Whitemantle. Robert Goldthwaite Carter

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СКАЧАТЬ In too short a space of time he had been placed under a tremendous obligation. His feelings had been slammed from pillar to post, and now he felt an overwhelming desire to do something that he might regret.

      I can’t so easily walk away from a man who has just saved my skin, he thought. I can’t leave him in this alley and tell him there is no hope, when I know a man who might just be able to set everything to rights.

      He tried not to think of Gwydion, but it was no good. The part of him that wanted to see the world become what it ought to be overflowed like a fountain. Of course, it was horribly wrong to presume upon a wizard’s powers – he had learned that lesson only too well at Delamprey. And it would be cruel to offer false hope to Lotan. But how could he just cut a man’s hopes adrift?

      What shall I do? he asked himself. It would compromise Gwydion greatly if I were to tell any stranger that an Ogdoad wizard had entered Trinovant recently.

      He scratched his head, but no better idea came into it. ‘There is a man I know who is far wiser than I. He may have some advice for you. Only advice, I say. But I will ask.’

      ‘I knew you would help me!’

      Will felt a wave of gratitude break over him. ‘I make no promises,’ he cautioned. ‘And now I must go. Shall I look for you again in this place?’

      ‘Yes!’ Lotan’s empty eye sockets gazed towards the narrow patch of sky that opened above the alley. He threw himself to his knees and clasped his hands together in an attitude of such rapture that Will was embarrassed. ‘Have I your word of honour that you will come back?’

      ‘You may count that as a promise.’

      ‘I do not know why, young sorcerer,’ Lotan said fervently, ‘but I believe you.’

      Will looked sharply around as Lotan seized his hand again. ‘You must not call me “sorcerer”, “enchanter”, “warlock” or “magician” – these words are easily misunderstood and lead to trouble. I’ll look for you again here about midnight, though I can’t say which midnight it will be.’

      ‘Then I will wait for you here every night.’

      Will turned and looked down the alley. ‘Which way should I go if I’m to find the White Hall?’

      Lotan drew back. ‘You have business at the royal palace?’

      ‘If I do, it’s my own business.’

      ‘Then you should avoid the Spire and go out of the City by the Luddsgate and along the roads they call the Fleete and the West Strande.’

      ‘You mean the White Hall lies outside the City?’

      ‘Didn’t you know? It’s on the north bank of the river, maybe half a league from here. To find it keep the warmth of the setting sun on your face, but always follow the stink of the river as it bends south. You will not mistake the place for the walls are high and the echoes carry there like the ghosts of the past.’

      

      As Will emerged from the alley he found the small street deserted. The overhangs of the houses closed in above him, and in the quiet he was aware of cooking smells and the distant sounds of commerce on a busy street. The way out of the maze was easier to find than he expected.

      On the main street there were crowds of people hurrying this way and that, occupied, but seldom speaking to one another. A few, Will saw, were born to indulgence, rich merchants who rode upon horses and had men to clear a way for them and their well-adorned ladies. But there were many others aimless and rat-like: cut-throats, pick-pockets, dirty-faced women, some wanton, some carrying babes-in-arms the better to further their trade in pity. He melted into the crowds, meeting very few inquiring looks but following his feelings as best he could. He took bearings from glimpses of the Spire and noted the colours of the robes the Fellows wore. Grey signified the chapter house of Farring-withoutthe-Wall, the Black Robes were Fellows of Hollbourne-bythe-Spire, but others robed in white were heading westward in large numbers, as if they were required to leave the City before the curfew bells tolled.

      By following the White Robes Will soon came in sight of a gate and found it was the one they called the Luddsgate. There he supposed he would meet with more unhappy dragonets, but there was a paupers’ footway that led out, just a simple passage for those carrying no goods. It stank in the heat, but a different smell assailed him once outside, for the road ran across a stout bridge, and below it stretched brown mud banks between which the waters of a tributary ran. When Will looked down it towards the Iesis he was amazed to see that the level of the river had dropped right down. He hurried on, and soon he saw serjeants-at-law by the dozen sitting around the Inns at Linton Greene. They all wore gowns of dark green, and they had long, green-dyed feathers in their caps, which Will knew showed the number of their successes. Gwydion had told him how all lawyers had been compelled by a king of old to dress in this fashion in order that common men might know the greatest of villains on sight.

      Will went on again, leaving behind the steeples of the Inns, then past the lordly houses of Arandel, Mells and Southfolk, until an almost unseen figure passed close by and crossed his path, pulling him suddenly into a doorway.

      His aura flared green and he threw up a self-protective hand, but immediately he felt it seized and bent down hard in a grasp that forced him to his knees.

      ‘Agh!’

      ‘You fool!’

      ‘Master Gwydion!’

      ‘Shhh!’ The wizard’s eyes accused him. ‘Now that was a fool’s errand was it not?’

      Will understood but was unrepentant. He shook himself out of the wizard’s now-relaxing grip. ‘You have your errands and I have mine. Were you watching when we fell? Did you see what happened to Chlu?’

      ‘I saw the pair of you lighting up the entire City with your rude magic.’

      ‘I didn’t do it on purpose. I was falling to my death.’

      ‘And every Fellow within a dozen leagues must have turned his head upward when you leapt off that vane.’

      ‘I didn’t leap, I fell.’

      ‘You should not have been up there in the first place.’

      Will felt anger churning inside and stabbed a finger at the wizard. ‘Don’t you tell me what I should and should not be doing! I was following my feelings.’

      ‘Oh, dangerous man! It would be better for you if you got far away from the City now. The Fellows are very greatly roused up and most unhappy with you!’

      ‘I don’t care about them. And I’m not running away.’ He reached out and prevented Gwydion from turning aside. ‘I asked you if you saw Chlu fall. Did you?’

      Gwydion’s face was granite as he looked down at the presumptuous hand on his sleeve. ‘Chlu came down on the far side of the Spire. I cannot say what happened to him.’

      Despite his anger, Will wanted to tell the wizard all that had passed, but he could see Gwydion was in no mood to receive complicated news. Instead he demanded, ‘Where are Willow and Bethe?’

      ‘Safe.’

      ‘I СКАЧАТЬ