登陆注册
10472500000002

第2章

Kate stood in front of Siobhan, feeling as nervous as she did before any fight. She should have felt safe; she was standing on the grounds of Thomas's forge, and this woman was supposed to be her teacher.

And yet she felt as though the world was about to disappear from under her.

"Did you hear me?" Siobhan asked. "It is time for you to repay the favor you owe me, apprentice."

The favor that Kate had bargained back at the fountain in exchange for Siobhan's training. The favor that she had been dreading ever since then, because she knew that whatever Siobhan asked, it would be terrible. The woman of the forest was strange and capricious, powerful and dangerous in equal measure. Any task she set would be difficult, and probably unpleasant.

Kate had agreed, though she didn't have a choice.

"What favor?" Kate asked at last. She looked around for Thomas or Will, but it wasn't because she thought the smith or his son could save her from this. Instead, she wanted to make sure that neither of them would find themselves caught up in whatever Siobhan was doing.

The smithy wasn't there, and neither was Will. Instead, she and Siobhan now stood by the fountain of Siobhan's home, the waters running pure for once rather than the stone of it being dry and filled with leaves. Kate knew it had to be an illusion, but when Siobhan stepped up into it, it seemed solid enough. It even dampened the hem of her dress.

"Why so frightened, Kate?" she asked. "I'm only asking you for a favor. Are you afraid that I'll send you to Morgassa to hunt for a roc's egg on the salt plains, or to fight some would-be summoner's creatures in the Far Colonies? I'd have thought you'd enjoy that kind of thing."

"Which is why you won't do it," Kate guessed.

Siobhan quirked a smile at that. "You think I'm cruel, don't you? That I act for no reason? The wind can be cruel if you are standing in it with no coat, and you could no more fathom its reasons than…well, anything I say you cannot do you will take as a challenge, so let's not."

"You're not the wind," Kate pointed out. "The wind can't think, can't feel, can't know wrong from right."

"Oh, is that it?" Siobhan said. She sat on the edge of her fountain now. Still, Kate had the impression that if she tried to do the same, she would fall through it and tumble to the grass around Thomas's forge. "You think I'm evil?"

Kate didn't want to agree with it, but she couldn't think of a way to disagree without lying. Siobhan might not be able to reach the corners of Kate's mind, any more than Kate's powers could touch Siobhan, but she suspected that the other woman would know if she lied now. She kept silent instead.

"The nuns of your Masked Goddess would have called it evil when you slaughtered them," Siobhan pointed out. "The men of the New Army you butchered would have called you an evil thing, and worse. I'm sure there are a thousand men on Ashton's streets right now who would call you evil, just for being able to read the minds of others."

"Are you trying to tell me that you're good, then?" Kate countered.

Siobhan shrugged at that. "I'm trying to tell you the favor you must do. The necessary thing. Because that is what life is, Kate. A succession of necessary things. Do you know the curse of power?"

This sounded a lot like one of Siobhan's lessons. The best Kate could say for it was that at least she wasn't being stabbed in this one.

"No," Kate said. "I don't know the curse of power."

"It's simple," Siobhan said. "If you have power, then everything you do will affect the world. If you have power and you can see what is coming, then even choosing not to act remains a choice. You are responsible for the world just by being in it, and I have been in it a very long time."

"How long?" Kate asked.

Siobhan shook her head. "That is the kind of question whose answer has a price, and you still haven't paid the price for your training, apprentice."

"This favor of yours," Kate said. She was still dreading it, and nothing Siobhan had said made it easier.

"It's a simple enough thing," Siobhan said. "There is someone who must die."

She made it sound as bland as if she were ordering Kate to sweep a floor or fetch water for a bath. She swept a hand around, and the water of the fountain shimmered, showing a young woman walking through a garden. She wore rich fabrics, but none of the insignia of a noble house. A merchant's wife or daughter, then? Someone who had made money another way? She was pleasant looking enough, with a smile at some unheard joke that seemed to take joy in the world.

"Who is this?" Kate asked.

"Her name is Gertrude Illiard," Siobhan said. "She lives in Ashton, in the family compound of her father, the merchant Savis Illiard."

Kate waited for more than that, but there was nothing. Siobhan gave no explanation, no hint as to why this young woman had to die.

"Has she committed some crime?" Kate asked. "Done some terrible thing?"

Siobhan raised an eyebrow. "Do you need to know such a thing to be able to kill? I do not believe that you do."

