|
|
|
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
the little one was a mutant. I went to Aridea with the news because Fredefalk's daughter
meant the world to him. Aridea, as I said, wasn't stupid '
'Of course,' Geralt interrupted again, 'and no doubt she wasn't head-over-heels in love with her
stepdaughter. She preferred her own children to inherit the throne. I can guess what followed.
How come nobody throttled her? And you, too, while they were at it.'
Stregobor sighed, raised his eyes to heaven, where the rainbow was still shimmering
colourfully and picturesquely.
'I wanted to isolate her, but Aridea decided otherwise. She sent the little one out into the forest
with a hired thug, a trapper. We found him later in the undergrowth . . . without any trousers,
so it wasn't hard to recreate the turn of events. She had dug a brooch-pin into his brain,
through his ear, no doubt while his attention was on entirely different matters.'
'If you think I feel sorry for him,' muttered Geralt, 'then you're wrong.'
We organised a manhunt,' continued Stregobor, 'but all traces of the little one had
disappeared. I had to leave Creyden in a hurry because Fredefalk was beginning to suspect
something,
Then, four years later I received news from Aridea. She'd tracked down the little one, who
was living in Mahakam with seven gnomes whom she'd managed to convince it was more
profitable to rob merchants on the roads than to pollute their lungs with dust from the mines.
She was known as Shrike because she liked to impale the people she caught on a sharp pole
while they were still alive. Several times Aridea hired assassins, but none of them returned.
Well, then it became hard to find anyone to try - Shrike had already become quite famous.
She'd learnt to use a sword so well there was hardly a man who could defy her. I was
summoned, and arrived in Creyden secretly, only to learn that someone had poisoned Aridea.
It was generally believed that it was the work of Fredefalk, who had found himself a younger,
more robust mistress - but I think it was Renfri.'
'Renfri?'
'That's what she was called. I said she'd poisoned Aridea. Shortly afterwards Prince Fredefalk
died in a strange hunting accident, and Aridea's eldest son disappeared without a word. That
must have been the little one's doing, too. I say "little" but she was seventeen by then. And she
was pretty well-developed.
'Meanwhile,' the wizard picked up after a moment's break, 'she and her gnomes had become
the terror of the whole of Mahakam. Until, one day, they argued about something, I don't
know what -sharing out the loot, or whose turn it was to spend the night with her - anyway,
they slaughtered each other with knives. Only Shrike survived. Only her. And I was in the
neighbourhood at the time. We met face to face: she recognised me in a flash and knew the
part I'd played in Creyden. I tell you, Geralt, I had barely managed to utter a curse - and my
hands were shaking like anything - when that wildcat flew at me with a sword. I turned her
into a neat slab of mountain crystal, six ells by nine. When she fell into a lethargy I threw the
slab into the gnomes' mine and brought the tunnels down on it.'
'Shabby work,' commented Geralt. 'That spell could have been reversed. Couldn't you have
burnt her to cinders? You know so many nice spells, after all.'
'No. It s not my speciality. But you're right, I did make a hash of it. Some idiot prince found
her, spent a fortune on a counter-curse, reversed the spell and triumphantly took her home to
some out-of-the-way kingdom in the east. His father, an old brigand, proved to have more
sense. He gave his son a hiding, and questioned Shrike about the treasures which she and the
gnomes had seized and which she'd hidden. His mistake was to allow his elder son to assist
him when he had her stretched out, naked, on the executioner's bench. Somehow, the
following day, that same eldest son now an orphan bereft of siblings - was ruling the
kingdom, and Shrike had taken over the office of first favourite.'
'Meaning she can't be ugly.'
'That's a matter of taste. She wasn't a favourite for long. Up until the first coup d'etat at the
palace, to give it a grand name -it was more like a barn. It soon became clear that she hadn't
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plkwiatpolny.htw.pl
|
|
| Cytat |
Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
|
|
