"Tamora Pierce - Circle Opens 4 - Shatterglass" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pierce Tamora)

yourself ritually cleansed before you go anywhere or do anything. Now will you go away?тАЭ demanded the
prathmun, impatient. тАЬYouтАЩll get cleansed, shenos, but IтАЩll be whipped.тАЭ

She said it so flatly that Tris believed her. She walked two steps away, then asked without turning around,
тАЬWhatтАЩs shenos? And how do you tell whoтАЩs a prathmuri?тАЭ

тАЬA foreigner is shenosтАЭ retorted the prathmun, dumping the rest of her rubbish barrel in the cart.
тАЬAnd we all have the same haircut and the same kind of clothes, and straw sandals. Now go.тАЭ

Tris followed the road that lay straight before her, the direction the prathmun had indicated with such
flattery. тАЬNiko said IтАЩd find some of the customs here barbaric,тАЭ she informed Little Bear when she was
out of earshot of the prathmun. тАЬIтАЩll bet you a chop for supper this is one of the ones he meant.
Whoever heard of people not being just because they deal with the dead?тАЭ

Once she reached Achaya Square, Tris found the Street of Glass easily enough. Reading about Tharios on
the way here, she had formulated a plan of exploration with her usual care to detail. She would start at the
foot of the street where most of the cityтАЩs glassmakers kept their shops, beginning with the smaller,
humbler establishments near the Piraki Gate, and work her way back to Achaya Square until her feet hurt.
She meant to spend a number of days at the shops that caught her interest, but first she wanted an
overview. Tris was the kind of girl who appreciated a solid plan of action, perhaps because often her life,
and her magic, was in too much of an uproar to be organized.

As she walked, she looked on the sights and people of Tharios with interest. Buildings here were of two
kinds, stucco roofed with tiles тАФ like those in her home on the Pebbled Sea - or public buildings built of
white marble, fronted with graceful colours and flat-roofed, with corners and column heads cut into
graceful lines. The Street of Glass and Achaya Square fountains were marble or a pretty pink granite.
Statues carved from marble and painted to look life-like stood on either side of the paved stones of the
road. It was all very lavish and expensive. Tris might not have approved, but her view of people who
spent so much on decoration was leavened when closer inspection showed her soft edges on statues and
public buildings, and fountain carvings worn almost unrecognizable by long years of weather. Tharios
was an old city, and its treasures were built to last.



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The Tharians themselves were a feast for her eyes. The natives ranged in skin colour from pale brown to
black, and while their hair was usually black or brown, many women used henna to redden it. Men
cropped their hair very short or even shaved their heads altogether. Ladies bundled their hair into masses
of curls that tilted their heads to the appropriate, sophisticated, Tharian angle. The prathmun, male and
female, sported the same rough, one-length cut Tris had seen on the girl she spoke to. All prathmun
wore a ragged, dirty version of the knee-length tunic worn by Tharite men. Tharian women dressed in an
ankle-length, drape-sleeved version called a kyten. In summer these garments were cotton, linen, or silk,
with sashes or ribbon belts twined around waists and hips. On top of the tunic or kyten upper-class
Tharians also wore stoles of many colours, each of which indicated the wearerтАЩs profession. She knew
that mages here wore blue stoles, shopkeepers green, and priests of the All-Seeing God red. Beyond that
she was lost. No matter what colour the stole, it was usually made of the lightest cotton, or even silk,
money could buy. The Tharians looked cool and comfortable to Tris.