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第4章

tw.theburningman-第4章

小说: tw.theburningman 字数: 每页4000字

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       I was barely into womanhood; but I felt very much a child。 The idea of even such a short journey outside the walls after dark frightened me; but my mother had asked; and to refuse a deathbed request was a sin long before Mother Church arrived to parcel up and name the rights and wrongs of life。 I left Ulca at my mother's side and hurried across the rainy; nightbound castle。
       The woman Xanippa had once been a whore; but as she had bee older and fatter she had decided she needed another profession; and had developed a name as a herbwife。 Her tumbledown hut; which stood against the keep's southeast curtain wall; overlooking the Kingswood; was full of smoke and bad smells。 Xanippa had hair like a bird's nest; tied with what had once been a pretty ribbon。 Her face might have been round and ely once; but years and fat had turned it into something that looked as though it had been brought up in a fishing net。 She was also so large she did not move from her stool by the fire during the time I was there … or on most other occasions; I guessed。
       Xanippa was very suspicious of me at first; but when she found out who I was and what I wanted; and saw my face as proof; she accepted the three small coins I gave her and gestured for me to fetch her splintered wooden chest from the fireplace corner。 Like its mistress; the chest had clearly once been in better condition and more prettily painted。 She set it on the curve of her belly and began to search through it with a painstaking care that seemed at odds with everything else about her。
       'Ah; here;' she said at last。 'Dragon's claw。' She held out her hand to show me the curved; black thing。 It was certainly a claw; but far too small to belong to any dragon I could imagine。 Xanippa saw my hesitation。 'It is an owl's toe; you silly girl。 〃Dragon's claw〃 is just a name。' She pointed to a tiny ball of glass over the talon's tip。 'Do not pull that off or break it。 In fact; do not touch it at all。 Do you have a purse?'
       I showed her the small bag that hung always on a cord around my neck。 Xanippa frowned。 'The cloth is very thin。' She found some rags in one of the pockets of her shapeless robe and wrapped the claw; then dropped it into my purse and tucked it back in my bodice。 As she did so; she squeezed my breast so hard that I murmured in pain; then patted my head。 'Merciful Rhiap;' she growled; 'was I ever so young as this? In any case; be careful; my little sweetmeat。 This is heartsbane on the tip of this claw; from the marshes of the Wran。 If you are careless; this is one prick that will make sure you die a virgin。' She laughed。 'You don't want that; do you?'
       I backed to the door。 Xanippa grinned to see my fright。 'And you had better give your stepfather a message from me。 He will not find what he seeks among the womenfolk here or among the herbwives of the Lake People。 Tell him he can believe me; because if I could solve his riddle; I would … and; oh; but I would make him pay dearly for it! No; he will have to find the Witch of the Forest and put his questions to her。'
       She was laughing again as I got the door open at last and escaped。 The rain was even stronger now; and I slipped and fell several times; but still ran all the way back to the Inner Bailey。
       When I reached my mother's bed; the priest had already e and gone; as had my stepfather; who Ulca told me had never spoken a word。 My mother had died only a short time after I left on my errand。 I had failed her … had left her to suffer and die with no family beside her。 The shame and sorrow burned so badly that I could not imagine the pain would ever go away。 As the other women prepared her for burial; I could do nothing but weep。 The dragon's claw dangled next to my heart; all but forgotten。
       I spent weeks wandering the castle; lost and miserable。 I only remembered the message Xanippa had given me when my mother had been dead and buried almost a month。
       I found my stepfather on the wall overlooking the Kingslake; and told him what Xanippa had said。 He did not ask me how I came to be carrying messages for such a woman。 He did not even signify he had heard me。 His eyes were fixed on something in the far distance … on the boats of the fisher…folk; perhaps; dim in the fog。
       
       The first years in the ruined High Keep were hard ones; and not just for my mother and me。 Lord Sulis had to oversee the rebuilding; a vast and endlessly plicated task; as well as keep up the spirits of his own people through the first bleak winter。
       It is one thing for soldiers; in the initial flush of loyal indignity; to swear they will follow their wronged mander anywhere。 It is another thing entirely when that mander es to a halt; when following bees true exile。 As the Nabbanai troops came to understand that this cold backwater of Erkynland was to be their home for ever; problems began … drinking and fighting among the soldiers; and even more unhappy incidents between Sulis' men and the local people。。 。 my people; although it was hard for me to remember that sometimes。 After my mother died; I sometimes felt as if I were the true exile; surrounded by Nabbanai names and faces and speech even in the middle of my own land。
       If we did not enjoy that first winter; we survived it; and continued as we had begun; a household of the dispossessed。 But if ever a man was born to endure that state; it was my stepfather。
       When I see him now in my memory; when I picture again that great heavy brow and that stern face; I think of him as an island; standing by himself on the far side of dangerous waters; near but for ever unvisited。 I was too young and too shy to try to shout across the gulf that separated us; but it scarcely mattered … Sulis did not seem like a man who regretted his own solitude。 In the middle of a crowded room his eyes were always on the walls instead of the people; as though he could see through stone to some better place。 Even in his happiest and most festive moods; I seldom heard him laugh; and his swift; distracted smiles suggested that the jokes he liked best could never truly be explained to anyone else。
       He was not a bad man; or even a difficult man; as my grandfather Godric had been; but when I saw the immense loyalty of his soldiers it was sometimes hard for me to understand it。 Tellarin said that when he had joined Avalles' pany; the others had told him of how Lord Sulis had once carried two of his wounded bondmen from the field; one trip for each; through a storm of Thrithings arrows。 If that is true; it is easy to understand why his men loved him; but there were few opportunities for such obvious sorts of bravery in the High Keep's echoing halls。
       While I was still young; Sulis would pat me on the head when we met; or ask me questions that were meant to show a paternal interest; but which often betrayed an uncertainty as to how old I was and what I liked to do。 When I began to grow a womanish form; he became even more correct and formal; and would offer pliments on my clothes or my stitchery in the same studied way that he greeted the High Keep's tenants at Aedonmansa; when he called each man by his name … learned from the seneschal's accounting books … as he filed past; and wished each a good year。
       Sulis grew even more distant in the year after my mother died; as though losing her had finally untethered him from the daily tasks he had always performed in such a stiff; practised way。 He spent less and less time seeing to the matters of government; and instead sat reading for hours … sometimes all through the night; wrapped in heavy robes against the midnight chill; burning candles faster than the rest of the house put together。
       The books that had e with him from his family's great house in Nabban were mostly tomes of religious instruction; but also some military and other histories。 He occasionally allowed me to look at one; but although I was learning; I still read only slowly; and could make little of the odd names and devices in the accounts of battle。 Sulis had other books that he would never even let me glance at; plainbound volumes that he kept locked in wooden boxes。 The first time I ever saw one go back into its chest; I 

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