Read Online The Myst Reader by Robyn Miller - Free Book Online Page A

door, his booted feet spread wide, his long, delicate hands resting on his knees, as he looked up at Anna. He had removed his cloak. Beneath it he wore a close-cut suit of midnight blue, the jacket edged with scarlet and decorated with a pattern of repeated symbols in red and green and yellow. It was so rich, so marvelous, Atrus could barely keep his eyes from it. But there were other fantastic things to be seen, not least of which was the pipe that lay beside him on the ledge.
    The bottom of the pipe was a hollowed wooden bowl, from which a shaped glass stock, trimmed with silver, led to a curved copper mouthpiece. A tiny domed cap was set into the bowl in front of the stock, while at the center of the bowl, feeding into the glass of the stock, was a thick silver spindle.
    As Atrus watched, Gehn took a tiny glass sphere from a pouch in the thick leather belt he wore. Turning it upside down, Gehn shook it gently, revealing a clear liquid that moved slowly, glutinously, its surface reflecting the yellow lamplight like oil.
    Resting the sphere on his knees, Gehn unscrewed the lid to the spindle and set it aside, then poured a tiny amount of the liquid into the stock and replaced the lid. Then, taking a small leather bag from his jacket pocket, he took something from inside.
    Atrus gasped. It looked like the marble he had found earlier. Gehn placed it within the domed cap.
    Anna turned from where she stood and looked at Gehn. “Will you be staying long?”
    Gehn glanced at her, then replaced the lid of the cap. “No. I have to leave tomorrow,” he answered, his voice heavily accented.
    “Ah …” There was regret in Anna’s voice; hurt in those dark, familiar eyes. “It’s just that … well, I thought you might stay with Atrus a while. Get to know him, perhaps. He’s a good boy. You’d be proud of him. And after all …”
    Gehn tightened the cap and looked up at her, his face expressionless. “I intend to take him with me.”
    Anna turned, facing him, shock in her face. “With you?”
    Atrus, watching from the darkness, felt his pulse quicken, his mouth grow dry. His heart was thudding in his chest.
    Gehn lifted the pipe, staring at it, then cupped it between his hands and pressed his thumb down on the silver spindle. There was a snapping sound and the pipe seemed to come alive, burning briefly with a fierce blue light. After a moment, that same light filled the whole of the stock, making the strange, oil-like liquid gently bubble.
    In that strange, unearthly light, Gehn’s face seemed very different, the shadows inverted.
    “Yes,” he answered, meeting Anna’s eyes. “Have you a problem with that?”
    “But Atrus belongs
here
…”
    “Here?”
There was incredulity in Gehn’s voice. “And where is
here?
Nowhere, that is where. A hole in the ground, that’s all this is. Yes, and that’s all it will
ever
be. This is no place for a son of mine. No place at all.”
    Anna fell silent, watching Gehn as he lifted the copper mouthpiece to his mouth and inhaled, the muscles in her cheek twitching oddly. Then she spoke again, quieter than before, yet with a firmness Atrus recognized at once. “But he’s not ready yet. He’s too young. There’s so much he has to learn …”
    Taking the pipe from his mouth, Gehn interrupted her. “Of course Atrus is ready. Why, he is exactly the age I was when I first left here. And as for his education, that is the very reason I returned, so that I could teach him.”
    “You?”
    Anna’s tone was incredulous, yet Gehn seemed indifferent to her criticism. “Who better? I am, at least, educated to the task. And I
am
his father.”
    Gehn set the pipe down and leaned toward Anna, frowning. “You
did
tell him about me?”
    She looked away, a tightness in her face.
    Gehn stood, angry now. “You mean you told him
nothing?
Kerath damn you, woman! How
could
you?”
    Anna kept her voice low, conscious of Atrus outside, listening. “And what was I to say? That his father left the