"Sheri S. Tepper - Shadow's End" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

SHADOWтАЩS END
Sheri S. Tepper

[14 dec 2002тАФscanned for #bookz]

[17 dec 2002тАФproofed for #bookz]



Behold now behemoth
which I made with thee тАж
He is the chief of the ways of God.

тАФThe Book of Job

CHAPTER I
Dawn on Dinadh. Deep in the canyonlands shadow lies thickly layered as fruit-tree leaves in autumn.
High on the walls the sun paints stripes of copper and gold, ruby and amber, the stones glowing as
though from a forge, hammered here and there into mighty arches above our caves. Inside the caves, the
hives spread fragrant smoke, speak a tumult of little drums, breathe the sound of bone flutes. Above all,
well schooled, the voice of the songfather soars like a crying bird:

"The Daylight Woman, see how she advances, she of the flowing garments, she of the golden skin
and shining eye тАж "

I do not speak with Daylight Woman. I revere her, as do all Dinadhi, but it is Weaving Woman 1 plead
with, am pleading with. Origin of all patterns, I pray, let my shuttle carry brightness!

Each morning before first light, songfather comes to the lip of our cave, where it pushes out, pouting
above the darkness below. There he stands, hearing the far faint sounds of daysongs from the east,
raising his voice when first light touches the rimrock above, using his song to coax the light down the great
wall. Today I stand unnoticed in the shadow beside the hive, listening as the song flows north and east
and west into a dozen canyons, past a hundred hives, stirring reverberations and resonances, joining a
great warp and woof of sound that follows Daylight Woman's eternal march westward.

Dawnsong, so the songfather tells us, endlessly circles our world like the belt that runs from the treadle
to the wheel, and thus Dinadh is never without welcome to the Lady of Light.

One time we had another lady. One time we had another father, too, but they were relinquished long
ago, when the terrible choice was made. Though the songfathers assure us we were made for that choice,
we people, we women, sometimes I grieve over it. Sometimes in the night, darkness speaks to me, and
the stars call my name. Saluez, they cry, Saluez, look at us, look at all the mysteries in the night тАж
 But still we have appropriate and sufficient deities. We have Weaving Woman and Brother and Sister
Rain, and many others. And Lady Day. In darkness, one could step into error. In cloud or fogтАФrare
enough anywhere on DinadhтАФone could stray from the right path. Led by Daylight Woman, we walk
only the chosen trail, the wise way, and each morning and evening the songfathers celebrate her shining
path.

"The lighted path, the chosen way,"intones Hallach, in the words I had anticipated. I hear those
words coming back from farther north, where the canyon rim is lower and comes later into the light.