Kate could feel her anger rising at that. How dare Siobhan ask her to do a thing like this? How dare she demand that Kate cover her hands in blood without the slightest reason or explanation?

"I'm not just some killer to send where you want," Kate said.

"Really?" Siobhan stood, pushing off from the lip of the fountain in a movement that was strangely childlike, as if stepping off of a swing, or leaping from the edge of a cart like an urchin who had stolen a ride through the city. "You have killed plenty of times before."

"That's different," Kate insisted.

"Every moment of life is a thing of unique beauty," Siobhan agreed. "But then, every moment is a dull thing, the same as all the others too. You have killed plenty of people, Kate. How is this one so different?"

"They deserved it," Kate said.

"Oh, they deserved it," Siobhan said, and Kate could hear the mockery in her voice even if the shields the other woman always kept in place meant that Kate couldn't see any of the thoughts behind all this. "The nuns deserved it for all they did to you, and the slaver for what he did to your sister?"

"Yes," Kate said. She was certain of that, at least.

"And the boy you killed on the road for daring to come after you?" Siobhan continued. Kate found herself wondering exactly how much the other woman knew. "And the soldiers on the beach for…how did you justify that one, Kate? Was it because they were invading your home, or was it just that your orders had taken you there, and once the fight starts, there isn't time to ask why?"

Kate took a step back from Siobhan, mostly because if Kate hit her, she suspected that there would be consequences that would be too much to deal with.

"Even now," Siobhan said, "I suspect I could put a dozen men or women in front of you through whom you would put a blade willingly. I could find you foe after foe, and you would cut them down. Yet this is different?"

"She's innocent," Kate said.

"As far as you know," Siobhan replied. "Or perhaps I simply haven't told you all the countless deaths she is responsible for. All the misery." Kate blinked, and she was standing on the other side of the fountain. "Or perhaps I simply haven't told you all the good she has done, all the lives she has saved."

"You aren't going to tell me which it is, are you?" Kate asked.

"I have given you a task," Siobhan said. "I expect you to perform it. Your questions and qualms do not come into it. This is about the loyalty an apprentice owes her teacher."

So she wanted to know if Kate would kill just because she had commanded it.

"You could kill this woman yourself, couldn't you?" Kate guessed. "I've seen what you can do, appearing out of nowhere like this. Killing one person, you have the powers to do it."

"And who's to say I'm not doing it?" Siobhan asked. "Perhaps the easiest way for me to do this is to send my apprentice."

"Or perhaps you just want to see what I'll do," Kate guessed. "This is some kind of test."

"Everything is a test, dear," Siobhan said. "Haven't you worked that part out by now? You will do this."

What would happen when she did? Would Siobhan even really allow her to kill some stranger? Perhaps that was the game she was playing. Perhaps she intended to allow Kate to go all the way to the edge of murder and then stop her test. Kate hoped that was true, but even so, she didn't like being told what to do like this.

That wasn't a strong enough term for what Kate felt right then. She hated this. She hated Siobhan's constant games, her constant desire to turn her into some kind of tool to use. Running through the forest hunted by ghosts had been bad enough. This was worse.

"What if I say no?" Kate said.

Siobhan's expression darkened.

"Do you think you get to?" she asked. "You are my apprentice, sworn to me. I may do as I wish with you."

Plants sprang up around Kate then, sharp thorns turning them into weapons. They didn't touch her, but the threat was obvious. It seemed that Siobhan wasn't done yet. She gestured over the water of the fountain again, and the scene it showed shifted.

"I could take you and give you over to one of the pleasure gardens of Southern Issettia," Siobhan said. "There is a king there who might be inclined to be cooperative in exchange for the gift."

Kate had a brief glimpse of silk-clad girls running around ahead of a man twice their age.

"I could take you and put you in the slave lines of the Near Colonies," Siobhan continued, gesturing so that the scene showed long lines of workers working with picks and shovels in an open mine. "Perhaps I will tell you where to find the finest stones for merchants who do what I wish."

The scene shifted another time, showing what was obviously a torture chamber. Men and women screamed as masked figures worked with hot irons.

"Or perhaps I will give you to the priests of the Masked Goddess, to earn repentance for your crimes."

"You wouldn't," Kate said.

Siobhan reached out, grabbing her so fast that Kate barely had time to think before the other woman was forcing her head down under the water of the fountain. She cried out, but that just meant that she had no time to take a breath as she plunged into it. The cold of the water surrounded her, and though Kate fought, it felt as though her strength had abandoned her in those moments.

