Before The Mask by Michael Williams Read Free Book Online Page B

dizzying sweat, and his voice failed him once, twice, before he could
     summon the words.
    “ Abelaard's room, sir. I... I believe that since Aglaca...”
    Daeghrefn loomed even taller in the chair, the dim light of the fire magnifying him,
     casting his gigantic shadow on the far wall.
    “I know what you're after,” the knight said. “And you will sleep and quarter where you
     have always slept and quartered. Abelaard is gone, and his rooms will await his return.”
    He took the steps two at a time, his ankles bloody and swelling, each stride a stinging
     rebuke to his courage. At his back, the Voice was chiding him, soft and insinuating,
     speaking from the terrible dark at the bottom of the stairwell.
    So it is and will be in this devouring country, where the raptor dives and the panther
     stalks. . .. What did you expect from him, beyond this powerless mourning? Learn from me .
     . .from the panther and the raptor....
    He stopped on the stairs, his thoughts whirling. A great anger rose in him, and he struck
     the stone wall of the landing fiercely, methodically. His fist stung with the impacts, and
     he fought down a sudden rush of tears. He thought of Daeghrefn as he battered the wall. Of
     the cold dark eyes and the shattered cup.
    It would not do. You could not feel that way about your father. Slowly, almost staggering
     with his own uprooted anger, Verminaard mounted the last of the stairs,
    cursing the stones and the dark and the stars in the clerestory windows. He reached the
     landing and opened the door to his quarters.
    Aglaca sat on the topmost bunk, leaning out the window. For a moment Verminaard's thoughts
     were violent, and the voice of his imaginings blurred with the voice on the stairs.....
    If something happened to Aglaca, his father would have no choice but to follow the rules
     of the gebo-naud. So whatever happened to the boy ... would happen to Abelaard....
    And then Daeghrefn would mourn.
    Verminaard caught himself, frightened by the largeness and power of his own speculations.
     He stared balefully at Aglaca, who looked back at him with curiosity and concern.
    “Don't think that my possessions are yours as well,” Verminaard menaced, rising to his
     full height, trying his best to obscure the doorway behind him. “You're an outsider here.
     Nobody wants you; you're here for the deal, and for that reason only. My brother is gone.”
    He took a long step toward Aglaca, who glanced out the window and then calmly returned a
     level stare to this new antagonist.
    “If you remember one thing, Solamnic,” Verminaard continued, standing in the center of the
     room now, clutching the back of his single chair as though Aglaca intended to take that
     from him as well, “remember this. You are a hostage in my presence. You are not my guest.”
    “He yelled at you, didn't he?” Aglaca asked, quietly and not without warmth. “I mean,
     Daeghrefn ...”
    “That is no concern of yours, Solamnic,” Verminaard replied unsteadily, his stare
     wavering, his fingers nervously drumming the chair back. “I said you are a hostage....”
    “I know,” Aglaca said. “I am an outsider here. So you've told me. I can't take Abelaard's
     place, Verminaard. But I can be your friend.”
    Verminaard stepped back to the door and closed it. Something was quenched in him by the
     boy's unexpected kindness. His hand smarted, and he turned uncertainly toward the bunk and
     the boy who sat atop it, regarding him curiously.
    “Then . . . you won't take or touch anything that is mine?” “I won't, Verminaard.”
     “Swear,” Verminaard insisted, extending his hand and searching Aglaca's eyes.
    Aglaca met both his grasp and his gaze. “I swear. We're bound together, Verminaard. The
     gebo-naud binds us as firmly as it binds our fathers. And we're bound by more, I believe.
     I know it, and you do, too.”
    Verminaard looked away in confusion, in irritation. He remembered the young man in the