"Nancy Springer - Chains Of Gold" - читать интересную книгу автора (Springer Nancy)

тАЬWhite goddess of winter,тАЭ they chanted, and then their words followed the cycle of deathlife and the
seasons.
тАЬWhite goddess of spring, the seed in thy bosom, White goddess of summer, thy sower the sacred king,
Goddess of life, red reaper of death, Great goddess of winter, white goddess, dark winnower, Great
goddess, hear us.тАЭ

They went on in that way for a while as I stood amidst sheetings of milk. Then they progressed to
petitions, begging the goddess for fertility of fields and heifers and women, for a mild winter without
pestilence, for easy birthings among women of virtue, for a staying of the powers of death. Then they
took me out of the milk bath and let me warm myself in the bed awhile and chanted over me there,
surrounding me as if I were a corpse laid out before them. Meanwhile the milk bath was taken away and
another brought; this time it was spiced river water, and I stood in it as before, and as before it was cold.

тАЬGreat goddess of vengeance, whom blood of heroes pleases, Dark goddess of death, with serpents in
thy bosom, See thou this naked one, nameless now before theeтАжтАЭ

Imprecations! A thousand evil fates were to befall me if I were not a virgin perfect in purity before
goddess and winter-king and the Gwyneda went on to detail most of them. Any punishments forthcoming
from the anger of the goddess were to be visited on me and not on them, the Gwyneda. If my looks
displeased the goddess, might my hair fall out, and if I had spoken ill of her, might my tongue cleave to
the roof of my mouth and my lips erupt in putrefying sores. If I were not the purest of virgins, might I lie
for a year in childbed, might my sexual organs rot and cause me agony. There was more, which I
mercifully cannot remember. I felt no qualms concerning the matter of my purity; no man had ever been
allowed to court me. But there was a malice in the womenтАЩs voices that struck through my soothing
thoughts and made me want to hide.

Erta was not among them. She could not have said such things so willingly.

Let them turn my whole body to ice, and a pox on themтАж Finally they were finished, and escorted me
into my bed again, and prepared the third and final bath.

It was of water with scented oil, and it was warm! I saw the steam go up and could scarcely believe it,
not even when I stepped into it. Moreover, I was made to sit down in it, and lean back, and my hair was
washed with a delicate scented lotion, and the fragrance of the warm oil was heady and most pleasant.
And except for a muttered тАЬMother, comfort now thy daughter,тАЭ all chanting had ceased.

Then the hearth fire was fueled into a crackling blaze which heated the whole room, and I was stationed
in front of it so my hair would dry. By then I had realized that there was to be nothing to eat. Fasting was
commonplace for them, I surmised. On this morning it would have been necessary for me in any event,
for purification. And in truth, I felt different, my whole body faintly tingling in the warmth and somehow
insubstantial, as if it did not belong entirely to me. Nothing seemed very real, and even my starving
stomach did not tell me when it was noon and time for the nuptial ceremony. I had begun to think the
morning would go on forever, and I was hazily surprised when they began to dress me.

Only a white robeтАФthat was all they put on me. A white robe as simple as theirs, but of a finer stuff that
floated like the river mist, and there was no hood, but a sort of trailing cape instead. They combed my
hair carefully and fastened it up in loops and wound a garland of evergreen laurel around it like a crown.
They tied a green silk sash around my waist, the ends of it fringed and embroidered with gold thread in
the circle and spiral emblems of the goddess. Nothing for my feet. Barefoot as before, I walked out into
the snow to wed with Arlen.