The Fugitive and the Vanishing Man by Rod Duncan

Author:Rod Duncan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857668493
Publisher: Watkins Media
Published: 2019-02-15T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

Breakfast with the consort on the last day of October. The redness of her eye had faded. So had her nausea. With every mouthful of dried fruits she swallowed, the king’s face beamed more brightly, though he hadn’t touched his own food. Timon had heaped cold meats onto a plate and was chewing with purpose. Janus had taken the middle way: a little bit from every platter, trying to show solidarity with everyone.

Having seen Janus swallow, Edwin put a morsel in his own mouth.

He’d read once of a killer who had accustomed himself to small but increasing doses of strychnine, then served up a meal laced with it. He and his family sat down to eat. All were gripped by the poison. Only he survived, his body having learned to cope. And the courts found him innocent of the crime, for the maids had seen him eat it, and it was held that no sane person would poison himself.

Janus was sane, Edwin thought. It was a coldness of the soul that set him apart and made him so dangerous. But he was not the type to undergo personal rigours. Many the bullet catcher who’d starved himself or lain on a bed of nails or walked across hot coals for the sake of an illusion. Janus had been cut from a different cloth.

“The snows aren’t yet come,” the king said, gesturing from Edwin to Janus with a strip of meat. “And the sky’s set fair.”

Janus did his usual shallow bow of submission to the king’s will. But Edwin found little comfort in the weather. The northern side of Mount Hood still bore white strands from the previous winter. One good storm could lay a full blanket and that would be it. It would come in the next six weeks. Sooner or later.

“How many magicians can there be in the castle?” Janus asked, his words slipped into a lull in the conversation around the morning room. It caught Edwin mid-swallow and he had to battle not to cough the food up again.

The king seemed displeased by the question. “Why ask this?”

“I’ve heard rumours, my lord. Another magician wandering in the hills.”

“Let him wander. We have our Edwin. That’s enough.”

“But if another magician did set foot in the castle?”

“I’m well pleased with this one.”

“They’d fight,” said Timon, his mouth half-full. “That’s what happens. We’d throw the loser from the battlements.”

This displeased the king even more. “There will be no fight!” And then to Edwin: “There is no other magician. Is there?”

Now it was Edwin’s turn to make that little bow of submission: “I know of none.” The lie came smooth and easy.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.