"Nancy Springer - Isle 03 - The Sable Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Springer Nancy)

sat watching him. "But Uncle Hal has always been a recluse," he ventured between bites of bread and
meat.
Alan distractedly shook his head. "Not like this. He was only a recluse in body, Trevyn; his mind and
vision were focused on Isle and on me; I could feel his love even from afar. But nowтАФhis dreams have
pulled away, like a sea pulling away from shore. He scarcely speaks to me; it is as if he is already gone.
How will I rule without him? How will I live? He is Very King."



"But whereтАФhowтАФ" Trevyn faltered. Alan looked as if he might weep, and Trevyn had never seen his
father weep, even over the tiny bodies of his stillborn sisters. "I don't under┬мstand. I know you were
close, but I thoughtтАФ"

"You thought I ruled," Alan snapped, suddenly burying his grief in asperity. "Hal has suffered and
labored for Isle, and men think I rule. He longs only for peace, and yet he was the greatest war leader
this land has ever seen. Men rallied around his dreams. Likely his dreams will last longer than all my busy
devices. And his wisdom in the court of law deserves to be legend. And yet, because I am the one who
counts the gold, men think I rule."

"You suffered too," Trevyn protested.

"We both bear scars," Alan grumbled. "What of it? Let suffering go, Trevyn."

"Hal has never been able to let go of his pain," Rosemary whispered to her hands. "It has driven him
mad."

"Nay, Ro," Lysse said gently, "the truth is cleaner and harder, I think. There will be a ship for him, at the
Bay of the Blessed, to take him where the others have already gone. Aene has called him, and he goes as
he has lived, in his own solitary way." Lysse shifted her gaze to include her husband. "You seem to have
forgotten the days when he led and you followed."

"Why follow where there is no love?" Rosemary asked bitterly, and began to weep. Lysse turned to
comfort her. Trevyn was grateful that his mother's eyes were not on him. She had said, there will be a
ship, and his heart had leaped in his chest; it pounded still. We will both set sail, he thought, and strove to
hide the thought. Without speaking he stumbled from the room. Then he stopped in the corridor, groping
at a wall for support, blinded and dizzied by vision.

The others who had gone before, taking their magic from Isle . . . The star-son Bevan, with lustrous
hands and lustrous brow, black hair parted like raven's wings, facing the sea breeze. The long line of
Sevan's brethren the gods riding down to the Blessed Bay, leaving the hollow hills forever . . . Ylim, the
ageless seeress, had lived and finally died in her own peaceful valley, Trevyn knew, but he envisioned her
on a white ship beneath a changing moon. And the elves, his



mother's people, setting sail on the swanlike boats Veran had prepared for them with his own magical
handsтАФboats like Sevan's that went without sails. And now Hal, a Very King like Bevan of a thousand
years before . . .

"All right, lad?" Alan had come out and stood before him anxiously. Trevyn blinked and nodded, shaking