Read Online The Silver Blade by Sally Gardner - Free Book Online Page A

full well that Tetu’s reasoning was sound. ‘The Laxtons treated me like a son.’

    ‘You’re blind!’ interrupted Tetu. ‘Can’t you see this is madness? This is their niece we are talking about.’

    ‘I love her,’ said Yann flatly. ‘What does anything else matter?’

    ‘Yannick, let it go, I beg of you! Find another girl, someone who is—’

    ‘What, Tetu?’ said Yann angrily, ‘Someone who is … more of my class, more of my breeding?’

    ‘Yes, a gypsy, why not?’

    ‘Tell me about when you met my mother.’

    ‘No, Yannick, no.’

    ‘Yes, it is the same. You have always loved Anis. Do you think I don’t know that? Why didn’t you find someone else when she died?’

    ‘It’s different,’ said Tetu, for once at a loss as to what to say.

    ‘I don’t believe that, neither do you. I am like you, Tetu, we were made to love only once. Even if I can never be with Sido, I will love no one else.’

    Both were silent. Words hung between them. Yann had learned how to hide his thoughts from Tetu. He could feel the dwarf’s frustration.

    ‘You are your own man. I have to let it go, I see that,’ said Tetu. He rose to leave.

    ‘Wait,’ said Yann. ‘There is something. That first day of the September Massacre - when Kalliovski was torn to pieces by the mob.’

    ‘Yes.’

    ‘You said something that I have been thinking about a lot lately. You said that day the devil went walking, looking for one irredeemable soul to blow his fiery life into.’

    Tetu nodded. ‘It’s an old gypsy tale.’

    ‘Do you think he did go walking?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Tetu, sitting down again.

    ‘There is a story on the streets,’ replied Yann.

    ‘Which one? You hear all sorts of tales in the cafes of Paris. Shall I tell you one I hear quite often? About a corrupt corporal who found a silver blade from a toy guillotine hanging over his head? Shall I carry on?’

    ‘No,’ said Yann, refusing to catch his eye.

    ‘I hope you are never stupid enough to do that again.’

    ‘I told you it was a joke, nothing more. I thought he would keep quiet.’

    ‘Hmm. In my bitter experience corrupt corporals tend never to keep quiet. The name has stuck like mud, and the odd thing is that every time someone escapes and no one can work out the rhyme or reason of it, they say it is the Silver Blade.’

    ‘So I’ve heard. No, the story I’m talking about is the mysterious figure who is seen with his black dog in the Place de la Revolution. Some say he is real, others that he is a ghost. Some say he is the spirit of the Terror. Have you heard this story?’

    ‘Yes,’ Tetu said. His face remained motionless. What could he tell Yann? That he lived in dread of Kalliovski’s resurrection and the power that would come with it?

    ‘Didier was sure we were followed from Paris by a wolf,’ said Yann. ‘I saw its shadow. I felt it belonged to the darkness.’

    ‘Why?’

    ‘There were no threads of light, and it made me wonder: if the devil went walking, and took Kalliovski, what would have happened to Balthazar?’

    ‘A good question. One I need to think about.’ Tetu moved towards the door. He clicked his fingers, and Iago flew and landed once more on his shoulder.

    ‘One other thing,’ said Yann. ‘I heard Anis’s voice. I’m sure she was warning me.’

    Tetu said nothing. He wanted this conversation to be over. It brought back memories of Anis. Her loss was a hole in his heart that time had forgotten to mend.

    He said, more briskly than he meant, ‘You need your talisman. Good night.’

    Yann watched him leave and then turned to the mirror, where he saw propped against it a letter from Sido.

    He broke the seal and read:
    Those simple words “I love you” are the most precious gems I have ever been given.

    I have not dared to believe that you could care for me or that your feelings could match mine. I felt it would be my secret, that I would never have the courage to tell you that I