The Other Book by Philip Womack

Author:Philip Womack
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2013-09-27T04:00:00+00:00

Ten

The lesson went on. The rest of the boys filed in to see Lady Anne. Edward watched the sun filling the valley with its rays, so thick it was like mist. Eudoky had a stone floor, which kept the classroom cool in summer, but Edward felt far from cool. The last boy came into the room. Lady Anne did not follow him.

The ancient piano in the corner creaked and grunted lazily. There was a tapping at the window, startling the boys into action. They all looked up, surprised to see Lady Anne outside, wreathed in smiles, with flowers woven into her hair, wearing a long blue dress.

‘Well, come on, then!’ she said. ‘Don’t stand there gawping like a lot of fish! Come with me!’ She started walking off in the direction of the pond and the river. The boys all stared at each other and then got up, rushing out of the room. In other circumstances, Edward would have welcomed this, would have felt like a young cavalier going a-maying with his Queen in the greenwood. But suspicion had settled in his heart.

Lady Anne led them down to the pond, where the large oak tree stood. She walked around it with a grace and beauty that made them all quiet–except Edward, who was on edge. She embraced the tree for a second, then smiled.

‘Sit down boys!’ she said. ‘I’m going to read you the tale of Merlin and Vivien from Idylls of the King.’

The trees were trailing their branches in the water like schoolboys in a boat, holding their hands in the river as they drift downstream. Sunlight splintered off the water. The boys arranged themselves around Lady Anne, who was sitting right underneath the tree. Edward lay on his front and buried his face in the grass. Lady Anne started to read:

‘A storm was coming, but the winds were still,

And in the wild woods of Broceliande,

Before an oak, so hollow huge and old

It look’d a tower of ruin’d mason work,

At Merlin’s feet the wily Vivien lay.’

She read quietly, with a gentle expression that made the scenes come vividly to life. Edward couldn’t help but think that Lady Anne had chosen the story of Merlin and Vivien for a reason.

He remembered the prophecy–the line of the wizard and the witch is strong. What did it mean? And the Ms and Vs around the tomb? In the hazy summer heat of the day, with the calm voice of Lady Anne washing over them, Edward lay, holding his nervousness in secret. The boys were around her, squires enchanted at the feet of Vivien herself.

Lady Anne was reaching the middle of the poem.

‘A little glassy-headed hairless man,

Who lived alone in a great wild on grass;

Read but one book …’

A book, he thought. But one book. How strange to read only one book.

‘… to him the wall

That sunders ghosts and shadow-casting men

Became a crystal, and he saw them thro’ it …’

The wall between ghosts and men? Edward cast back to the prophecy … something about the wall between ghosts and men … He couldn’t remember.

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