Archiwum
- Index
- Bernard MacLaverty Secrets and Other Stories (pdf)
- 0823. Bernard Hannah Miesiąc miodowy
- 398. Gerard Cindy Dzikie serca 01 Ni srebro ni zśÂ‚oto
- The Jawhara Sheikhs 3 The Sheik's Captive Br
- McAllister Anne, Gordon Lucy Nieoczekiwana zmiana miejsc
- 22 Demon i panna
- Dale Jenny Pupilek
- Ksiadz Marek Slowacki
- Boswell Barbara Sekret i zdrada
- Doyle Arthur C. Professor Challenger und das Ende der Welt
- zanotowane.pl
- doc.pisz.pl
- pdf.pisz.pl
- epicusfuror.xlx.pl
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was my smile. Then I stooped, took the beard leash from his belt, unbuckled Hywelbane, and stepped
out of the church. I wanted to look for Mordred and Loholt, but more sleepers were waking now, and
one man called out to ask who I was, and so I just went back into the misted shadows and hurried uphill
to where Taliesin and Sansum waited.
We must go! Sansum bleated.
I have bridles by the ramparts, Lord, Taliesin told me.
You think of everything, I said admiringly. I paused to throw the remnants of my beard on the small
fire that had warmed our guards, and when I saw that the last of the strands had flared and burned to ash
I followed Taliesin to the northern ramparts. He found the two bridles in the shadows, then we climbed to
the fighting platform and there, hidden from the guards by the mist, we clambered over the wall and
dropped to the hillside. The mist ended halfway down the slope and we hurried on to the meadow where
most of Mordred s horses were sleeping in the night. Taliesin woke two of the beasts, gently stroking
their noses and chanting in their ears, and they calmly let him put the bridles over their heads.
You can ride without a saddle, Lord? he asked me.
Without a horse, tonight, if necessary.
What about me? Sansum demanded as I heaved myself onto one of the horses.
I looked down at him. I was tempted to leave him in the meadow for he had been a treacherous man
all his life and I had no wish to prolong his existence, but he could also be useful to us on this night and so
I reached down and hauled him onto the horse s back behind me. I should leave you here, Bishop, I
said as he settled himself. He offered me no answer, but just wrapped his arms tight round my waist.
Taliesin was leading the second horse towards the meadow s gate that he tugged open. Did Merlin tell
you what we should do now? I asked the bard as I kicked my horse through the opening.
He did not, Lord, but wisdom suggests we should go to the coast and find a boat. And that we hurry,
Lord. The sleep on that hilltop will not last long, and once they find you missing, they will send men to
search for us. Taliesin used the gate as a mounting-block.
What do we do? Sansum asked in panic, his grip fierce about me.
Kill you? I suggested. Then Taliesin and I can make better time.
No, Lord, no! Please, no!
Taliesin glanced up at the misted stars. We ride west? he suggested.
I know just where we re going, I said, kicking the horse towards the track that led to Lindinis.
Where? Sansum demanded.
To see your wife, Bishop, I said, to see your wife. That was why I saved Sansum s life that night,
because Morgan was now our best hope. I doubted she would help me, and was certain she would spit
in Taliesin s face if he asked for aid, but for Sansum she would do anything.
And so we rode to Ynys Wydryn.
We woke Morgan from sleep and she came to the door of her hall in a bad temper, or rather in a worse
than usual temper. She did not recognize me without a beard and did not see her husband who, sore
from the ride, was lagging behind us; instead Morgan saw Taliesin as a Druid who had dared to come
into the sacred confines of her shrine. Sinner! she screeched at him, her newly woken state proving no
barrier to the full force of her vituperation. Defiler! Idolater! In the name of the holy God and His
blessed Mother I order you to go!
Morgan! I called, but just then she saw the bedraggled, limping figure of Sansum and she gave a
small mew of joy and hurried towards him. The quarter moon glinted on the golden mask with which she
covered her fire-ravaged face.
Sansum! she called. My sweet!
Precious! Sansum said, and the two clasped each other in the night.
Dear one, Morgan babbled, stroking his face, what have they done to you?
Taliesin smiled, and even I, who hated Sansum and had no love for Morgan, could not resist a smile at
their evident pleasure. Of all the marriages I have ever known, that was the strangest. Sansum was as
dishonest a man as ever lived, and Morgan as honest as any woman in creation, yet they plainly adored
each other, or Morgan, at least, adored Sansum. She had been born fair, but the terrible fire that had
killed her first husband had twisted her body and scarred her face into horror. No man could have loved
Morgan for her beauty, or for her character which had been as fire-twisted into bitterness as her face had
been ravaged into ugliness, but a man could love Morgan for her connections for she was Arthur s sister,
and that, I ever believed, was what drew Sansum towards her. But if he did not love her for herself, he
nevertheless made a show of love that convinced her and gave her happiness, and for that I was willing to
forgive even the mouse lord his dissimulation. He admired her, too, for Morgan was a clever woman and
Sansum prized cleverness, and thus both gained from the marriage; Morgan received tenderness, Sansum
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