The Darknot by Matthew Jobin

Author:Matthew Jobin [Jobin, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-09-24T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Not the merest breath of wind came to howl at the door of the abandoned shepherd’s hut. No sound of pursuit crossed the junction of the roads nearby, be they wizards in Vithric’s service or men-at-arms in the employ of Lord Wolland. There was nothing to prick the nerves, nothing to excite the senses, nothing to draw Edmund’s mind away from what had happened and what he had done.

“You did what was needed.” Katherine sat near to him. “Edmund, you had no choice.”

Edmund had wanted such simple things, and so recently. That summer, before the coming of the Nethergrim, all he had wanted was Katherine’s favor and interest. All he had wanted, all he had hoped for, was for her to notice him, think of him, hold his hand and maybe, just maybe, one day stoop to kiss him. He had wanted to study magic, to become something his father could not control or understand, and to make Katherine’s eyes turn his way. A single autumn—a few short, spare months—had been enough to make such dreams seem like the idle fancies of a child. He hardly knew that other Edmund anymore—that one from last summer—powerless, just turned fourteen and in the grip of silly love. He had killed. He and Katherine had made war together. They had saved and lost. They were swords honed keen and taking nicks along their lengths, whittling their cores away with every stroke. No happy home could be made by such implements. They were weapons made for strife and hardship, to be broken in the fray and hung up as trophies on the wall when peace came again.

Katherine gained her feet. “We can’t stay here long.” She peered out through the flap of fabric that blocked the only window. “It will be dawn soon. We must decide where to go next.”

Edmund took out the metal disk from his satchel and forced himself to think. He stared at the innermost symbols: Horse–Ocean, Land–Blade, Crow–Road. Thoughts chased themselves around and around in his mind, but it was better than what he saw in the eye of his mind when he was not thinking them.

“That horrible calendar-thing again.” Katherine reached out to soothe Indigo, though he seemed to want nothing just then save for more oats. “Edmund, how can time just end? It doesn’t make any sense!”

“I think this calendar is a warning, made long ago but meant for the people of our own time.” Edmund glanced up at Katherine. “At the end of this year, a cycle of the world will close and the Nethergrim will rise as the new sun. For all I know, everything that has happened with the Nethergrim this year—and maybe as far back as your father and Tristan’s campaign in the mountains—might have been preparation for this, her appointed time, her chance to make an end to our world.”

Katherine turned to the boy king, who lay on the only cot in the place, next to the fire that none of them had dared to light.

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