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

lover or honor either. Save your concern, Lonn.тАЭ

тАЬBut I think she is not of corvine sort, Arl,тАЭ Lonn remarked with meaning in his glance.

тАЬYouтАЩveseen her? How in the many kingdoms did you manage-тАЭ

тАЬI blundered in.тАЭ

Arlen sat down again, sighing and shaking his fiery head, and Lonn spoke on.

тАЬShe is a gentle thing; I swear it from just my glimpse of her. No crow, Arl, for all that her hair shines
black as the Naga. She seemed more likeтАФlike a dusky flower, a fragile blossom.тАЭ

I snorted. Perhaps they heard me and thought I was a horse.

тАЬNot that she lacked spirit,тАЭ Lonn added hastily, as if I had reproached him. тАЬShe looked ready to bolt.
You have seen the panicky glance of a tethered yearlingтАж? But no flinty shell, Arlen. ThisтАФthis horror,
how is she to withstand it? What is to become of her?тАЭ

He spoke with an ardor that made me stare, forgetting any resentment, that made Arlen stare as well,
made him furrow his fair brow.

тАЬWhat do you want of me?тАЭ he asked Lonn quietly.

тАЬGo away. Live. Let her return to her home.тАЭ

тАЬNo one knows what would happen if the winterking did not come to the ceremony,тАЭ Arlen replied, not
in argument this time but in genuine keen-edged thought. тАЬLikely they would slay someone else in my
stead, and that one would not thank me. As for the lady Cerilla, they might be inclined to punish her in
order to avert the wrath of the goddess.тАЭ His voice was very low, with a stillness in it. тАЬIndeed, they
would be as likely to slay her quite slowly as to free her.тАЭ

тАЬSurely Rahv would not allow harm to come to her,тАЭ Lonn said fiercely.

тАЬI am not so sure,тАЭ Arlen replied, and I knew that truth spoke in him, that he interceded for my life as
Lonn interceded for his, and I shivered where I sat in the darkened stall.

They must have been friends, those two, ever since they were small boys. They sat gazing at each other,
all the futility of the thing in their eyes, and reached a wordless agreement.

тАЬI think we must settle for honor,тАЭ Arlen said finally. тАЬA winterkingтАЩs death for me, and for her the life of
a white-robe. She will make peace with it somehow. They all do.тАЭ He shifted his gaze. The matter was
closed, and new matter was needed. тАЬWhat ails my gentle Bayard,тАЭ Arlen murmured idly, тАЬthat he stands
so oddly in his stall?тАЭ

He stood up and started toward me. I did not care to be found cowering in the soiled straw. With all the
dignity I could muster I pulled my blanket tighter, rose, and stepped forward to meet him. We came face
to face in the dim corridor between stalls, and I trembled in the lantern light like a dazzled deer.

тАЬBy the great goddess, a lass!тАЭ Arlen exclaimed. тАЬBarefoot in the freezing cold and snow.тАЭ