"Andre Norton - Yurth Burden" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

e road which served farms she could see, the houses squatting drably some d
istance ahead. For the road, such as it was, angled away from the mountains
she must reach. She longed to be out of the plains, higher up into the pla
ces of her own heritage, where one could breathe air untainted by dust, thi
nk thoughts unassailed by the hate which clogged about any Raski gathering
place.

That she must make this journey alone was in keeping with the custom of her
people. On the day the clan women had gathered to bring her staff, cloak,
supply bag, she had known a sinking of heart which was not quite fear. To t
ravel out into the unknown alone. . . . But that was the heritage of Yurth,
and each girl and boy did so when their bodies were ready for the duties o
f Elders, their minds fallow enough to receive the Knowledge. Some never re
turned. Those who did were-changed.

They were able to set up barriers between themselves and their fellows, sea
ling out thought talk when they wished. Also they were graver, preoccupied,
as if some part of the Knowledge, or perhaps the whole of it, had been a b
urden fastened on them. But they were Yurth, and as Yurth must return to th
e cradle of the clan, accept the Knowledge, however bitter or troublesome t
hat might be.

It was the Knowledge which would itself guide them to their goal. They mus
t leave their minds open until a thought thread would draw them. The comin
g of that was the command they must obey. She had tramped for four days no
w, the strange urgency working ever in her, bringing her by the shortest r
oute across the plains to the mountains she now faced, the land no one vis
ited now unless the Call came.

She had often speculated with those of her own birth age as to what must l
ie there. Two of their company had gone and returned. However, to ask them
what they had done, or seen, was forbidden by custom. The barrier was alr
eady set in them. Thus the mystery always remained a mystery until one was
led oneself to discover the truth.
Why did the Raski hate them so, Elossa wondered. It must be because of the
Upper Sense. The plains dwellers lacked that. But there was something else.
She was different from the hoose, the kannen, all the other life which Yur
th respected and strove to aid. She did not wear upon her body, slender ben
eath her enveloping cloak, dust plastered from the road, fur or scales. Yet
there was no hate for her in the minds of those others. Wariness, yes, if
the creature was new come into the places of the clan. But that was natural
. Why, then, did those who possessed bodies like her own beat at her with b
lack hate in their thoughts if she was forced by some chance to move among
them as she had done this morning?

Yurth did not seek to command-even those of lesser and weaker minds. All c
reatures had their limitations- even as did the Yurth. Some of her kin wer
e keener witted, faster to mind-speak, producing thoughts which were new,
unusual enough to make one chew upon them in solitude. But Yurth did not h
ave rulers or ruled. There were customs, such as the Pilgrimage, which all