The Giants' Dance by Robert Carter Read Free Book Online Page A

words.
    â€˜Is she in her right mind again?’ he asked doubtfully.
    â€˜Not yet. But by sundown she will be, save for a strong cider headache. And that might teach her to go more slowly in high matters. I did not chastise her further, for she must have acted in fear to save her life. By rights great magic such as she used should have killed her, but it did not, and that is a discrepancy which troubles me.’
    â€˜Discrepancy?’ Will asked, his heart sinking. ‘What do you mean?’
    â€˜Come, Willand, I have a favour to ask of you.’
    He followed, going towards the lign and out along it to the west until Gwydion said:
‘Slaughter great,
    Slaughter small!
    All slaughter now,
    No Slaughter at all!
    â€˜Do you know what that means?’
    Will shook his head. ‘Should I?’
    â€˜It is the answer to the lights that burned last night over the Wolds.’
    â€˜How could that be an answer?’
    Gwydion sat down on the ground. ‘I will tell you, but first you must tell me again what happened to the Doomstone of Verlamion, the same which you think you destroyed – but cannot say how.’
    Will sat down too. He thought back to the desperate moment when he had struggled against the Doomstone. He told all he could remember of what had taken place in the cellar under the great chapter house of the Sightless Ones. The Doomstone had been none other than the slab that covered the Founder’s sarcophagus.
    â€˜In the end I used this to break it,’ he said, hooking a finger inside the neck of his shirt.
    He had meant to draw out his fish talisman and show it to Gwydion, but it was not there. He patted his chest in puzzlement, then remembered how the day before he had washed his hair and replaited his braids ready for the Lammas celebrations. He had hung the fish on a nail and had forgotten to put it back on. It was only the figure of a fish, no bigger than his thumb, carved in green and with a red eye, but he missed it.
    â€˜No matter,’ he said regretfully. ‘It’s probably not important.’
    Gwydion’s grey eyes watched him. ‘The power of magic is often made greater by tokens. Much strength may be drawn upon in time of peril if a true belief lies within your heart. You knew what to do without being taught. I have said it many times, Willand, you are the Child of Destiny. The Black Book has said so.’
    He chewed his lip, a heavy weight burdening him. ‘I don’t know where I come from, and that scares me, Gwydion.’
    The wizard touched him with a kindly hand. ‘Willand, I must interfere as lightly as possible where you are concerned. I know little enough about the part you are to play, except a pitiful portion revealed by the seers of old. Believe me when I say that I am hiding nothing from you that it would serve you to know.’
    He sighed and hugged his knees. ‘I’ve been having the same nightmare over and over lately. An idea comes to me in shallow sleep – that Maskull is my father.’
    Gwydion shook his head. ‘The Doomstone traded in fear and lies. The planting of deceits in men’s minds is the way all such stones make a defence of themselves.’
    â€˜Then how do you explain what Maskull himself said when I faced him on top of the curfew tower? That was something else I can’t forget. He said, “I made you, I can just as easily unmake you.” I’ve wondered too many times what he meant by it.’
    Gwydion said gently, ‘Maskull is not your father. Be assured of that.’
    â€˜Then why did he say what he did?’
    â€˜Try to forget about it.’
    The wizard got up and walked away. Will wanted to leap up, to go after him and badger him on the matter, but Gwydion’s certainty made him pause, made him remember that a wizard’s secrets must be respected.
    â€˜If you say so.’
    As he watched his long morning shadow stretching before him, a keen hunger