The Way to Babylon (Different Kingdoms) (58 page)
He looked up at that, and saw that her eyes were fixed out in the yawning gulf below, and her face was twisted with baffled grief.
‘The magic was in me,’ she went on, ‘trapped in me. And the land began to die. Only when I was made whole was it released.’
‘Jinneth, and I, coming here?’ Riven asked her, and she nodded.
‘Now the land can heal itself, and I am whole.’
He tried to pull her close to him, but she would not move.
‘Why?’ he asked.
‘Death is final,’ she said in a soft voice. ‘Yet the story continues.’
‘Oh, yes, I forgot. Life goes on,’ he said harshly, blinking the treacherous tears from his eyes. ‘And what am I left with?’
Her hand stroked his cheek. ‘A tale worth telling, perhaps. A reason to go on.’
‘It’s gone, isn’t it? I’m back again.’
She nodded once more, silent.
‘Will I ever enter Minginish again?’
‘You are going home now, and you are going to forget. You would never be content, otherwise.’
‘Forget everything?’ he asked, and he remembered Giants and Dwarves, mountains and cities, friends and foes, and a lover who had been almost a child.
Everything.
A
BREEZE HAD
picked up, and was curling round the mountain as though on an errand. He was cold. His clothes were worn and thin and the stones were eating into his back. Dawn was bleeding into the eastern sky, blooming over the jagged darkness of the Cuillin Mountains. He shivered, wrapping his arms around his chest.
What in hell?
The glen loomed below him in the gathering brightness. Already there were a few lights on in the windows of the houses. He stood unsteadily, wondering why his clothes felt so odd on him. He was hungry, and his hands were racked with pain.
He sat down once more. There was something at the fringe of his mind, like a picture barely viewed. He felt terrible. But alive—strangely alive. He felt he could laugh at the high peaks and hear his voice bounce back at him exuberantly.
Can’t sit up here all day.
He stood up again. He was quite a way from the bothy, but the sky was clearing and it looked like being a fine day, clear as water. He smiled to the emptiness, the surrounding mountains, the blue sky and the far-off wash of the sea on the shore of Skye.
Then he started off for home hurriedly, because he had a story to write.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paul Kearney
was born in Northern Ireland. He studied Old Norse, Middle English and Anglo Saxon at Oxford University, and subsequently lived for several years in both Denmark and the United States. He lives in County Down, in a croft with a boat by the door.
Michael Fay is a normal boy, living with his grandparents on their family farm in rural Ireland. In the woods—once thought safe and well-explored—there are wolves; and other, stranger things. He keeps them from his family, even his Aunt Rose, his closest friend, until the day he finds himself in the Other Place. There are wild people, and terrible monsters, and a girl called Cat.
When the wolves follow him from the Other Place to his family’s doorstep, Michael must choose between locking the doors and looking away—or following Cat on an adventure that may take an entire lifetime in the Other Place. He will become a man, and a warrior, and confront the Devil himself: the terrible Dark Horseman...
‘An utterly splendid piece’
Interzone
‘One of the best fantasy works in ages’
SFX Magazine
on
The Monarchies of God
Kindle and the Amazon Kindle logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates
This omnibus eBook contains the first two novels in the
Monarchies of God
series -
Hawkwood's Voyage
and
The Heretic Kings
.
THE WESTERN WORLD IS BURNING...
For Richard Hawkwood and his crew, a desperate venture to carry refugees to the uncharted land across the Great Western Ocean offers the only chance of escape from the Inceptines' pyres.
In the East, Lofantyr, Abeleyn and Mark - three of the five Ramusian Kings - have defied the cruel pontiff's purge and must fight to hold their thrones through excommunication, intrigue and civil war.
In the quiet monastery city of Charibon, two humble monks make a discovery that will change the whole world.
Aekir, the Holy City, has fallen and all now seems lost, but even on the eve of destruction the Faithful still war amongst themselves...
Hawkwood and the Kings
collects
Hawkwood's Voyage
and
The Heretic Kings
, the first two books in Paul Kearney's spectacular
The Monarchies of God
cycle.
‘One of the best fantasy works in ages’
SFX Magazine
Kindle and the Amazon Kindle logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates
