"Tepper,.Sheri.S.-.Gate.To.Women's.Country" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

Morgot shook her head, staring at the girl until she dropped her eyes. "I'll mention the attack to the Council, Joshua. They meet tomorrow night, so it's fortuitous timing. More vegetables, Stavia?"
"Please."
"Myra, more vegetables?"
"I'm getting too fat," she mumbled.
"Where did you get that idea."
"Oh, I just think I am."
"Well, greens will hardly make you any fatter. It will make your skin smooth and your hair shiny, however, which young warriors are said to admire. More?"
"Winter food is boring. Cabbage is particularly boring."
"Yes, it is. It is also just about the only leaf vegetable we can keep all winter. When the town finishes work on the new sun pits this summer, we should be able to have fresh things a little oftener. Do you want more or don't you?"
"A little, I guess."
Joshua shared "the look" with Morgot once more, and the conversation became suddenly very general and amusing, the way it did when Joshua or Morgot didn't want to talk about something in particular.

CORRIG FOUND STAVIA in the kitchen, looking ill and middle aged, her eyes puffy from lack of sleep, the text of Iphigenia at Ilium open on the table before her.
"I heard you moving around during the night," he said as he stroked her hair. "You look dreadful, dear one."
"I thank you," she said laconically.
"Well, let's say then that you look less lovely than usual." He filled a pan with water and grain and set it upon the stove.
"I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about Dawid. Wondering what's going to happen to him."
"That's normal. It will take a while to accept the fact that he's gone." He poured hot tea into the empty cup before her, glancing down at the text. "That's hardly the most cheerful reading in the world."
"I know," she said. "I'm doing it mostly for distraction. I knew it by heart once, all the parts. I've seen it every summer, but I haven't actually thought about it in years. Morgot's done Iphigenia as long as I can remember. I have to learn it all over again if I'm going to do the part in this year's production."
"You're not doing it until summer. Spring isn't even really here yet." His dark brows rose, making perfect arcs over his tilted eyes and long, straight nose, deep furrows curling up from below his chin to bracket his wide, mobile mouth. He licked his lower lip, head cocked, examining her as he chopped up dried apples to add them to the grain.
"I thought it might be easier if I just read it over a dozen or so times," she said listlessly. "Then it might all come back to me without my trying very hard."
"You'd have been better off getting another hour's sleep."
"I couldn't sleep. Besides, it should cheer me up. The play's a comedy."
"Comedy!"
"Well it is, Corrig. The audience laughs."
He made a face at her, trying to make her smile. "There are some things about Women's Country I still find difficult to understand. How old were you when you first did that play?"
"Oh, about ten or eleven, I suppose. We did it every year in school, taking different parts, building sets, making costumes."
"So you've been doing it for at least twenty-seven years. I should think you'd pick something else to do for a while, but Joshua says you Councilwomen never get tired of it."
"It isn't that we don't get tired of it. It's that the play is part of the . . . part of the reminders. You know that!" She ran her fingers through her hair, fingering the roughness of scar tissue at the top of her head, wincing at a little tenderness there which had never gone away. "When's Joshua coming back?"
"Soon, I hope," he said. "There's more to do around here than I can keep up with. Tell you what. If you're determined to review this play now, I'll read the lines to you and you see if you can remember Iphigenia's part."
"She doesn't come in until about page six...."
"Then while I'm reading the first six pages, you'll have time to drink another cup of tea and have some breakfast." He took the text from her, leaned his chair back on two legs, and began to read in his furry, deep voice, beginning with the "notes."
Stavia, too tired to complain at hearing all the unnecessary detail, merely listened, letting his voice wash over her.
"Iphigenia at Ilium," read Corrig. "Note to students: The play is based upon a millennia-old preconvulsion story concerning a conflict between two garrisons, the Greeks and the Trojans, brought about when a Trojan warrior abducted a Greek woman named Helen. The Greek garrison pursued the couple to the city of Troy (also called Ilium) and laid siege to the city. This siege lasted for ten years, largely because of mismanagement among the Greek forces, but in the end the Greeks succeeded in conquering the Trojans and in destroying the city. The action of the play takes place after this destruction, outside the broken walls of Troy. Appendix A at the end of your drama book lists the names and attributes of some of the Greek and Trojan warriors such as Agamemnon, Menelaus, Odysseus, Hector, etc., who are referred to in the drama. Appendix B contains an outline of the original book upon which this play is based. Appendix C gives the history of the play together with comments on its significance to Women's Country."
"Did you ever read the Appendices?" Corrig asked, flipping rapidly to the back of the book.
"I think I had to read them once for school. I really don't remember."
"Persons of the Drama," read Corrig.
Trojans
HECUBA: Widow of King Priam of Troy and mother of Hector.
ANDROMACHE: Widow of Hector.
The infant, ASTYANAX: Hector's son.
The Ghost of POLYXENA: Hecuba's daughter.
CASSANDRA: Hecuba's daughter.
Greeks
TALTHYBIUS: A messenger.
The Ghost of IPHIGENIA: Agamemnon's daughter.
The Ghost of ACHILLES: A Greek warrior.
HELEN, seen upon the battlements.
Several soldiers and serving women.
Scene: At the foot of the broken walls of Troy. To the right the stones of the wall have tumbled into a rough stairway which permits ascent to the top of the battlements. On the left a few warriors, who were detailed to stand guard on the women, are playing dice. Huddled together are Hecuba and Andromache, with their serving women asleep around them. In Andromache's lap is her infant son, Astyanax, whom she is comforting.