OrtisтАФhe came in the reading, for he had held this. And
Vidruth also. There was a third who was more distant, lying hid under a
black cloud of fear. Was this day or night? She had lost track of time. That
the ship still ran before the wind, she sensed.

ThenтАФshe was not alone in the cubby! Yet she had not heard the
warning creak of the door. Fear kept her tense, hunched upon the stool,
listening with all her might.

"Lady?"

Rothar! But how had he come?