The Giants’ Dance. Robert Goldthwaite Carter

Чтение книги онлайн.

       CHAPTER FIVE MAGICIAN, HEAL THYSELF!

      When Will woke the next day at first light, he found that Morann had already left. He sat down at a small oak table and, while he waited for breakfast, took out the little red fish from his pouch. It was so like his own green fish that there could be no doubt that it had come from the same place. And as Gwydion always reminded him, a famous rede said there was no such thing as a coincidence. But what the meaning might be in the fish was far from clear. As he turned it over in his fingers he wondered why he had not shown it to Gwydion, or to Morann, who was surely the best person to give an opinion. He had just put it in his pouch and forgotten about it. Or had he?

      Delicious smells wafted in from the kitchens and soon the Plough began to fill with Eiton’s harvesters. Will, who was sitting alone in the corner, saw how they first noticed him then touched their foreheads and shook him by the hand as they filed in.

      ‘Morning. Morning…’

      Will breathed deep. He seemed to have lost his appetite, and took a little oatmeal. When he had finished it he took up the red fish and studied it again, while its beady little green eye studied him. It was so like his own talisman, yet the comfort he had always got from the green fish did not come from this one.

      Now, as he looked up, he saw the harvesters holding out their sickles towards him.

      ‘Thank you, Master,’ the nearest of them said.

      ‘What?’

      ‘For your blessings upon our trade tools.’

      He looked back at the man blankly, then he saw that his quarterstaff was propped up behind him and he realized with a bump what the men had taken him for.

      They think I’m a wizard, he thought, smiling. A wizard! Would you believe it?

      The men would not leave until he had touched each of their sickles in turn and muttered the name of it in the true tongue.

      As the last of the harvesters left, a young mother came to him and asked to have a blessing laid on her child.

      ‘A blessing? Well, I don’t think I—’

      ‘Please. Just a good word for the babe, Master,’ she said. ‘To keep the horse flies off her while I ties up the corn stooks. See?’

      ‘You want me to put a good word on the baby?’ Will asked doubtfully. He looked across the room and saw Dimmet watching with folded arms. Will inclined his head, then shrugged. ‘Here. Give him to me. What’s his name?’

      ‘Rosy,’ said the child’s mother.

      ‘Oh, yes. Yes…of course.’

      Will made a sign on the babe’s forehead, while muttering a spell of general protection against insects. He realized he couldn’t remember the true name for horse flies, so he protected her from wasps and creepy-crafties of all kinds, then he handed the child back.

      ‘She’ll be fine in the fields, but make sure she stays out of the sun, won’t you?’

      ‘Thank you, Master,’ the woman said and went away.

      But no sooner had she gone than a toothless old woman appeared. She had with her a girl of five or six. When Will looked up the old woman said nothing, but the child smiled the most astonishing smile. She had no more teeth than the old woman, and was also cross-eyed.

      ‘Can I…help?’ Will said at last.

      ‘Begging your pardon, Master,’ the old woman said. ‘I brung the daughter’s daughter when I heard you was here.’

      Will waited, but when nothing more came from the old woman except an expectant look, he said, ‘What I mean is…is there something I can СКАЧАТЬ