The White Wolf's Son by Michael Moorcock Read Free Book Online

Lieutenant Fromental. “But you must be ready for any trick here, mademoiselle. The man you met on the road today
     is sometimes known as Paul von Minct, sometimes as Prince Gaynor. The man he sought and found is Herr Klosterheim. A thoroughly
     bad egg. Together they defy both God and Satan and plot the end of the created universe, every world in it.”
    “Why would they do that?” I wondered.
    “Because they hate our way of life,” said Colonel Bastable without any apparent irony.
    After a moment’s hesitation, St. Odhran and the others nodded.
    “Or perhaps just because they hate any form of life,” said Herr Lobkowitz.
    They began to talk among themselves again, and I missed most of what they said.
    Mrs. Hawthornthwaite and I were both very upset they weren’t all staying. I think she felt a bit abandoned after so much talk
     of danger, but I quickly realized they had not half abandoned us, as it had first seemed; butrather were repositioning themselves. I had a fair idea that Colonel Bastable wouldn’t be driving to Settle and, if he did,
     that he wouldn’t be looking for a good twelve hours’ sleep at some local hostelry. We were being protected very thoroughly,
     almost as if they wove a web around us. They created a shield against those who wished us ill. It was all that boring stuff
     I’d always heard from my mother. I thought I’d never really absorbed it, but now I was astonished at how quickly I was taking
     this knowledge for granted. I knew the danger in my bones. I had dreamed of it before. I knew how important it was to build
     all the defenses we were currently building. We were dealing with the threat of supernatural attack. And it wasn’t the kind
     Mrs. Hawthornthwaite kept away by remembering which kind of lilac was best put in the bowl on the threshold and if it was
     better or worse luck to use your left hand to pick up a fallen fork.
    I remembered something else from those early nightmares I’d had. I was experiencing the benign form of the power which had
     assaulted me. I recognized it now only because I had known its opposite. I knew that I couldn’t be safer than with Monsieur
     Zodiac.
    Naturally we had orders to contact people at their hotels should anything alarming happen, but I knew we were in perfect hands.
    Monsieur Zodiac seemed pleased with my obvious confidence in him. I felt a strange connection between myself and those pain-filled
     crimson eyes.
    Herr Lobkowitz patted my shoulder in a comradely fashion. “We’ll go now but will be back in time to meet Mr. and Mrs. Bek.
     Will you promise me you won’t let thebad ‘uns talk you into anything, no matter what crisis they will pretend you have initiated?”
    “Of course.” Again I was touched by his old-fashioned language and concern.
    “And we won’t let them cross the threshold of our house, no matter what arguments and sweet inducements they do offer.” Mrs.
     Hawthornthwaite indicated her husband, nodding beside her. “We’re used to witches and their ways in these parts, gentlemen.”
    This was news to me, but it was a kind of comfort, too. Mrs. Hawthornthwaite didn’t mean cackling old ladies in big pointed
     hats, sailing over your head on their broomsticks. Mrs. Hawthornthwaite meant an invasion of pure evil into the dale, an invasion
     you could almost feel like mist curling up from the bottoms of pits and riverbeds to spread itself through every street, every
     room of our village. And the only forces left to fight it were the unsuspecting, unimaginative folk the likes of Colonel Bastable
     represented: the honest, virtuous long-term inhabitants of these valleys.
    I felt absolutely safe in Ingleton. I wondered if this was, after all, the best strategy of our enemies, to attack here. Even
     with the deep caverns in the limestone below booming far away in the underground distance, I always felt safe at Tower House.
     She had no ghosts I feared.
    With Monsieur Zodiac I watched the six o’clock news. I