Diana Wynne Jones’s Magic and Myths Collection. Diana Wynne Jones

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ and down at trees and tiny fields, and realised they were in the air.

      “So far so good,” Harmony said, unbuckling her safety belt.

      The stewardess came round and contemptuously gave them each a cup of orange juice and a bun.

      “I wish I could have wine,” Troy said, looking at the bottles on the stewardess’s trolley.

      “Don’t provoke her,” Harmony said. “She’ll say we’re all too young.”

      Troy bit into his bun, grumbling, “I’m a thousand times older than she is.”

      “Hush,” Harmony said. “Are you all right, Hayley?”

      “Scared,” said Hayley. She did not feel like eating her bun. “Why is Uncle Jolyon so angry about me?”

      “Because you were supposed to stay with our grandparents,” Harmony said.

      “For ever, I think,” Troy said. “Can I have your bun if you don’t want it?”

      Hayley handed it to him. “Why?” she asked. “Really for ever?”

      Harmony nodded, with her smooth pretty face screwed up in distaste. “A long time ago,” she said, “thousands of years ago, in fact, around the time your parents decided to get married, Uncle Jolyon went to a seer called the Pythoness and asked what would happen if they did get married. He disapproved, you see, because your father was a mortal man—”

      “Just as if he wasn’t having love affairs with mortal women all the time!” Troy said, tearing the wrapper off the bun as if he were skinning it alive. “Old hypocrite! He has love affairs all over the place, mortals, immortals, you name them! He’s my father, you know, and Harmony’s, and the father of all the cousins – old goat!”

      “Yes, well,” said Harmony. “Let me tell her the story. The Pythoness said that if Merope – your mother – ever married a mortal man, their offspring would strip Jolyon of his power. Jolyon was horrified and went storming back to stop the wedding. But he was too late. Your parents had been married while he was away seeing the Pythoness and gone to Cyprus for their honeymoon. Jolyon couldn’t get at them there—”

      “Cyprus belongs to Aunt Venus,” Troy put in, munching.

      “So he had to wait until they came home to Greece,” Harmony said. “And while he waited, he made plans. He knew that nine-tenths of his power came from the mythosphere, but he also knew that our power comes from the mythosphere too, and he knew that we were all going to be on Merope’s side, all Merope’s sisters and their children and our grandfather, Atlas. Between us, we have almost as much power as Jolyon does. So the first thing he did was to order all of us to leave the mythosphere and live the way we do now, as ordinary people, and we obeyed him, because we didn’t understand what he was after—”

      “Jupiter, bringer of joy!” Troy said bitterly. “We’ve been pinned down like this for more than two thousand years now. And all because he was afraid of a baby!” He crunched the bun paper up savagely.

      “Well, he was head god in those days,” Harmony said. She sighed. “Nowadays, his power is in money as much as in the mythosphere. Grandpa has to hold up the world economy for him and Jolyon makes sure we’re all in debt to him.”

      “But what about me?” Hayley demanded.

      “The moment your parents came home with you,” Harmony said, “he took you and planted you on your grandparents, with orders that you were not to grow up and not to know anything about your family. Grandma always does what Jolyon says – it’s part of her strict outlook. And at the same time, he shoved Merope and your father off into the mythosphere and told everyone they were being punished for disobedience.”

      “Though, in actual fact,” Troy said, “he never did forbid them to marry – or not that we ever heard.”

      Hayley thought, in a stunned way, about all her time living under Grandma’s strict discipline. It had seemed like years and years and years. And this was not surprising, since it had been years and years. And she had thought it was just life. “I met my dad in the mythosphere,” she said. “Being punished. He looked so tired, Harmony. I wanted to rescue him, but he said only my mum could do that. He thinks she’s in a women’s strand, somewhere wild.”

      “Then I think we should do our best to find her,” Harmony said. “We could hardly be in much more trouble now Tollie and Mercer have told Uncle Jolyon about the game. Blast Tollie!”

      “That Autolycus,” Troy said gloomily. “He really hates Hayley, doesn’t he? He stole stuff from your father, Hayley, and your father caught him at it. I think that’s why.”

      Harmony said, equally gloomily, “I don’t think Tollie needs a reason to do the things he does. So if we look for Merope—”

      “I have to have a star off Orion’s bow too,” Hayley said. “Flute said I had to give him one for stealing the apple.”

      Troy whistled. Harmony said, “Flute?” with her smooth forehead all wrinkled. Then the wrinkles cleared away and she said, “Oh, you mean one of those two who own the apples?”

      Hayley nodded. “They’re twins. They take turns at standing in the sun. I call them Flute and Fiddle, but who are they really, Harmony?”

      Harmony looked at Troy, who shook his head, shrugged and said, “No idea.”

      “No more have I,” Harmony confessed. “I’ve always called them Yin and Yang, because you have to call them something, and sometimes I wondered if they might be angels, but I really don’t know. And I’ll tell you this, Hayley. They always make you give them a fee for one of the apples, but I’ve never known them ask for anything as important as a star. The most I’ve had to give them is my old flute – or once they asked for the Old Soldier’s violin – but otherwise it’s just a blue bead or a farthing or a shoelace. Nothing really. If they’ve asked for one of Orion’s stars, it must be serious. We’ll look into that. But let’s get back to Merope. What are the women’s strands?”

      “Witches,” Troy suggested. “Suffragettes, Amazons, the Pythoness, Saint Ursula?”

      “Or all those boring ladies who waited in towers for their prince to come,” Harmony added. “Rapunzel – you know. Oh lord! There’s hundreds! What about that girl who went about making prophecies that no one believed?”

      “None of those are wild,” Troy pointed out. “Go back to witches.”

      “There are thousands of those,” Harmony said. “And what about Boadicea? Jezebel?”

      They were still making suggestions to one another when the plane landed in Edinburgh.

      It took ages to get off the plane and into the airport building. Hayley became nervous all over again. There seemed ample time for Uncle Jolyon to pounce on them while they shuffled along to collect their baggage, or while they stood for minute after minute watching the empty luggage carousel go round and round.

      “I’ve just thought,” Troy said, as Hayley’s duffel bag pushed the flaps aside and toppled on to the metal surface. “Uncle Jolyon knows where we’re going. СКАЧАТЬ