Read Online The Giants' Dance by Robert Carter - Free Book Online Page A

the stars seem as big as the sun does here, and they move at great speed.’
    Will listened as Gwydion spoke. He shook the dust from his scalp as he tried to make sense of what he was being told. Stars that were giant eyes twenty or more paces across. Great holes through which fiery lumps of iron flew down to kill whole villages of people…It made no sense. It made no sense at all.
    He said, ‘It’s strange to me that Little Slaughter should have been hit so exactly.’
    â€˜Do not imagine this was a chance misfortune.’
    â€˜Then the fireball was directed here? By… Maskull ?’
    The wizard nodded. ‘And the purpose of the thunderstorm we watched afterwards was to put out these fires. The storm was whipped up so that folk in other villages of the Wolds would believe as you tried to believe – that the noise and light were no more than a particularly violent summer storm, that what happened here was none of their concern.’
    Will thought again of Willow and Bethe. He said, ‘Gwydion, I must go home right away.’
    But the wizard took his arm. ‘That,’ he said, ‘is the very last thing you should do.’
    â€˜But…if Maskull’s free again and in the world…’
    Gwydion took himself a few paces apart and conjured a small bird from one of his sleeves. He gentled its head with his finger, kissed it or perhaps murmured to it, thenthrew it up into the sky where it took wing and quickly flew away to the east.
    â€˜Recall, if you will, the battle of Verlamion, and the moment when Maskull vanished. Do you know where I sent him? It was into the Realm Below. He has remained for years lost there, trapped in that great maze that was made by the fae when they withdrew from the light. My hope and belief was that Maskull would take far longer to find his way clear of those myriad chambers. I thought that in that time I would be able to solve the problem of the battlestones, but my hopes have proved groundless. Late last year I began to notice an uneasy presence at Trinovant and elsewhere. It warned me that Maskull had made good his escape. “By his magic, so shall ye know him!”The rede says that spells betray their makers to others who are skilled in the same arts. You see, I have known for some time about Maskull’s return. I have read his signature in much, and I have expected his power to be unleashed again. But not like this. Not like this.’
    Will’s anger surfaced. ‘Why didn’t you warn me?’
    â€˜Warn you?’ There was recrimination in Gwydion’s eyes. ‘To what end? You were already in what I believed to be the safest place there was. Living where you do, Willand, it would not have been clear to you that the spirit of the Realm has been growing steadily darker since this year’s beginning. Mistrust is burgeoning, confidence slackening. A great turbulence and greed is increasing among the lords in Trinovant. As Lord Protector, Richard of Ebor is the centre about which all now revolves, but that centre cannot hold for long. An attempt will soon be made to arrest him. His enemies are ready to move again. You see, I have had much to contend with.’
    Will followed Gwydion’s words with difficulty. The shock of seeing Little Slaughter filled his mind, and his fears about Willow and Bethe and the Vale came once again to the fore.If Maskull was now at large and the lorc drawing power again, then nothing but misery could be foreseen.
    Gwydion turned to survey the fuming waste they had left behind. He spent a moment deep in thought, and then measured his words carefully. ‘You may rest a little easier in your mind, my friend, for I do not believe Maskull will have quite the opportunity to do again what he has done here. Nor do I believe you were the reason he destroyed Little Slaughter.’

CHAPTER THREE
WHAT LIES WITHIN
    G wydion led Will some way back eastward, heading towards the Four-shire