The Grim Wanderer by James Wolf Read Free Book Online Page A

the old girl keeps going?’ Hirandar winked. ‘You didn’t think I had it in me?’
    ‘Well,’ Taem said, ‘I wouldn’t put it like that, but yes?’
    ‘Age is no barrier,’ the old woman smiled, ‘so long as you have the will to act. Besides, you, Elena and your brothers are like my own children – you keep me young!’
    ‘And did you ever have any of your own?’ Taem said softly, ‘children, I mean?’
    Hirandar’s face became pensive, and Taem thought he saw sadness in those sapphire eyes.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ Taem said. ‘Forgive me, it’s not any of my business–’
    ‘It’s alright, Taem.’ Hirandar said kindly. ‘And yes, even I had another life once – a very long time ago. But I… forsook that life for duty.’
    ‘Hirandar, I didn’t wish to bring sad thoughts back–’
    ‘Sad, my boy?’ Hirandar said. ‘Those memories are some of the happiest of my life. But yes, I have not always lived out here by the mountains. I had a husband once, and a young son.’ The old woman stared out into the twilight. ‘The love of my life, and the star in my sky. But they were taken from me, by the servants of Darkness. Like you and your siblings, I was forced to discover there are those without honour and goodness. They murdered my husband and baby to get to me.’
    Taem placed a hand on Hirandar’s arm as the old woman gazed into the fire. Taem did not know what else to do. He thought the Wizard was on the brink of crying. She had always seemed so composed. But this painful recollection of a darker time had brought the old woman to the brink of tears. Taem felt so sad for her, sad that life did not work out how it should have done.
    ‘What did you do?’ Taem murmured.
    ‘The best I could,’ Hirandar nodded. ‘I’ve lived as they would have wanted me to, used my powers for good.’
    ‘And you should be proud of what you’ve done, Hirandar,’ Taem said strongly. ‘Think of all the lives you’ve changed.’
    ‘I know, my boy,’ Hirandar smiled. ‘I know. But it’s our curse to dwell on what could have been. You only get one chance in this life, Taem. Be sure to make the most of it.’
    ‘I will, Hirandar,’ Taem touched the Wizard on her shoulder, before he spread a blanket out on the ground and folded his cloak up for a pillow.
    Taem became enchanted as he looked up, and saw the night sky had come alive with the glow of the stars. He gazed at the shining lights, recognising some of the constellations from what Hirandar had taught him. He identified the Wayfarer’s Star that lay due west – travellers and ships’ navigators used it to find their bearings. Logan always said that star was more reliable than any map.
    Hirandar noticed Taem was gazing up at the stars, ‘You see the constellation in the north-eastern sky? Do you remember what it’s called?’
    ‘ Alarsium ,’ Taem murmured with reverence. ‘The Star Heaven, as we Sodan know it.’
    ‘Correct.’ Hirandar looked up at the stars. ‘In elder legends, it’s said that group of stars will protect the world against the evil that exists, many hundreds of miles away to the North. The Dark One’s powers are strongest in this Land of Shadows, far away to the North, there where his Dark creatures dwell.’
    ‘Logan has spoken of the Land of Shadows,’ Taem shivered. ‘He told me how the night seems to last longer there. The days are darker, as if the sun is somehow dimmer. Everything there has been warped by the Dark. The beasts are ferocious and deadly, the plants venomous and the water poisoned.’
    ‘A very dangerous place,’ Hirandar said slowly. ‘For a thousand years, The Dark One Malveous has waited, dormant, recuperating his power after his defeat in the Great War of the Dark. That was the first time Dark Servant Maliven ever uncloaked themselves to the world at large, believing the Dark One’s triumph close at hand.’
    ‘The Maliven?’ Taem shivered. He had heard the terrible stories of stealing children in