Whitemantle. Robert Goldthwaite Carter

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СКАЧАТЬ that day, and he had saved many a life by his actions.

      They came to the banks of the River Gadden well before noon. It was here that Will felt yet another lign prickle his skin. This one was fainter and harder to follow, but it seemed to trend a little south of east, much as the rowan lign had. There was no doubt in Will’s mind that it was the yew lign, the same that passed close by the Vale.

      ‘Keep up!’ Gwydion called back, flicking the reins of his horse.

      ‘Master Gwydion, I can feel the Eburos lign.’

      ‘What of it?’

      ‘Nothing – except I thought it was our task to find more battlestones.’

      ‘There is no time to tarry at present. We must reach Trinovant before nightfall!’

      ‘Then ride on ahead of us!’ Will told him. ‘We’ve a young child to consider. And this old nag’s already tired out.’

      The wizard waited for them to draw abreast. ‘I would rather you came along with me,’ he said with exaggerated patience. ‘This is not a safe time for anyone to be on the road. News of the battle has yet to reach these parts and there will be much uncertainty in men’s hearts.’

      Will saw that Gwydion’s impatience was unsettling his horse. It had soon taken him fifty paces ahead and was champing to get on further still.

      Willow watched the wizard with concern. ‘He’s getting grumpier by the hour,’ she whispered. ‘I hope he’s all right.’

      ‘He’s worried. And is it any wonder, when things have gone so far astray?’

      He partly meant their quest to rid the Realm of battlestones, but he was also thinking of the unspeakable bloodshed that had followed the fight at Delamprey. While a greater battle had been narrowly prevented, the murder of so many noble prisoners at Lord Warrewyk’s hands had blighted the victory. Will was sure that act had sown the seeds of revenge – seeds that must eventually be reaped as a yet bloodier harvest.

      So far as the battlestones were concerned, the loss of Will’s talisman had been an even greater blow, for it was the only real weapon they had ever possessed. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed that Gwydion was right – Maskull had finally gained the upper hand.

      ‘And you can cheer up, too!’ Willow said. ‘Things might have gone a lot worse for us. That loathsome woman – I won’t dignify her with the title of queen – is running away into the north with what’s left of her friends. Things look set for a change at last, and probably a change for the better.’

      ‘Maybe. But Master Gwydion once told me to remember that we’re peacemakers – we shouldn’t be feeling pleased that Duke Richard’s forces won at Delamprey, even though he’s been a better friend to us than his enemies ever have. The balance has been shifted again, and that’s the important thing.’

      Willow settled Bethe in a more comfortable position in front of her. ‘I don’t see why we shouldn’t feel happy for the duke. We lived among his household. You were even schooled with his sons. Duchess Cicely helped my father and me when she might have sent us back to face Lord Strange’s displeasure. And she looked after Bethe as if she was one of her own.’

      He sighed, trying to see how best to put it. ‘I’m not saying Duke Richard isn’t a good man at heart. He’s probably better than most, but he’s human like us all, and—’

      Willow grunted. ‘And what? When fighting against him is that she-wolf who cares nothing for nobody. Tell me where’s our loyalty supposed to lie?’

      ‘You just have to try to see things more broadly. That’s what Master Gwydion means.’

      ‘Oh, is that it?’

      Will sucked his teeth. He saw the way his infant daughter’s eyes swept across the land, drinking in everything they noticed, delighting in every bird and squirrel she saw. Her expressions were so much like her mother’s, and yet Willow said they were exactly like his own.

      ‘It’s got something to do with the way the past gets made out of the future,’ he said. ‘There’s the future where all is uncertain and yet to be fixed, and there’s the past, where all is done and cannot be undone. But where the future touches the past, there’s a thin line. That’s what we call the present. That’s where we live.’

      ‘I see,’ she said unconvincingly.

      ‘And the present’s the only part we can affect with our free will, don’t you see? Because what we choose to do in the present affects the way the future is turned into the past.’

      ‘Well, I know that,’ Willow said, unimpressed. ‘That much even Bethe knows, don’t you, sweet baby?’

      ‘But…but the point is, Master Gwydion says there’s only one “true path”, one track through time that’s the best of all possible destinies. If everybody did what was right by everybody else then the best possible world would come about as soon as blink.’

      ‘You mean like it does in the Vale when everyone argues and we all somehow come to a compromise in the end?’

      ‘Exactly! But you see not everybody can do right because there are powerful people out here and they’ve multiplied their strength so that now most people just take orders and don’t even think about what they’re doing. And then there’s Maskull, who’s done that more than anyone. And because he’s a sorcerer that means he understands the harm he’s doing, which is even worse.’

      Willow let it all sink in. She shook her head. ‘Then why is he doing it?’

      Will shrugged. ‘He’s a renegade, a cock who thinks the sun has risen to hear him crow. He’s broken his vows of guardianship and forgotten all about humility and kindness and all the things he always said he cared about. He wants to live forever and go on and on in charge of the world, and he thinks he might have found a way to make that happen.’

      ‘So that’s the path he’s leading us all towards.’

      ‘Yes. It’s one that will reward him alone. He’s started behaving as if he’s found a way to live forever and enjoy power forever. But to do that he needs to turn the future of the world far away from the true path. And Master Gwydion says that if we get pushed too far from the true path, then we’ll never be able to get back to it. Maskull will have won, and the world won’t ever be the same again.’

      Her eyes narrowed. ‘We won’t ever be able to get it back?’

      ‘No. If Maskull steers history along that terrible, false path, he’ll take us towards a world without magic – it’ll mean five hundred years of ceaseless war, and the end of the world that we know. Now you see what Master Gwydion’s really fighting for: he wants us to have the best of all possible worlds, or for us to come as close as we can to getting that. That’s why he wants us to follow the true path. It’s not all that complicated an idea in the end, but it’s hard to make it happen.’

      Willow offered no reply. There was just the sound of horses’ hooves clopping along the dusty track, the buzz of flies in the hot July air and a baby gurgling to herself at all that she saw and heard.

      After a while, Will said unhappily, ‘You know what? The batdestones are Maskull’s СКАЧАТЬ