David Gemmell - Shannow 04 by The Last Guardian

Author:The Last Guardian [Guardian, The Last]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Beth McAdam was thoughtful and silent as she steered the wagon south over the rolling grasslands towards the Wall. The children were sitting on the tailboard squabbling, but the noise passed her by.

Shannow was making good progress, but still confined to his room at the Traveller’s Rest, and the Parson had been a frequent caller at their campsite in Tent Town. Now there was Edric Scayse, tall and confident, courteous and gallant. He had taken her to dinner twice, and amused her with stories of his upbringing in the far north.

“They have cities there now, and elected leaders,” he had told her. “Some of the areas have formed treaties with neighbouring groups and there was talk last year of a Confederation.”

“They won’t get together,” said Beth. “People don’t. They’ll row over everything and fight over nothing.”

“Don’t be too sure, Beth. Mankind cannot grow without organisation. Take the Barta coin—that’s universally accepted now, no matter which community you enter. Old Jacob Barta, who first stamped the coins, had a dream of one nation. Now it looks as if it has a chance. Just imagine what it would be like if laws were as readily accepted as Barta coin?”

“Wars will just get bigger,” she said with certainty. “It’s the way of things.”

“We need leaders, Beth—strong men to draw us all together. There’s so much we don’t know about the past, that could help us with the future … so much.”

The lead oxen stumbled, jerking Beth back to the present and she hauled on the reins, giving the beast time to recover its footing. She was attracted to Scayse, drawn by his strength, but there was something about him that left her with a vague sense of unease. Like the Parson, he had a dangerous, uncertain quality. With Shannow, the danger was all on the surface—what you saw was what you got. How much easier life would have been had she found Josiah Broome attractive. But the man was such a blinkered fool.

“I dread to think of people who look up to men like Jon Shannow,” he had told her one morning, as they waited for the first customers of the day. “Loathsome man! A killer and a war-maker of the worst kind. People like him wreck communities, destroy any sense of civilised behaviour. He is a cancer in our midst and should be ordered to leave.”

“When has he stolen anything?” she countered, holding the anger from her voice. “When has he been disrespectful? When? When has he killed a man without first being threatened with death himself?”

“How can you ask such a thing? Did you not see on the night poor Fenner died? When he stood before the crowd, and that man asked him if he thought he could take on all of them? Shannow shot him down without warning; the man did not even have a gun in his hand.”

“You’ll never understand, Meneer Broome. I am surprised you have lived this long. If Shannow had let the moment pass, they would all have turned on him and he would have been shot to pieces.

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