[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Dragons executed
Solander, and for a thousand dayscast oracles and wrote the Secret Texts.
Dùghall nodded and said, He created the road map bywhich a thousand years of
Falcons have steered their lives. Butsome of the best things he ever said, and
the truest, were not inthe Texts at all they were in his plays. The
Dragonsovershadowed the world he lived in for most of his life, and theywere
hard masters, brutal, murderous, and evil. Most men feared tofight them in any
manner. Vincalis fought them with words, butcarefully he never plainly wrote
about the
Dragons becausethey would have killed him, and he taught that survival was
thefirst duty of a warrior. He wrote about great villains, and aboutthe small
bands of heroes who dared to best them . . .and he wrote many of those plays
as comedies, because he couldalways claim the innocuousness of comedy if
questioned. Dùghall looked down at the gnarled hands folded on his lap,then
glanced sidelong at her, and the ghost of a mischievous smileplayed across his
lips.
Those who have no sense of humorrarely realize how deadly humor can be.
So what did he say?
Dùghall closed his eyes. The putative hero of one ofmy favorite plays, which
he titled
The
Tragedy and Comedy of theSwordsman of Hayeres, was the swordsman Kinkot, a
mighty-
thewedmaster of weapons and a great lord. Kinkot swore to protect
hiscountrymen from a vile monster that ravaged the countryside. . . but the
monster proved to be too much for him. Forthe first two acts of the play,
every step he took against thebeast failed, and he became a laughingstock. He
lost his lands, hiswealth, his title, even his sword, and by the beginning of
thethird act he finds himself homeless, sitting on a street cornerholding a
begging bowl and hoping to die.
Sounds like a hilarious comedy, Kaitsaid.
Dùghall snorted. Watching the cocky bastard gettinghis ass kicked by the
monster in the first two acts hilarious. But Vincalis never just wrote to
entertain, and whenKinkot has had his is comeuppance and is sitting on the
cornerbegging, a fellow even worse off than he is lifts his head out ofthe
gutter and says, When you re beaten, whenyou re crushed, when you re broken,
you remember this,boy
nothing touches everyone in the world to the samedegree. It s very large, the
world, and that s what is and always will be its saving grace. So look to
farseas and distant hills in your time of need, and welcome unlikelyheroes,
for help comes from the strangest quarter.
Kinkot, who has kicked this same beggar once in each ofthe first two acts,
listens to him this time. He gives the poor sothis begging bowl and the few
coins in it, and gets up to go off insearch of help, for humbled as he is, he
finally realizes that hecan t beat the monster alone.
Right. Beggars are ever full of good advice and deepwisdom. That s why they
spend their days lying ingutters.
Page 174
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Dùghall shrugged. The plays were a part of theirtime, and some of the
storytelling is stylized, and some is a bit. . . predictable. Nonetheless,
Vincalis knew hisaudiences. No sooner does
Kinkot give the beggar the gift andfollow his advice than the poor sot
transforms into a beautifulyoung girl, and the girl, after kissing him and
blessing him,transforms herself into a tiny bird. The bird rides onKinkot s
shoulder, and the two of them, weaponless, go out toface the monster one last
time. The bird plucks a flea from underits wing and flies to the monster and
drops the flea on its back,at the precise spot where he can t reach, and the
monster,driven mad by futile scratching, doesn t see Kinkot coming.Kinkot
breaks its neck with his bare hands, thus winning backeverything he d lost,
plus the love of the girl who helped himslay the beast.
Kait tipped her head and eyed her long-winded uncle. It s a charming story,
she told him, butI m afraid I don t see your point.
You are the point, dear girl. Consider yourself a death-sentenced Karnee
coming to the salvation of the landthat sentenced you by rallying the Falcons
who were supposed tosave it themselves. You re the man in the gutter who
becomesthe beautiful maiden who becomes the bird with the flea. You arethe
unlikeliest of heroes. Vincalis would have loved you.
I m not a hero, she said quietly. I m a coward like everyone else. I m just
a cowardwho would rather die fighting than die a slave.
Dùghall grinned slowly. You re a coward, then,if it pleases you to say so.
And I m a coward as well. ButI m a coward who will rise and eat and dress
myself, and whowill be about the work of the world. Have that nattering girl
bringme some food. I ve decided I won t die today.
Chapter
44
T
he sun crept over the horizon and asingle alto bell rang the station of Soma
from
Dogsister sTower near the Cloth Market. But when the bell finished ringing,
anew sound rolled across the region. The air rang like a crystalbell, the
sound coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. Horsesand cattle shied and
balked and rolled their eyes back; birdslaunched themselves
into the air in great clouds; dogs whined andcringed against the legs of their
masters, then howled and ran.Perhaps most ominous of all, a river of rats
poured into thestreets and fled in all directions.
The ringing grew louder, and the air took on a pale green sheen.Shopkeepers
slammed the shutters of their just-opened shops andfollowed the rats through
the streets. Young women tucked theirbabies under their arms and raced after
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]