"You don't know what I would do, and what I wouldn't," Siobhan said, her voice seeming to come from a long way away. "You think that I think about the world as you do. You think that I will stop short, or be kind, or ignore your insults. I could send you to do any of the things I wanted, and you would still be mine. Mine to do with as I wished."

Kate saw things in the water then. She saw screaming figures wracked with agony. She saw a space filled with pain and violence, terror and helplessness. She recognized some of them, because she'd killed them, or their ghosts, at least. She'd seen their images as they'd chased her through the forest. They were warriors who had been sworn to Siobhan.

"They betrayed me," Siobhan said, "and they paid for their betrayal. You will keep your word to me, or I will make you into something more useful. Do as I want, or you will join them, and serve me as they do."

She released Kate then, and Kate came up, spluttering as she fought for air. The fountain was gone now, and they were standing in the yard of the smithy once more. Siobhan was a little way from her now, standing as if nothing had happened.

"I want to be your friend, Kate," she said. "You wouldn't want me for an enemy. But I will do what I must."

"What you must?" Kate shot back. "You think that you have to threaten me, or have people killed?"

Siobhan spread her hands. "As I said, it is the curse of the powerful. You have potential to be very useful in what is to come, and I will make the most of that."

"I won't do it," Kate said. "I won't kill some girl for no reason."

Kate lashed out then, not physically, but with her powers. She drew her strength together and threw it like a stone at the walls that sat around Siobhan's mind. It bounced off, the power flickering away.

"You don't have the power to fight me," Siobhan said, "and you don't get to make that choice. Let me make this simpler for you."

She gestured, and the fountain appeared again, the waters shifting. This time, when the image settled, she didn't have to ask who she was looking at.

"Sophia?" Kate said. "Leave her alone, Siobhan, I'm warning you-"

Siobhan grabbed her again, forcing her to look at that image with the awful strength she seemed to possess here.

"Someone is going to die," Siobhan said. "You can choose who, simply by choosing whether you kill Gertrude Illiard. You can kill her, or your sister can die. It is your choice."

Kate stared at her. She knew that it wasn't a choice, not really. Not when it came to her sister. "All right," she said. "I'll do it. I'll do what you want."

She turned, heading for Ashton. She didn't go to say goodbye to Will, Thomas, or Winifred, partly because she didn't want to risk bringing Siobhan that close to them, and partly because she was sure that they would somehow see what it was she had to do next, and they would be ashamed of her for it.

Kate was ashamed. She hated the thought of what she was about to do, and the fact that she had so little choice in it. She just had to hope that it was all a test, and that Siobhan would stop her in time.

"I have to do this," she said to herself as she walked. "I have to."

Yes, Siobhan's voice whispered to her, you do.

同类推荐
  • Gould's Book of Fish
  • Birthday Party

    Birthday Party

    Stanley Webber is visited in his boarding house by strangers, Goldberg and McCann. An innocent-seeming birthday party for Stanley turns into a nightmare. The Birthday Party was first performed in 1958 and is now a modern classic, produced and studied throughout the world.
  • 不择手段(卢克·斯通系列惊险小说第一部)

    不择手段(卢克·斯通系列惊险小说第一部)

    “今年我看过的最好看的惊险小说,情节巧妙,从一开始就扣人心弦。作者匠心独运地塑造出了一系列形象丰满令人喜爱的角色。我都等不及要知道结果会怎么样了。”来源于《书籍和影视评论》,Roberto Mattos(针对《不择手段》这本书)纽约市的一家防卫松散的医院里的核废料在一天夜里被一群伊斯兰对战分子盗走了,在和时间的疯狂赛跑过程中警察打通了FBI的电话。FBI里的一支秘密精英特工队伍的队长卢克·斯通是他们唯一可以求助的人。卢克立刻意识到那些恐怖分子的目的是造脏弹,意识到他们会寻找高价值的目标在48小时内发动袭击。一场猫追老鼠的游戏随之上演,这个世界上最机智的政府特工和最顶尖的恐怖分子之间的对决随之展开。当斯通特工把案情一层层剥开,他很快意识到他面对的是一块巨大的阴谋,意识到这场阴谋的目标的价值超乎他的想象——一路直指美国总统。自己遭到诬陷,队伍受到威胁,家人身陷危险,情势无比危急。但是作为前部队特种突击队员,卢克曾多次身陷绝境,在不惜一切代价阻止他们之前他绝不会放弃。他遇上了一个又一个困难和阴谋,案情甚至超出了他的掌控能力,剧情随之发生了一个又一个转折,在这些转折中故事被推向了高潮。以国际为背景设定,悬念不断、惊心动魄的政治惊险小说《不择手段》是一系列将让你挑灯夜读、欲罢不能的震撼惊险小说的第一部。卢克·斯通系列小说第2部现在也已上市!
  • Rites of Passage

