Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress: 2-Book Collection. David Eddings

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ dirty fingernails were ragged and chewed off close. It took her years to train herself not to bite her nails. The white lock at her brow was scarcely visible, since her hair was absolutely filthy. I got the strong impression that it was all quite deliberate. Polgara’s got very good eyes, and I’m certain that she could see that she was no match for her sister when it came to sheer physical beauty. For some obscure reason, she seemed to be going out of her way to make herself as ugly as she possibly could. She was succeeding admirably.

      Yes, I know. We’ll get to her transformation all in good time. Don’t rush me.

      It wasn’t her physical appearance that made our reunion so unpleasant, though. Beldin had raised Polgara and Beldaran. Somehow my younger daughter had avoided picking up his speech-patterns, but Polgara hadn’t. She had them all – with bells on.

      ‘It’s good to see you again, Polgara,’ I greeted her, trying to sound as if I meant it.

      ‘Really? Why don’t we see if we can fix that? Did they stop making beer in Camaar? Is that why you left?’

      I sighed. This promised to be moderately ugly. ‘Do you suppose we should kiss each other before we get into all that?’ I suggested.

      ‘It’s not going to pay you to get that close to me, old man. I didn’t like you when I first saw you, and you haven’t done anything lately to change my opinion.’

      ‘That’s all over now.’

      ‘Of course it is – right up until the moment you get a sniff of beer or see a passing skirt.’

      ‘Have you been telling tales?’ I asked Beldin.

      ‘Not me,’ he replied. ‘Pol has her own ways to keep track of what you’ve been up to.’

      ‘Shut up, uncle,’ she snapped at him. ‘This drunken fool doesn’t need to know about that.’

      ‘You’re wrong, Pol,’ I told her. ‘This drunken fool does need to know about it. If you’re gifted, you’re going to need training.’

      ‘Not from you, father. I don’t need anything from you. Why don’t you go back to Camaar? Or the Wood of the Dryads? It’s almost mating season there again. Beldaran and I’d just adore having a horde of half-human baby sisters.’

      ‘Watch your mouth, Pol.’

      ‘Why? We’re father and daughter, old man. We should always be completely open with each other. I wouldn’t want you to have any misconceptions about my opinion of you. Have you dallied with a Troll yet? Or an Eldrak? That would really be exciting, wouldn’t it?’

      I gave up and sat down in a chair. ‘Go ahead, Pol,’ I told her. ‘Enjoy yourself.’

      I’m sure she did. She’d spent years polishing some of those cutting remarks, and she delivered them with a certain flair. Leaving the girls in Beldin’s custody may have been a mistake, because Polgara at least had been a very apt pupil. Some of the names she called me were truly hair-raising. Oddly, Beldaran didn’t seem to be the slightest bit offended by her sister’s choice of language. I’m sure she knew what the words meant, but they didn’t seem to bother her. For all I knew, she may have shared Pol’s views, but she forgave me. Polgara obviously didn’t.

      I sat there looking out the window at the sunset while my daughter continued her diatribe. After an hour or so, she started to repeat herself. There are only so many insults in any language. She did lapse into Ulgo once or twice, but her accent wasn’t very good. I corrected her, of course. Correcting the children is a father’s first responsibility. Pol didn’t take correction very graciously.

      Finally I stood up. ‘This isn’t really getting us anywhere,’ I told her. ‘I think I’ll go home now. As soon as I get things straightened up in the tower, you girls can move in with me.’

      ‘You’re not serious!’

      ‘Oh, yes I am, Pol. Start packing. Like it or not we are going to be a family.’ I smiled at her. ‘Sleep well, Polgara.’ Then I left.

      I could still hear her screaming when I got to my tower.

      The girls moved in the following week. Beldaran was an obedient child, and she accepted my decision without question. That, of course, forced Pol to obey as well, since she loved her sister so much that she couldn’t bear to be separated from her. We didn’t see very much of her, but at least her things were in my tower.

      She spent most of her time for the rest of that summer in the branches of the tree in the center of the Vale. At first I assumed that eventually hunger would bring her down out of the tree and back to my tower, but I’d overlooked the twins’ habit of feeding things. They saw to it that Polgara didn’t go hungry.

      I decided to wait her out. If nothing else, winter would bring her inside. Beldaran, however, started moping. That must have been a very difficult time for my blonde daughter. She loved us both, and our dislike for each other obviously caused her a great deal of distress. She begged me to try to make peace with her sister. I knew it was a mistake, but I couldn’t refuse Beldaran anything she asked of me, so I sighed and went down the Vale to give it one more try.

      It was a warm, sunny morning in late summer, and it seemed to me that there were an unusual number of birds flying around as I walked through the tall grass toward the tree.

      There were even more of them about when I got there. The air around the tree was alive with them – and it wasn’t just one variety. There were robins and bluebirds and sparrows and finches and larks, and the sound of all that chirping and singing was almost deafening.

      Polgara was lounging in the fork of a huge branch about twenty feet up with birds all around her, and she watched my approach with cold, unfriendly eyes. ‘What is it, father?’ She demanded when I reached the foot of the tree.

      ‘Don’t you think this has gone on long enough?’ I asked her.

      ‘This what?’

      ‘You’re being childish, Pol.’

      ‘I’m entitled to be childish. I’m only thirteen. We’ll have a lot more fun when I grow up.’

      ‘You’re breaking Beldaran’s heart with this foolishness, you know. She misses you very much.’

      ‘She’s stronger than she looks. She can endure almost as much as I can.’ She absently shooed a warbling lark off her shoulder. The birds around her were singing their hearts out in a kind of ecstatic adoration.

      I decided to try another tack. ‘You’re missing a splendid opportunity, Pol,’ I told her.

      ‘Oh?’

      ‘I’m sure you’ve spent the summer composing new speeches. You can’t very well try them out on me when you’re perched on a limb sharpening your beak.’

      ‘We’ll get to that later, father. Right now the sight of you makes me nauseous. Give me a few dozen years to get used to you.’ She smiled at me, a smile with all the warmth of an iceberg. ‘Then we’ll talk. I have many, many things to say to you. Now go away.’

      To this day I don’t know how she did it. I didn’t hear or feel a thing, but the СКАЧАТЬ