Lawhead, Stephen Pendragon Cycle 02 Merlin

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

ancient stones began to turn.
Around and around, slowly, slowly at first, but then a little faster, each stone began turning around its
own axis as it whirled in the air.
The druids looked on in horror and wonder, some cried out in fright. I thought to myself that it was a
handsome sight those heavy blue stones spinning and whirling in the shining air, as in a dream.
Perhaps it was a dream after all. If so, it was a dream we all shared together with eyes wide and staring,
mouths open in disbelief.
Once, twice, and again, the stones whirled through their course. From my place on the Druid Seat, I
heard my own voice ringing, high and strange, voicing a song, or laughter I know not which to the
stones dancing in the air.
I clapped my hands again and the great stones plummeted instantly to earth. The ground shook beneath
them and the dust rose in a cloud. When it cleared, we saw that some of the stones had fallen back into
their socket holes; most, however, simply lay where they dropped. One or another had cracked and
shattered and the ring was broken.
The stone on which I stood had settled back onto its place, and I stepped off. Blaise, his face alight with
the wonder of what he had seen, rushed towards me and would have taken hold of me, but Hafgan
restrained him, saying, 'Do not touch him until theawen has passed.'
Blaise made to step back, caught sight of the Druid Seat and thrust his ringer towards it. 'For any
inclined to doubt what we have witnessed this day, let this be a sign of the truth of what we have seen.'
I looked at where he was pointing and saw the prints of my feet etched deep into the stone of the Druid
Seat.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
So the Great Light was proclaimed among the Learned Brotherhood that day. Some believed. Others
did not. And although none could deny the power of what they had seen, some chose to attribute the
miracle to a different source.
'It is Lieu-sun!' some said. 'Mathonwy!' said others. 'Who else has such power?'
In the end, Hafgan lost his temper. 'You call me Wise Leader,' he said bitterly, 'but refuse to follow
where I lead. Very well, from this day let each man follow who he will. I will not remain Chief of such
small-minded and ignorant men!'
With that, he raised his staff in both hands and broke it over his knee, then turned his back and strode
from the assembly. The Learned Brotherhood was dissolved.
We followed Hafgan from the grove Blaise, Charis, myself, and two or three others and returned
to the glen where the warband was waiting. We broke camp at once and rode south towards Yr Widdfa.
Hafgan wanted to see the great mountain again, and to show us where he was born.
He was angry for a time after leaving Garth Greggyn, but this passed very quickly and he soon appeared
joyful and more content than I had ever seen him singing, laughing, talking long and happily with my
mother as we rode along a man freed from a tiresome burden, or healed of a wearying pain. Blaise
noticed the change as well, and explained it to me. 'He has been divided in his heart for a very long time.
I think he wanted to force the decision back there, and now that it is over he is free to go his own way.'
'Divided?'
'Between Jesu and the old gods,' Blaise replied. 'As Chief Druid he must uphold the eminence of the
ancient gods of our people, though that has become distasteful to him hi the years since he discovered the
Great Light.' I must have frowned or shown, my lack of comprehension, for Blaise added, 'You must
understand, Myrddin Bach, not every man will follow the Light. Nothing you or anyone else can do will
change that.' He shook his head. 'Though dead men rise from their graves and stones dance in the ak,
they will still refuse. It makes no sense, but that is the way of it.'
I did not altogether believe him. I thought he was telling me the truth as he saw it, and respected his
insight; but in my innermost heart I thought that if men did not believe the truth it was only because a
better way of explaining had yet to be discovered. There is a way to make all men see, I thought to
myself, and I will find it.
Two days later we sat on a high hill, the wind riffling the sparse grass and sighing among the bare rocks
as we gazed at the cold, white-topped and solitary splendour of Yr Widdfa, Snow Lord, Winter's
Fortress.
In that lonely land of brooding peaks and darksome vales it is easy to believe the things whispered
before the firelight, the tales and scraps of tales men have passed to their children for a hundred
generations and more: one-eyed giants in halls of stone; goddesses who transform themselves into owls
to haunt the night on soft, silent wings; water maids who lure the unwary to rapturous death below the
waves; enchanted hills where captured heroes sleep the centuries away; invisible islands where gods
cavort in the twilight of never-ending summer. . .
Easy to believe the unbelievable there among the hollow hills.
We dismounted and ate a meal on the hilltop, then rested. I did not care to sleep, and decided to walk [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Archiwum