    Rites of Passage

    The first volume of William Golding's Sea Trilogy. Sailing to Australia in the early years of the nineteenth century, Edmund Talbot keeps a journal to amuse his godfather back in England. Full of wit and disdain, he records the mounting tensions on the ancient, sinking warship where officers, sailors, soldiers and emigrants jostle in the cramped spaces below decks. Then a single passenger, the obsequious Reverend Colley, attracts the animosity of the sailors, and in the seclusion of the fo'castle something happens to bring him into a 'hell of degradation', where shame is a force deadlier than the sea itself. "e;The work of a master at the full stretch of his age and wisdom - necessary, provoking, urgent, rich, complex and rare"e;. (The Times). "e;An extraordinary novel"e;. (Observer). "e;Golding's best and most accessible story since Lord of the Flies"e;. (Melvyn Bragg).
  • Responsible Drinking for Women

    Responsible Drinking for Women

    Many women drink responsibly--but some have a more troubled relationship with alcohol. Studies regarding the effects of alcohol on women's health are contradictory--and it's not easy for concerned women to get a clear picture of the perils and positives of drinking.Alcohol affects women differently than men, and sometimes more severely. This ebook, written by Harvard professor and researcher Dr. Debi A. LaPlante, combines in-depth guidance and information from the latest studies about the effects of alcohol on women's physiology with compassionate, detailed advice on exploring your own relationship with alcohol and how to quit or scale back drinking. This book is essential reading for any woman who wonders whether her drinking might be a problem.
热门推荐
  • 峚窖大道心驱策法

    峚窖大道心驱策法

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 若爱只是擦肩而过

    若爱只是擦肩而过

    曾经说过天长地久,回首却终究是曲终人散的寂寥。是谁理直气壮的说非你不可?是谁拉着你的手说牵了就不会放手?当一场爱情变得小心翼翼,当深爱的人握着另一个人的手说:“对不起。”不知道究竟是哪里出了错,却没有当初的勇气大声说:“不要走。”当我们失去最初的天真,知道谁都不是非谁不可,懂得痛了就会放手,谁还会相信天长地久?人海茫茫,无声相遇,回眸才发现,原来我们学会看擦肩而过。若爱只是擦肩而过,若人生只如初见,结局是不是会好一点?林小檬:“宋迟,你说我们会一直在一起吗?”宋迟未经思考就回道:“只要我活着,我就会粘着你,直到你烦我的那一天。”
  • 天才小毒妃

    天才小毒妃

    她是医学世家最卑微的废材丑女,人人可欺;他却是天宁国最尊贵的王,万众拥戴,权倾天下!大婚之日,花轿临门,秦王府大门紧闭丢出一句“明日再来”。她孤身一人,踩着自尊一步一步踏入王府大门……殊不知:废材丑女实为貌美天才毒医!新婚夜救刺客,她治完伤又保证:“大哥,你赶紧走吧,我不会揭发你的。”谁知刺客却道:“洞房花烛夜,你要本王去哪里?”
  • 嫡女谋:傲世皇子妃

    嫡女谋:傲世皇子妃

    三个月的地牢折磨,她从嫡姐口中得知真相,原来,五年来的出生入死,助他登上大位,她只是一颗棋子,为他人作嫁衣裳,温柔大方的嫡姐?善良知体的继母?乖巧讨喜的庶弟庶妹?全都是假的,原来,只有她一个笨蛋。可怜之人必有可恨之处,但是,她不甘心,不甘心..........一朝重生,一改往日懦弱性格,既然善始不得善终,那她能夺便夺,夺不了的,毁了又何妨?可事实的真相,究竟如何?
  • 京门风月

