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.Brennan quickly composed himself, even flipped Cadderly a towel from the dinner tray with which he could rub down.“It would seem that you could use the meal,” Ghost offered.“I did not know that reading could be so strenuous.”Cadderly chuckled at the witticism, though he was a bit confused that Brennan had made such a remark.The young man had seen him at his reading many times before, and many times involved, as he was now, in the meditative exercises.“What have you there?” Cadderly asked, seeing the long and narrow bundle.Ghost fumbled with the item, still unsure if the young priest had expected it or not.“It came in just this afternoon,” he explained, “from the wizard, I would assume.” He unwrapped the bundle and handed the fine walking stick to Cadderly.“Yes, Belisarius,” Cadderly replied absently.He waved the walking stick about easily, testing its balance, then tossed it casually on the bed.“I had nearly forgotten about it,” he remarked, and added with obvious sarcasm, “I wonder what mighty enchantments my wizard friend bestowed upon it!”Ghost only shrugged, though secretly he was gnawing at his lower lip, angry now that he had decided to return the unlooked-for present.Cadderly gave the young man a wink.“Not that I will ever find use for it, you understand.”“We never know when a fight might fall our way” Ghost replied, sliding the tray onto Cadderly’s small table and arranging the silverware.Cadderly eyed him curiously, caught off guard by the grim tones and uncharacteristically reflective thought of the passion-driven youth.The young man held a serrated knife in his hand for just a moment, with his hand only inches from Cadderly’s bare chest.For some reason, that dangerous image suddenly mattered to Cadderly; silent alarms went off inside him.The young priest fought them away, as easily as he rubbed the sweat from his neck, rationally telling himself that he was letting his imagination run wild.The song played in the back of Cadderly’s mind.He almost turned about to see if he had left the tome open, but he had not; he could not.Shadows began to form atop Brennan’s slender shoulders.Aurora.For some reason he could not understand, Cadderly sensed again the unfathomable possibility that Brennan was considering striking him with the knife.Suddenly, Brennan dropped the knife to the tray and fumbled about with the small bowl and plate.Cadderly did not relax; Brennan’s movements were too stiff, too edgy, as if Brennan was consciously trying to act as though nothing unusual had occurred.Cadderly said nothing, but held the small towel around his neck with both hands, his muscles tight and ready.He did not concentrate on the man’s specific actions; rather, he shifted back to the young man’s shoulders, to the misshapen, growling shadows huddled there, black claws raking empty air.Aurora.The song played in the distant recesses of his mind, revealing the truth before him.But Cadderly, still a novice, still unsure of his power’s source, did not know if he should trust in it or not.Cadderly could not recognize the shadows any more than to equate them with the same fearsome things he had seen perched upon the shoulders of the beggar on the road.He sensed that they boded evil, both then and now, sensed that they were images resulting from vile thoughts.Considering that Brennan had just been holding a cutting knife, that a short stroke could have driven the serrated instrument into Cadderly’s bare chest, those sensations did not put the young priest at ease.“You must go,” he said to the youth.Ghost looked up at him, confused, but again, the expression did not seem right to Cadderly.“Is something wrong?” the slender youth asked innocently.“Go,” Cadderly said again, his scowl unrelenting, and this time the word held the strength of a minor magical enchantment.Surprisingly, the young man held stubbornly to his position.The shadows on Brennan’s shoulders dissipated and Cadderly had to wonder if he had misread the signals, if those shadows represented something else altogether.Brennan gave him a curt bow-another unexpected movement from the young man that Cadderly thought he knew quite well-and then prudently slipped from the room, closing the door behind him.Cadderly stood staring at the door for a long time, thinking that he must be going mad.He looked back to the Tome of Universal Harmony, wondering if it was a cursed book, a book inspiring lies and a discordant song that sounded true to the foolish victim’s ear.How many priests had been found dead, lying across its open pages?Cadderly labored for breath for a few crucial moments, at a crossroad in his life, though he did not realize it.No, he decided at length.He had to believe in the book, wanted desperately to believe in something.Still he remained in the same position, looking back to the door, to the tome, and lastly to his own heart.He realized that his meal was getting cold, then knew he did not care.The emptiness within him could not be sated by food.Bogo had given Ghost more than the hour the evil man had asked for, but the eager wizard decided to stay in the hearth room anyway, to see what he might learn.The talk among the growing number of patrons settled always on the rumors of war, but, to Bogo’s relief, none of the gathering seemed to have any idea of the depth of the danger that hung over their heads.When Aballister decided to march, most likely in the early spring, the army of Castle Trinity would have little trouble in bringing Carradoon to its knees.The night deepened, the warm fires and the many conversations blazed, and Bogo, despite his fears that Ghost had already dispatched Cadderly, remained in the room, listening and chatting [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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