Alan Garner Classic Collection. Alan Garner

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СКАЧАТЬ are gone. They have all the time there is, and will not be hurried.”

      With this, the face disappeared, the legs swung out of sight, there was a slithering noise, a bump, and from behind the rock stepped a man four feet high. He wore a belted tunic of grey, patterned with green spirals along the hem, pointed boots, and breeches bound tight with leather thongs. His black hair reached to his shoulders, and on his brow was a circlet of gold.

      “Are – are you a dwarf?” said Susan.

      “That am I.” He bowed low. “By name, Fenodyree; Wineskin, or Squabnose, to disrespectful friends. Take your pick.”

      He straightened up and looked keenly from one to the other of the children. His face had the same qualities of wisdom, of age without weakness, that they had seen in Cadellin, but here there was more of merriment, and a lighter heart.

      “Oh please,” said Susan, “take us to the wizard, if you can. Something dreadful has happened, and he must be told at once, in case it’s not too late.”

      “In case what is not too late?” said Fenodyree. “Oh, but there I go, wanting gossip, when all around is turmoil and urgent deeds! Let us find Cadellin.”

      He ran his hand down the rough stone, like a man stroking the flanks of a favourite horse. The rock stirred ponderously and clove in two, and there were the iron gates, and the blue light of Fundindelve.

      “Now the gates,” said Fenodyree briskly. “My father made them, and so they hear me, though I have not the power of wizards.”

      He laid his hand upon the metal, and the gates opened.

      “Stay close, lest you lose the way,” called Fenodyree over his shoulder.

      He set off at a jog-trot down the swift-sloping tunnel. Colin and Susan hurried after him, the rock and iron closed behind them, and they were again far from the world of men.

      Down they went into the edge, and came at last, by many zigzag paths, to the cave where they had rested after their meeting with Cadellin. And there they found him; he had been reading at the table, but had risen at the sound of their approach.

      “The day’s greeting to you, Cadellin Silverbrow,” said Fenodyree.

      “And to you, Wineskin. Now what bad news do you bring me, children? I have been expecting it, though I know not what it may be.”

      “Cadellin,” cried Susan, “my Tear must be Firefrost, and it’s just been stolen!”

      “What – tear is this?”

      “My Tear! The one my mother gave me. She had it from Bess Mossock.”

      And out poured the whole story in a tumble of words.

      The wizard grew older before their eyes. He sank down upon his chair, his face lined and grey.

      “It is the stone. It is the stone. No other has that heart of fire. And it was by me, and I did not hear it call.”

      He sat, his eyes clouded, a tired, world-weary, old man.

      Then wrath kindled in him, and spread like flame. He sprang from his chair with all the vigour of youth, and he seemed to grow in stature, and his presence filled the cave.

      “Grimnir!” he cried. “Are you to be my ruin at the end? Quick! We must take him in the open before he gains the lake! I shall slay him, if I must.”

      “Nay, Cadellin,” said Fenodyree. “Hot blood has banished cool thought! It is near an hour since the hooded one strode swampwards; he will be far from the light by now, and even you dare not follow there. He would sit and mock you. Would you want that, old friend?”

      “Mock me! Why did he leave these children unharmed, if not for that? It is not his way to show mercy for mercy’s sake! And how else could despair have been brought to me so quickly? I am savouring his triumph now, as he meant me to.

      “But what you say is reason: for good or ill the stone is with him. All we can do is guard, and wait, though I fear it will be to no good purpose.”

      He looked at the children, who were standing dejectedly in the middle of the cave.

      “Colin, Susan; you have witnessed the writing of a dark chapter in the book of the world, and what deeds it will bring no man can tell; but you must in no way blame yourselves for what has happened. The elf-road would have been but short refuge from him who came against you this day – Grimnir the hooded one.”

      “But what is he?” said Susan, pale with the memory of their meeting.

      “He is, or was, a man. Once he studied under the wisest of the wise, and became a great lore-master; but in his lust for knowledge he practised the forbidden arts, and the black magic ravaged his heart, and made a monster of him. He left the paths of day, and went to live, like Grendel of old, beneath the waters of Llyn-dhu, the Black Lake, growing mighty in evil, second only to the ancient creatures of night that attend their lord in Ragnarok. And it is he, arch-enemy of mine, who came against you this day.”

      “No one in memory has seen his face or heard his voice,” added Fenodyree. “Dwarf-legend speaks of a great shame that he bears therein: a gadfly of remorse, reminding him of what he is, and of what he might have been. But then that is only an old tale we learnt at our mother’s knee, and not one for this sad hour.”

      “Nor have we time for folk-talk,” said Cadellin. “We must do what we can, and that quickly. Now tell me, who can have seen the stone and recognised it?”

      “Well, nobody …” said Colin.

      “Selina Place!” cried Susan. “Selina Place! My Tear went all misty! Don’t you remember, Colin? She must have seen my Tear and stopped to make certain.”

      “Ha!” laughed Fenodyree bitterly. “Old Shape-shifter up to her tricks! We might have guessed the weight of the matter had we but known she was behind it!”

      “Oh, why did you not tell us this when we first met?” the wizard shouted.

      “I forgot all about it,” said Colin: “it didn’t seem important. I thought she was queer in the head.”

      “Important? Queer? Hear him! Why, Selina Place, as she is known to you, is the chief witch of the morthbrood! Worse, she is the Morrigan, the Third Bane of Logris!”

      For a moment it seemed as though he would erupt in anger, but instead, he sighed, and shook his head.

      “No matter. It is done.”

      Susan was almost in tears. She could not bear to see the old man so distraught, especially when she felt responsible for his plight.

      “Is there nothing we can do?”

      The wizard looked up at her, and a tired smile came to his lips.

      “Do? My dear, I think there is little any of us can do now. Certainly, there will be no place for children in the struggle to come. It will be hard for you, I know, but you must go from here and forget all you have seen and done. Now that the stone is out of your care you will be safe.”

      “But,” СКАЧАТЬ