Jerusalem Man 01 - Wolf in Shadow by David Gemmell Read Free Book Online

and walked to Eric's room. He tapped on the door, but there was no reply; he tapped again.
    'Yes?'
    'It is Jon Shannow. May I come in?'
    A pause. Then, 'All right.'
    Eric was lying on his bed facing the door. He looked up at the tall figure and saw that Shannow was wearing his father's shirt; he had not noticed that before.
    'May I sit down, Eric?'
    'You can do what you like. I can't stop you,' said the boy miserably.
    Shannow pulled up a chair and reversed it. 'Do you wan to talk about it?'
    'About what?'
    'I don't know, Eric. I only know that you are troubled Do you want to talk about your father? Or Fletcher? O me?'
    'I expect Mother wishes I wasn't here,' said the boy sitting up and hugging his knees. 'Then she could be with you all the time.'
    'She has not said that to me.'
    'Mr Burry doesn't like you and I don't like you either.'
    'Sometimes I don't like myself,' said Shannow. That keeps me in the majority.'
    'Everything was all right until you came,' said Eric, tears starting as he bit his lip and looked away. 'Mother and me were fine. She slept in here and I didn't have bad dreams. And Mr Fletcher was my friend - and everything was fine.'
    ‘I’ll be gone soon,' Shannow told him softly, and the truth of the words hit him like a blow. The pool settles, and the ripples fade, and everything returns to the way it was.
    'It won't be the same,' said Eric, and Shannow could offer no argument.
    'You are very wise, Eric. Life changes - and not always for the better. It is the mark of a man how he copes with that fact. I think you will cope well, for you are strong; stronger than you think.'
    'But I won't be able to stop them taking our house.'
    'No.'
    'And Mr Fletcher will force mother to live with him?'
    'Yes,' said Shannow, swallowing hard and keeping the awful images from his mind.
    'I think you had better stay for a little while, Mr Shannow,' said Eric.
    'I think perhaps I had. It would be nice if we could be friends, Eric.'
    'I don't want to be your friend.'
    'Why?'
    'Because you took my mother away from me, and now I am all alone.'
    'You are not alone, but I cannot convince you of that, even though I probably know more about loneliness than any man alive. I have never had a friend, Eric. When I was your age, my father and mother were killed. I was raised for some time by a neighbour called Claude Vurrow; then he too was killed and since then I have been alone. People do not like me. I am the Jerusalem Man, the Shadow, the Brigand-slayer. Wherever I am I will be hated and hunted -or used by "better"
    men. That is loneliness, Eric - sitting with a frightened child, and not being able to reach out and convince even him - that is loneliness.
    'When I die, Eric, no one will mourn for me. It will be as if I never was. Would you like to be that lonely, boy?'
    Eric said nothing and Shannow left the room.

    The three men watched Shannow ride from the farmhouse heading east towards the forests of pine. Swiftly they saddled their ponies and rode after him.
    Jerrik took the lead, for he was the man with the long rifle, a muzzle-loading flintlock a mere thirty-five years old. It was a fine gun which had seen three owners murdered for owning it.
    Jerrik had acquired it as settlement for a gambling debt two years before, and had then used it to kill the former owner who was tracking him to steal it back. It seemed poetic, somehow, though Jerrik could not verbalize the reason.
    Behind him rode Pearson and Swallow, men Jerrik could rely on ... so long as all three were poor.
    The trio had arrived only recently in Rivervale, but had swiftly come under Bard's watchful eye.
    He had recommended them to Fletcher, and this task was their entry to the Committee.
    'Hunt down and kill the Jerusalem Man.' The long rifle could handle that, given a fixed target, and Swallow was an expert crossbowman. Pearson was more of a knife expert, but he could hurl a blade with uncanny accuracy. Jerrik was confident that the deed could be completed without