    京门风月

    南秦倾了一个谢,半壁江山塌一空。忠勇侯府被株连,世代名门望族一朝灰飞烟灭。谢芳华这个娇房嫡女碾碎芳华,零落成尘。本以为尘土皆无,奈何上天厚爱,再许一世——她看着依然繁荣的家族和平安的至亲,发誓只要她在,定要忠勇侯府不倒,谢氏不绝!于是,她弃闺房,出侯府,混入皇室隐卫的巢穴里习武艺,学权谋。八年后,她送了皇室一份天大的谢师礼回京!自此,钟鸣鼎食之家的闺阁里多了一双翻云覆雨手。美人靠上轻卷云袖,贵妃椅上执手棋盘。洞若观火,乾坤在握。弹指风华江山覆,箭羽皇都乱飞花。南秦京城因她的归来霎时风起云涌。谢芳华要让世人知道,她这个柔弱的闺阁女子,不止知风月,也知乾坤!本文一对一,一生一世一双人。【小剧场抢先看】凤尾香罗帐如烟似霞,光彩夺目,上万御林军持箭以候,蓄势待发。皇宫禁苑,谢芳华高卧在美人靠上,看着对面的男子,指尖轻轻捻动着黑色棋子,淡淡道,“两利相权取其重,两害相权取其轻。连三岁小孩子都知道的道理,你难道不知?”男子懒洋洋地点头,“知!”“既然知,为何今日还来?”谢芳华扫了一眼外面包围的御林军,口气严厉,“不怕死无葬身之地?”男子斜睨了她一眼,无所畏惧,“媳妇儿跑了,自然要追回来!”谢芳华眉心一动,继而讽刺一笑,“你媳妇跑了,来找本宫作何?”男子忽然夺过她手中的棋子远远地抛进了香炉里,恶狠狠地看着她道,“穿了皇后的衣服就是皇后了?你问过爷答应了吗?南秦的江山他说了算,女人我说了算!”—————————————————————————————————人这一生,总有些东西,是必定要坚持去做和要承担的!写文便是我要一直坚持做的事情,你们便是我要承担的甜蜜的负担!——致最亲爱的读者们————by西子情请喜欢的亲们【收藏】+【留言】,你们的喜欢和陪伴是对我最长情的告白!从今日起,我的爱你们负责,你们的爱由我打包!开启这段风月之路,京门情歌!么么哒!
  • 为什么总是伤害最亲的人

    为什么总是伤害最亲的人

    我们可以对一个陌生人面带微笑,我们可以向一个路人伸出援手,为什么我们总是毫不留情地去伤害我们最亲的人?为什么我们总是把自己最反叛的一面展现给最爱我们的人?不要再为伤害亲人找借口,不要让亲情变成世界上最远的距离。努力不去伤害最亲的人,才会更加幸福。
  • 轻舟已过万重山

    轻舟已过万重山

    轻舟从没想过自己有朝一日竟能嫁到赫赫有名的镇远将军府,她知道,自己只是冲喜的,而冲喜新娘,十有八九都是要守寡的。可是谁能告诉她,为什么和自己拜堂的男人竟会是万重山,既是那位威震朝野,令胡人闻风丧胆的镇远将军,也是她病入膏肓夫君的.....叔父?--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 心理学与生活

    心理学与生活

    生活中任何地方都有心理学的影子,心理学正在改变着每个人的生活。心理学就像我们每天呼吸的空气、饮用的水和摄入的能量一样,是一种深深地存在于日常生活中,同时又常常被人们忽略的事物。本书作者用精彩的文字、真实的故事和专业的观点来讲述心理学,让读者朋友通过他人的经历来梳理自己的人生。此外,“拓展苑”栏目主要介绍心理学史上一些经典的实验研究,如“个体受暗示性研究”等。“另眼看电影”栏目从心理学的角度分析电影中的情节和人物,从人格分裂、梦境、孤独症、偷窥等各个方面重新解读电影,让读者朋友感受电影和心理学的双重魅力。
  • 喜欢你,从开始到现在

    喜欢你,从开始到现在

    他不知道,我准备了一个不算厚的本子来写我和他的开始,而后又准备几个本子来记录我和他以后的生活,结果我和他的故事在那个不算厚的本子只占了五分之一。喜欢你,从开始到现在,不悔初识,不忘曾有你。
  • 小恶魔的宠妻

    小恶魔的宠妻

    莫名其妙上天转一圈后拐名邪男回家,吃她豆腐家常便饭,搞暧昧习以为常,打啵上瘾难耐。石头里竟然蹦出小恶魔。