Warriors of Ethandun Read Online Free Page A

wasn’t true. He kept his sword arm down by his side until Taliesin held it out to him hilt first. When he slipped his right hand round the hilt, Combrogi fashion, the sword fitted him like a glove – it had moulded to the shape of his hand when Ursula, worrying about his safety, had lent him her magical strength and overdone it. He smiled at the memory. So? He still liked to hold a sword. That meant nothing. ‘I thought that you might have need of this one day.’ Taliesin opened his left hand to reveal a crystal ball. It was the kind of thing Dan thought you might see in a fairground tarot-reader’s tent. ‘If you want to go back to Macsen’s world, rub it and the Veil will open.’
    â€˜Where did you get that?’ Dan thought Taliesin had to be joking.
    â€˜Your yesterday happened three years ago for me. A lot has happened to me since I stumbled through the Veil with you and Ursula. There are places where movement through worlds is more routine. They have learned not to depend too much on their own power. It can be used many times. Oh, and don’t worry about Braveheart. He is still safe and if you want to see him again you will find him through the Veil.’
    Dan nodded. The Veil allowed a person to skip forward and backwards through time in ways that made his head spin. He still found it hard to understand but he no longerfound it unbelievable. The wind was making his eyes water.
    â€˜It is good to see you again whether it is after a day or after three years,’ Dan said, speaking in the formal language of Arturus’s court. It was Taliesin’s turn to smile.
    â€˜Oh Dan, you are too good for this world – a warrior and a courtier! What will you do shut up in a school without the wind in your hair, without Braveheart at your side, Bright Killer in your hand and an army at your back?’
    â€˜I’ll just have to cope, Taliesin, and it will be the harder without you. Where will you go next?’
    â€˜I will go to visit Ursula. I do not think it will take much to make her seek out magic again.’
    â€˜That’s cruel, Taliesin. Her place is here. You shouldn’t try to take her away. She nearly died in Camlann. She is sixteen and she nearly died. Let her be.’
    Dan could not bear the thought of Ursula entering the Veil without him – if she left he’d leave too and Taliesin knew it.
    â€˜You cannot fight her nature for her, Dan. Ursula is “addicted” to magic. Is that not what your world would call it?’
    She had managed without it in Arturus’s world when only her warrior’s strength had been magical, but Dan said nothing. Taliesin was right.
    â€˜It’s time I went, Dan. I believe you will see me again, but whether I will see you is another matter.’
    They embraced like brothers, like warriors, and Dan found that his eyes were streaming and it was not just from the rawness of the wind.
    â€˜I need to go back to the station, Taliesin, and I cannot take these gifts with me.’
    Taliesin waved his arm and the sword and ball disappeared. ‘You will find them again when you need them,’ he said cryptically. ‘Dan, what if I send you back and they find you guilty? What then? Promise me you will raise the Veil if that happens – that you will not rot away in a jail somewhere because you think you should.’
    â€˜They won’t find me guilty,’ Dan said with more confidence than he felt. ‘Give Ursula my … my best wishes.’
    â€˜Oh Dan! What has happened to you? Has this world leached away all your passion? You send Ursula best wishes? You send Boar Skull, the Lady Ursa, the woman you would die for, best wishes? I do not understand this place you call home. It has no soul and it robs true men of theirs. I have to go now, but please, I beg you as an old man with a measure of wisdom, do not turn your back on your true nature. Goodbye, Dan.’
    Taliesin stepped