"Mary Renault - Greece 1 - The King Must Die" - читать интересную книгу автора (Renault Mary)

band from those who were slight and spry; we would play the bull two or three together, the envy of the
rest, while someone watched out for the bailiff.

The bull too was learning. Soon before we were on the fence he would be pawing the ground. My troop
grew shy, till at last the only boy who would go in with me was Dexios, the Horse Master's son, who
feared nothing four-footed. Even we two liked to have the others drawing off the bull's eye before we
jumped. One day, waiting his moment, young Dexios slipped, and fell in while the beast was watching.

He was a boy younger than I, who followed my lead and liked me. I saw what must happen, and all
through my fault. Being at my wits' end what else to do, I leaped down on the bull's head.

What happened I don't well remember, or how it felt, or if I expected to die. By luck I grasped him by
the horns; and, being as new to this as I was, he rid himself of me carelessly. I flew up, struck my belly on
the top of the fence and hung, felt the boys grab me, and was down on the other side. Meanwhile Dexios
had climbed out, and the noise had brought the bailiff.

My grandfather had promised me the thrashing of my life. But seeing, when he had me stripped, that I
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was black and blue as if I had had it already, he felt me over, and found two broken ribs. My mother
cried, and asked what had possessed me. But she was not the one I could tell that to.

By the time my bones were mended, it was time for the shrine again. Simo had now learned some
manners; but he remembered his bitten arm. Now he never used my name, but always "Son of
Poseidon." He said it too smoothly, and we both knew what he meant

When it was my turn to cleanse the sanctuary, I used to kneel afterwards by the spring, and whisper the
god's name; and if any murmur answered, I would say softly, "Father, send me a sign."

One day of midsummer, when I was ten years old, the noon stillness seemed heavier than I had ever
known it. The grass of the grove was pale with drought; the mat of pine needles muffled every sound. No
bird was singing; even the cicadas were dumb; the pine-tops stood unmoving against the deep blue sky,
as stiff as bronze. When I wheeled in the tripod, its rattling seemed like thunder, and made me uneasy, I
could not tell why. I trod soft-footed, and kept the vessels from chinking. And all the while I was
thinking, "I have felt this before."

I was glad to have done, and did not go to the spring, but straight outside, where I stood with my skin
prickling. Kannadis' fat wife greeted me as she shook her blankets, and I was feeling better; when up
came Simo and said to me, "Well, son of Poseidon? Have you been talking to Father?"

So he had spied on me. Yet even this did not move me as at another time. What rubbed me raw was that
he had not lowered his voice, though all the world seemed to be saying "Hush." It rasped me as if all my
hair were being combed backwards; I said, "Be quiet."

He kicked a stone, which set my teeth on edge. "I looked through the shutter," he said, "and saw the old
woman naked. There's a wart on her belly."