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distant from deserving the name of "desk." Herrac dropped into one of the chairs beside the desk and waved Jim to another. "I have sent for some wine to be brought us. Shall I simply tell you what has happened and what I've learned since you left us last?" he said. They were the Page 143 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html first words he had spoken since he had met Jim at the foot of the stairs. "Or have you something more urgent to speak to me about?" "Only one thing," said Jim, feeling that spreading the word himself would be a form of self-protection. "I've asked the Lady Liseth to help me in drawing our prisoner to show off his courtly airs and habits; so that when I change myself to look like him, with magic, I can also display the same movements and behaviors. The Lady Liseth understands, of course, that this is simply a matter of her public behavior with MacDougall. I am not asking her anything beyond the bounds of good manners, or anything that would be in any way distasteful to her." "Of course," rumbled Herrac, "I agree. You are a gentleman, as well as being a magician, and I would not conceive of your suggesting anything improper to my daughter. Tell me, has she agreed to this?" "She has," said Jim, "just now, as we were leaving the room where Sir Brian lies. Bythe by, I have given him permission to come down to dinner.But, on the matter of Liseth and MacDougall. I assumed her agreement would be subject to a chance to tell you about it, and make sure that you also agreed." "As a matter of fact," said Herrac, "she drew me aside from the table in the Great Hall just a moment since, told me about it, and did seek my agreement. But I could hardly doubt that any daughter of mine would be anything but polite to a visitor in my home." He paused. "Besides," he said, "you may have noticedyourself, that she does not take kindly to nay-saying, even by me, her father." Since Jim had seen none of the de Mer children do anything but agree utterly and immediately with Herrac, this was somewhat of a surprise to him. But he hid it. "It is odd," went on Herrac, more to himself, "but the boys were always more biddable. My dear Margaret always had more success than I in guiding Liseth." He paused. His eyes were looking past Jim at something that was not in the room.Jim, who had been about to speak in the momentary silence, closed his mouth again. "She was so young to die, my Margaret," said Herrac, in a strangely muted tone of voice, " to die so suddenly, without warning. It was in the middle of the night and we were in bed together, asleep. And I woke, for even in my sleep I felt the first pain that hit her; as a man, fighting while pressed close against his sword-companion, feels the shock of the blow his companion takes, through the other's body into his. So, I woke." "'What is it?' I asked her. " 'Holdme!' she said oh, in such a stricken voice and I put my arms around her and held her to me, as I would have held her against bear or lion, or Satan himself. And she clung to me& " The man's voice had risen; and he seemed to swell as if he threatened to fill the room. His eyes now blazed at whatever he saw past Jim; and Jim himself was suddenly as tense as Dafydd's strung bow. "Then the second great pain came." Herrac was not even talking to Jim now, Page 144 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html but to himself only very much out loud. "And this one I felt as shedid, a pain beyond speaking that went right through me as it went through her. " 'Margaret!' I cried. "But she was gone. And I held in my arms& " Tears were now rolling down Herrac's face, and his voice choked for a moment, so that he could not go on. But he seemed to grow even larger, so that everything in the room, including Jim himself, seemed to shrink. For now, his eyes were the eyes of a madman. "I was at the funeral," he went on, "but I saw only Margaret and heard nothing. But for some months " He spoke suddenly between clenched teeth. " no man dared cross my path. For fear I would see, or think to see in him, some slight present or past against her; and I would kill him!" Herrac's great fist crashed upon the top of the table, so fiercely that Jim started and winced at the same time. For it did not seem that living flesh and bone could take that blow against the thick wood of the tabletop. " Kill! Kill!For want of killing the thing the death the thief in the night that had taken my Margaret from me. If I could have found It, I would have killed It, I would have cut and crushed and slainIt like a roach under my foot& " Suddenly he slid out of his chair, dropping to his knees, and started to pray with bowed head. "Lord God, you have taken her to you. Hold her safe until my coming, when she will want for safety no more. And forgive her any sins that unknowingly she committed for surely she could have committed none, knowingly. And teach me patience and strength that I may endure in this world until I have accomplished all the things she would have wanted to see all my sons safely into manhood, my daughter safe, and all things right, so that I am no more needed here& " His voice trailed off into silence. "Amen," he said. Slowly, he got back up into his chair and stared around at Jim and the room for a moment, as if he was seeing them for the first time. Finally, his eyes focused on Jim. "Not even the servants would come near, for those months," he said, in more normal tones. "Only my children brought me food and drink, and led me to my bed, nights Liseth first among them, for all Alan was eldest. And in time, I came to live with what had happened though sometimes, as now, it returns to my mind, unawares; and the wildness comes back on me." His eyes were now completely sane again. "Forgive me, Sir James," he said, "but there are indeed moments when I Page 145 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html remember; and then I cannot help myself. Tell me, you have a wife, do you not?" "Yes," said Jim. "Then you know what it is to love, in a way even the minstrels do not know?" "Yes," said Jim, even more softly, his thoughts for the moment many miles distant. Herrac passed a hand over his face, wiping away the last traces of his tears. "But we came here to talk of important matters," he said, in his usual voice. "I know all that my daughter could tell me, as well as what you proposed. Yes, I have sent messengers to certain of the other Borderers, as you wished." Jim cleared his throat. "I'm very pleased Liseth told you, herself," he said, "so we can get right to work. Perhaps you'd tell me how our plans were received by the other Borderers.Including, if you had a chance to do so, about this business of meeting the Hollow Men for a final battle that will end them, and joining with the Little Men to fight." "I have sounded out a good number of my neighbors," answered Herrac. "You must understand that, while we have our small disputes, the one with the other, from time to time, in general we are quite able to join together against a menace like the Hollow Men. I heard from none who were not strongly in agreement with fighting them, if they could all be cornered in one place. On the subject of joining forces with the Little Men, however, I was faced with one question you will forgive me to which I had no strong answer. Why, indeed, do we need the Little Men? I was asked by many. I had to send them what answer I could. Which was that you, as a magician, consider it of vital importance that the Little Men be present; but you had not told me why, so that I assumed it was something magical and not to be said to us ordinary mortals." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |