Whistler by Roger Taylor

Author:Roger Taylor [Taylor, Roger]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: General, Fiction, Fantasy, (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
ISBN: 9781843192800
Google: LGrPCLzjwxgC
Amazon: B004I1KOEY
Publisher: Mushroom eBooks
Published: 2003-01-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

‘Party tricks!’ Nertha was almost spitting with rage. ‘The charlatan! And how could you be taken in like that?’

‘It was water!’ Vredech shouted, both embarrassed and indignant. ‘I don’t know what happened, but I’m not a child, for pity’s sake. I was taken in by nothing. I had the glass in my hand all the time. I’d drunk half the stuff. And don’t tell me I can’t recognize one of Dowinne’s drinks. He barely touched the outside of the glass and it changed as I was watching it.’ He held his hand near to his face. ‘It was this faraway.’

‘I’ve seen street clowns in Tirfelden do more mysterious things,’ Nertha sneered.

Vredech rounded on her furiously. ‘Damn it, Nertha! Shut up if you’ve nothing to say.’ Nertha’s jaw came out and she clenched her fists menacingly, but Vredech pressed on. ‘You weren’t there. You didn’t see what happened. And you didn’t feel what was happening. And you didn’t see them. He’s carrying Dowinne with him, somehow.’

At the mention of Dowinne, Nertha curled her lip. ‘I wish I had been,’ she said viciously. ‘He wouldn’t have tried anything like that with me there.’

Vredech winced. ‘Nertha, please,’ he said, suddenly quiet. ‘I’m barely clinging on to my sanity, don’t fight me.’

Nertha put her arm around his shoulder. Her face was still grim and angry but her manner was softer. ‘There’s nothing wrong with your sanity,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry I lost my temper. I can see the pain you’re in. It’s just difficult to stand by and listen to all this calmly. I’m not the physician I thought I was, it seems.’

‘Let’s get out of here,’ Vredech said, almost desperately. ‘Let’s just ride around the town . . . to . . . think. I don’t want to be confined by anything.’

Within minutes they were mounted and walking their horses out into the bright sunshine. Vredech let out a great breath, as though he had been holding it since his return from Cassraw’s.

‘Do you feel any easier?’ Nertha asked after a while.

‘Freer, but no easier,’ Vredech answered.

Nertha frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

Vredech looked up into the bright blue sky. A few white clouds were floating leisurely by. ‘It’s barely two months since those clouds came out of the north,’ he reflected. ‘Two months since Cassraw – and me, too, I suppose – had our strange visitations, but I can hardly remember what life was like before. So much has happened.’ He looked at Nertha. ‘Am I going mad, Nertha? Have I gone mad? Are you really there? Or am I somewhere else, someone else, dreaming all this?’

Nertha looked distressed. She reached over and took his hand. ‘We’ve had this conversation before,’ she said. ‘I’ve told you there’s nothing wrong with your mind, not while you’ve wit enough to know those questions can’t be answered. And they can’t, can they? I could put on my physician’s manner and reassure you that all will be well, that of course you’re you, and you’re here. But nothing can stand that kind of scrutiny.

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