Taliesin by Stephen R. Lawhead

Taliesin by Stephen R. Lawhead

Author:Stephen R. Lawhead
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780061802324
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00


EIGHT

CORMACH STAYED AT CAER DYVI FOUR DAYS AND EACH DAY took Taliesin to the bower in the woods where they sat together and talked. Rather, Cormach talked and Taliesin listened, hearing in the old druid's words the music of the Otherworld: lilting, magical, strange, frightening, fantastic.

On the last day Cormach settled himself on the oak stump and gazed steadily at the boy seated before him for a long time without speaking. Taliesin grew self-conscious under the old man's stare and fidgeted, pulling tufts of grass and scattering them over his feet. At last Cormach. stirred. "Yes, yes," he muttered, "it must be done." And he put his hand into his mantle and withdrew a small leather pouch, opened it, and poured into his palm five fire-browned nuts.

"Know what these are, boy?" the Chief Druid asked.

"Hazelnuts, Master," Taliesin answered.

"Yes, they were—once. They are Kernels of Knowledge, Taliesin, Seeds of Wisdom. They are useful in their way. Would you like to taste one?"

"I would if you want me to."

"It is not for me, Taliesin," answered Cormach, who paused and then added more truthfully, "Well, maybe it is. But it is not from idle curiosity, lad. Never that…"He fell silent again, staring. This time Taliesin felt that he was not staring at him but through him, at some other presence—one of the Ancient Ones perhaps.

"…never curiosity, boy, remember that," Cormach said, as if he had been speaking all the while. He lowered his eyes to his hand and looked at the hazelnuts. "These are the last I shall need," he said, choosing. "Take it, Taliesin. Eat it."

The boy took the hazelnut and put it in his mouth. It had a slightly burned taste but was not disagreeable. He chewed slowly and looked around, trying to discern whether the nut itself had special properties. There were none, so far as he could tell.

"Now then, lad, do you know what an awen is?" asked the druid.

"I do, Master," Taliesin replied. "It is the place a bard goes in his heart. Hafgan says it is the gateway to the Otherworld."

"Good, good." Cormach nodded to himself. "Would you like to discover that gateway for yourself, Taliesin?" The boy nodded. "Very well, just close your eyes and listen to me."

Taliesin did close his eyes but found listening very difficult indeed. The Chief Druid began singing softly and although Taliesin tried to follow along, his attention kept lapsing, drifting off to other things, and he soon lost the thread of the song altogether. Cormach's words droned in his ears and Taliesin tried to concentrate, but the old druid's song had become an unintelligible tangle of meaningless syllables. For it seemed as if he had closed his eyes on one world and opened them onto another—a world very like the ordinary one, yet distinctly different.

There were the familiar trees, grass, and shrubs of the natural world, but the sky shone with a luminous bronze color, as if the only light in this world came not from the fiery orb of



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