The Daylight War. Peter Brett V.

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СКАЧАТЬ sandals sat atop his neatly folded robes, all of which he placed in a saddlebag. He pulled out an old pair of leather boots but, after a moment’s consideration, grunted and tucked them back away, remaining barefoot.

      It was strange to see Arlen in normal clothes. She squinted, trying to imagine the man he might have been if he had never left Tibbet’s Brook, but it was impossible. The tattoos covering his forearms and calves – not to mention his neck and face – were all the more jarring coming from out the plain shirt and trousers. ‘What’s all this?’ Renna asked.

      ‘Started wearing robes because the hood let me hide my face in the day, and people were less apt to hassle travelling Tenders,’ Arlen said. ‘Plus they were easy to fling off at sunset.’

      He shook his head. ‘But I ent hiding any more, and the robes are giving folk the wrong idea. I’m no Holy Man. And if I need to show my wards in a hurry …’ He snapped his fingers, momentarily turning to mist, and his clothes fell away. He solidified again in an instant, clad only in his bido, his wards revealed.

      ‘That trick looks handy for more than just fighting demons,’ Renna said, grinning.

      Arlen smiled. ‘Some things’re worth doing the old-fashioned way.’

      ‘So we’re walking into town just as we are?’ Renna asked. ‘You’re not going to ask me to cover up like you did after Riverbridge?’

      Arlen shook his head. ‘Sorry about that, Ren. I was just full of steam. Din’t have no right—’

      ‘You did,’ Renna cut in. ‘I gave you reason to boil. Ent holding it over you. Needed the fool slapped out of me.’

      In an instant, Arlen was across the clearing, holding her in his arms. ‘You done as much for me. More’n once.’ He kissed her as the sun finally rose, touching them with gentle beams.

      ‘No more skulking, Ren,’ Arlen said. ‘We are who we are, and folk can take or leave us.’

      ‘Honest word,’ Renna said, putting her hands on the smooth skin of his shaved head to pull his lips back to hers.

      Soon after, Arlen took them to Deliverer’s Hollow, walking on bare feet and leading Twilight Dancer by the bridle.

      ‘The roads aren’t warded,’ Renna noted.

      ‘The roads are the ward,’ Arlen said. ‘Or part of one, anyway. After the corelings razed most of the town, we rebuilt even bigger on a plan for a series of interconnected greatwards, like the one the Cutters were clearing up north. Each ring will take longer than the last, but a decade from now no corespawn will be able to set talon anywhere within a hundred miles of the Hollow.’

      ‘That’s … incredible,’ Renna said.

      ‘It will be,’ Arlen agreed. ‘If it can be done while the Core spews forth an army to knock us back into the Age of Ignorance.’

      Even this early, the roads and paths were well travelled with regular folk going about their business. Arlen nodded to some as they passed, but said nothing and never stopped. All of them stared wide-eyed, some even bowing or drawing wards in the air. Almost all dropped whatever they were doing and followed. They kept a respectful pace, but the din grew as numbers increased, and more than once Renna caught the word ‘Deliverer’.

      Arlen seemed to pay it no mind, his face serene as he guided them towards the centre of town.

      There were dozens of homesteads and cottages, all freshly built, and hundreds more under construction. The twists of the greatward left huge swathes of unmolested forest throughout, letting the Hollow retain a simple village feel quite unlike the crete streets, stone walls, and huge buildings of Riverbridge.

      ‘Place almost feels like home,’ Renna said. ‘Like we could turn this corner and see Town Square and Hog’s General Store.’

      Arlen nodded. ‘Here they call it the Corelings’ Graveyard, and it’s Smitt instead of Hog, but you squint a bit, it’s hard to tell the difference. Think maybe it’s why I settled in the Hollow awhile. Wasn’t ready to go home, and this was the next best thing.’

      They turned a corner, and the graveyard came into view. The cobbled central area was much like that of Town Square. At one end stood a stone Holy House that could as easily have been Tender Harral’s on Boggin’s Hill, but it was dwarfed by the foundation being laid around it, hundreds of men digging trenches and hauling stones.

      Arlen stopped short, and for a moment, the serenity left his face. ‘That Angierian Tender din’t waste any time. Looks like he’s building a cathedral to swallow Jona’s Holy House like a frog does a fly.’

      ‘You talk like that’s a bad thing,’ Renna said. ‘Town’s growin’ as much as you say, ent they going to need the extra pews?’

      ‘Reckon,’ Arlen said, but he sounded unconvinced.

      There was a great platform at the far end of the cobbled square with a large stage and a shell to amplify sound. Renna was drawn to the chatter of a huge crowd, but one voice rose above the din. She saw Jow Cutter standing onstage, showing no sign that he had been injured near to death just a few hours before. Renna caught sight of a now familiar set of robes, and saw Tender Hayes standing at the edge of the crowd with one of his acolytes, leaning on his crooked staff and watching with cold eyes.

      ‘Saw Him with my own eyes!’ Jow cried. ‘Woodie laid me clean open, an’ I heard Darsy Gatherer say there wan’t nothing she could do! But then the Painted Man came and waved His hands, and now I barely got a mark on me!’

      ‘Get off that stage, Jow Cutter!’ someone shouted. ‘You may be a fool, but you’re no Jongleur! Spin your tampweed tales somewhere else!’

      ‘Swear by the sun!’ Jow cried, and he held up his torn and bloody jerkin, showing the faded scars where the wood demon had mauled him. When the crowd still looked sceptical, he pointed at a man in the crowd. ‘Evin Cutter, you seen it, too!’

      All eyes turned to Evin, but his great wolfhound bristled, keeping them back.

      ‘Din’t see no magic healing,’ he said after a moment. ‘Leastways not with my two eyes. But ay. The Deliverer’s returned.’

      Arlen groaned, putting his face in his hand as the crowd turned back to Jow with renewed interest.

      ‘Ay!’ Jow cried. ‘The real Deliverer’s come back to bring Mistress Leesha home and put that desert rat down!’ The crowd roared in approval.

      ‘Dumb as a pile of rocks, but he ent all wrong,’ Arlen muttered.

      Just then Jow looked up, seeing Arlen and Renna at the edge of the crowd. ‘There He is!’ he cried, pointing. ‘The Deliverer!’

      Arlen put his hands on his hips as the entire crowd turned to him at once, looking at Jow like a dog that had shit inside the house.

      And then suddenly the crowd closed in, everyone reaching, grabbing. Hundreds of people crushing inward, all shouting at once.

      ‘Deliverer!’

      ‘Bless you!’

      ‘Bless СКАЧАТЬ