The Tenth Power by Kate Constable Read Free Book Online Page B

I could eat some now.’
    CALWYN WAS WOKEN by someone whispering her name. She started up. By the golden glow of the Clarion, she saw Marna staring at her, flushed and wild-eyed.
    Calwyn hurried to her side. ‘Lady Mother, are you all right, are you in pain?’
    Marna shook her head. ‘No time to waste. Must teach you …the shadow chantments.’
    ‘Is that the Tenth Power, Lady Mother?’
    ‘No, no. This must come first…the hidden face of the Goddess. Taris is the Mother of death and pain, as well as ice and cold.This is dark magic, child. But no High Priestess can leave this knowledge unlearned. You must be armed against – against evil.’ Marna closed her eyes, and for a moment Calwyn saw the bones of her skull just beneath her skin. ‘Dark chantments that can kill in a dozen different ways, chantments to cause illness…to paralyse, and to bring pain… put someone into a sleep so deep that only another chantment will wake them.’
    ‘Lady Mother, I can’t – I can’t learn these chantments,’ stammered Calwyn.
    ‘I understand, child. I felt the same, when my turn came. But without the dark, there can be no light. And dark defeats dark. – There are no shadows at moondark.’ Marna looked directly at her, and said clearly, ‘I let the sorcerer live. I lacked the courage to act. Do not make the same mistake.’
    ‘Lady Mother,’ whispered Calwyn, her eyes downcast.
    ‘Listen. I must teach you these chantments piece by piece, so their power is not released.’
    Calwyn was filled with misgivings.This was knowledge that should only be passed from the High Priestess to her successor; without the power of chantment, Calwyn could never fill that role. In any case, it was knowledge that Calwyn did not want, a dark and dangerous power. But she listened as Marna sang the secret chantments, in a soft and quavering voice, section by section, never singing one complete chantment. Calwyn was used to learning things by heart, and she was able to repeat the fragments back to Marna after a single hearing.
    It was almost dawn before they finished their strange, murmuring duet. At last Marna leaned back against the wall of the loft. ‘It is done,’ she whispered. ‘I know you will remember. Don’t speak of this … to anyone.’
    ‘Yes, Lady Mother.’ Calwyn wished with all her heart that she could forget what she had just learned. The malevolent songs writhed and spiralled in her mind like a nest of snakes. The dark chantments were like, and unlike, the other chantments of ice-call; there was no joy in them. Even hearing them in fragments had sent chills down Calwyn’s spine, and when she sang what she had heard, her lips felt numb, as if she’d rubbed them with ice. She would never feel the magic rise as she sang the chantments complete, and for the first time since she’d lost her powers, Calwyn was almost glad of it. She whispered, ‘And the Tenth Power?’
    ‘Later,’ murmured Marna. Her eyes closed. ‘I must … rest.’
    Calwyn, too, was exhausted. She pulled a sleeping-fur over herself and fell asleep where she sat, close enough to Marna to feel the old woman’s breath on her cheek.
    GILLY DID NOT come next morning. The freeze had broken and it was snowing hard; it would be difficult to find an excuse to go outside.With three of them in the barn to see to Marna, it would be an unnecessary risk.
    Calwyn rested her aching head on her knees. The shadow chantments whispered in her mind, and so did other voices. Marna has always had great faith in you. Lia had faith in her too, and Gilly and Ursca, but she didn’t have the courage to tell them there was nothing she could do to help.
    Darrow had thought she might be healed in Antaris. He remembered Antaris as a peaceful place, filled with song and light and healing. But there would be none of that for her.
    ‘Cal!’ Mica called softly. ‘She’s awake.’
    Calwyn threw herself down by Marna’s side and clasped her soft, wrinkled hand between her own.