Cole the Magnificent by Tony Williams

Author:Tony Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Salt
Published: 2023-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

59

Now as she strolled idly in the gardens of her father’s palace, Niven began to see and hear strange things: an eye carved in the parapet where no carving had been before, a snigger in the foliage, a pair of feet poking out from silk curtains that disappeared when she swept them aside.

A small villainous shadow crept about, leaping from wall to dome and from the recesses of the garden itself into the darkness of Niven’s mind. She could not keep track of it. At first she kept things to herself, feeling that it would be foolish to say out loud that someone was following her into her imagination and back out again.

But one morning she looked up from bathing and saw a little face grinning at her from the fig tree. She quickly covered her nakedness, and when she looked up again he had gone. Her heart burned with fear, and shame, and excitement too. She ran to find Gaddi where he sat cracking almonds in a quiet corner. She told him about the tale of Goll and how the thief had followed her from the book’s garden into hers.

‘What does it mean?’ she asked.

Gaddi gravely shook his head. ‘I told you that no good would come of the literary arts. You went to them looking for ideas, but now an idea is interested in you.’

‘What does he want from me?’

‘We can only hope he loses interest and goes away.’

‘But why is he there?’

‘The same reason there are so many male visitors in this house. He thinks you can give him life.’

Niven’s eyes widened. ‘And can I – how can I do that?’

‘It never happens how you think it will,’ said Gaddi. ‘But you might ask yourself: who do you fear most, the little vagrant from the book of dreams or the seedy under-minister, the greedy merchant and the wizened old general whose teeth have fallen out?’

‘Maybe I don’t fear any of them. And maybe none of these visitors is welcome in my house.’

But it was not in her power to close her life to visitors. As she walked in the garden she began to feel more and more that the little figure was following her, making ready to cast his spear. It was intensely irritating.

Meanwhile she was called upon more and more to come to her father’s table to meet his grand friends. One evening an old man put his hands on hers and spoke in praise of her, and her mother and father looked delighted even though in Niven’s heart there was nothing but disgust. The old man brushed her cheek with his lips, and she was made to share a cup of wine with him, and in this way, they were betrothed.

That night in her rooms she raged in distaste and impotence. Now she begged the figure who stalked her to come out – even to strike her down and kill her, if that was the only way out of the life that stood waiting.

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