The Shifu Cloth (The Chronicles of Eirie 4) by Prue Batten

Author:Prue Batten [Batten, Prue]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction - Fantasy
ISBN: 9780987330529
Publisher: Darlington Press
Published: 2012-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Nicholas

As the four men walked through the pearly dawn light, the view of the lake receded behind leaf and tree and Nicholas began to assume some vestige of control over his mind. What had happened had seemed an insane dream, a confusion of feelings and thoughts that ended with he and Poli back in front of the campfire, necessitating a burst of hysterics for the same reason that a lid might be lifted from a boiling kettle.

Phelim, now awake, peppered them with questions, Gallivant adding his own as Poli answered. Finally Phelim spoke unequivocally.

‘We will search the library and search again, and find this clue to where Isabella might be, then we must travel with you. It’s unthinkable that you go alone.’

‘No,’ answered Poli. ‘What’s unthinkable is you leaving Adelina behind, mesmered or no. It is your duty to stay here and care for her.’

Nicholas nodded in agreement and for the first time for a year he felt he had a mouthpiece and relief lifted him, a brief happiness that warmed. His doubts and dislikes over Poli began to crumble. Was this man some sort of kindred spirit? He looked sideways at him as he continued to belabour Phelim.

‘It’s been said that it is Nicholas’s fate to find Isabella, that it may be the secret to breaking the curse and thereby regaining his voice. It has also been said that I must be his companion and I can tell you, that has put a whole new complexion on my journey to date. Something bigger than my own private desires motivated me to make the journey from Veniche to Trevallyn, that is certain.’

He was silent for a moment, shaking his head in disbelief and neither Phelim nor Gallivant gainsaid him.

The only sound was the crunching of leaves and twigs underfoot and the men’s steady breath as they reached an incline towards the manor-house gardens. But then Poli spoke, turning round and walking backward so that he could more easily confront Phelim in the soft gloaming.

‘I wish you hadn’t mesmered Adelina to sleep, Phelim. It was so important she worked through what has happened, especially this latest. It may seem cruel to have her continuing to hope but she would have been stronger because of it.’

‘You think?’ Phelim spoke as if he were hollow – a voice utterly devoid of the hope so readily spoken of by Poli. ‘For a year she has worked through her pain and it has got her nowhere.’

‘Ah, you are wrong. She is alive, she dared to ask her friends for help, she focused on some enigma in a piece of cloth. They were good signs. Yes, she is thin, she is tired but between you, Gallivant, Margriet and Folko, she could have been nurtured. And we would have time…’

Nicholas listened and knew then what it was that finally made this man acceptable. His was the voice of reason – clear objective reason and something they had not had the benefit of for a year. It was like candle flame in a dark space.

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