我跳下城墙,大步奔到威廉身边。鲜血正从他的伤口喷涌而出,那名听差站在他身旁,看上去既困惑又害怕。事实上,少年正不断绞着双手。
“去找个秘术师来,”我吼道,“确定你找的是个懂治疗的!”
听差对我眨着眼,然后冲进城堡,忘了关身后的大门。我把长剑放在一旁,跪在威廉的身边。我双臂抱住他说“你会没事的,威廉。放轻松。”
他看着我,脸部痛苦得扭曲着。然后他咳嗽起来,口中溢出鲜血,他在我怀里颤抖着。我见过太多好男儿濒死的场面,我明白,他剩下的时间已经不多了。
“去北城垛找个治疗师来,”我大喊,“让该死的秘术师下无底深渊去吧,给我找个治疗师就好!”城堡中的某处,有谁终于拉响了警报。
威廉紧攥着我的斗篷。他嘴唇之间漏出嘶嘶的喘息声,涌出血泡。“艾拉,”他呻吟着,双眼紧盯着我,“艾拉。”
“你已经尽力了,威廉。失败没有什么可耻的,不去尝试履行职责才可耻。等你好了,我们就一块儿去追捕那群劫持她的恶棍。他们会为自己的所作所为付出生命的代价,我们将一同惩治他们。”
他睁大双眼,脸上闪过一抹异样的神情,我无法确定那神情的含义——那看上去类乎绝望。他颤抖着吐出一口气,又念了一遍她的名字。
“艾拉。”
然后他的眼神变得空洞。他吐出最后一口带血泡的气息,生命从躯壳中逃逸。
“以米莎凯之名!”我听见有人在喊。那是担任神眷之女助理的年轻少女和我派去的听差。她只穿着一件晨衣光脚跑过城垛冰冷的石板:“我会救他的,骑士先生。金月教过我治疗魔法!”
她跪在我们身边,双手搁在威廉鲜血淋漓的胸口,她闭上双眼预备使用诸神最后的礼物,但随即她猛地睁开双眼,好像被烫了般抽回手去。
“太晚了。”我说,话一出口我就后悔了。这句话脱口而出不假思索,但这并不是必须说给这孩子听的话。
她举起双手,注视着手上沾染的血迹。那双手颤抖着。她小鹿般的大眼睛转向威廉的尸身,泪流满面。“对不起,”她啜泣着说,“对不起我来晚了。我当时在睡觉。对不起!”
“这不是你的错。”我说道,忍住自己的泪水,努力控制声线的平稳。我把威廉平放在冰冷的石地上,用我的斗篷盖住他。然后我扶着那位少女站起来。她环抱着我,脸贴着我的盔甲啜泣。我举目向天,望着三只狮鹫飞过月轮的方向。“这不是你的错,女士。是他们杀了威廉,不是你。以我的荣誉起誓,他们会得到报应的。”
城垛上忽然热闹起来。听差们和一位治疗师赶了过来。很快,到处都能看见各种各样衣冠不整长剑出鞘的骑士。我听见莱斯在某处呼唤着他恋人的名字。威廉脸上那古怪而绝望的表情在我脑海里闪现。我疑心,那位少年会不会是在对一位名花有主的女性的炽热渴望中死去的——临死还为自己再也见不到她而恐惧不已。
然后我听见了吉尔赛那斯的声音。“发生了什么?”精灵问。
我把啜泣的少女交给那位听差,然后转向他。少年带着她离开,我说:“城堡遭到了入侵。有人劫持了艾拉,偷了您的狮鹫们,并骑着它们逃离现场。威廉爵士在制止他们的过程中被杀害了。”
精灵王子眉头紧锁。“这不可能。”
“您也看见那孩子手上的血了,不是吗?”我心底的怒火直往上撞。“您看见我们眼前地板上的尸体了吗?要是您去庭院里看看,就会发现您的坐骑确实不见了。这是可能的,吉尔赛那斯殿下,并且已经发生了。”
“是的,骑士先生,我知道,但您所说的,在这里发生的那件事是不可能的。”
“您是在指控我撒谎吗?您在质疑我的荣誉?”
“不,盖文爵士,”他柔声说。“我在想狮鹫的问题。他们只听莱斯一个人的话。而他还在这儿,那群人是怎么做到带走狮鹫的?”就像证明吉尔赛那斯的观点般,莱斯号哭着呼唤艾拉的名字。有人把那个消息告诉了他。
“如果他们用黑暗秘术夺取了莱斯与那群狮鹫间培养起的羁绊,就可以带走它们。”雪莉儿女士从乱成一团沿着城垛来回攒动的骑士间走了过来,她穿着睡衣和钢头靴,一手提着长剑,另一只手则拿着一片石板地上拾到的羊皮纸。她把它交给我,眼光移向地上那具被遮盖的身躯。鲜血正逐渐从斗篷下方渗出。
我看了看那张羊皮纸。那上面是一枚粗劣的亚苟斯大帝(Emperor of Ergoth)图章,正中点了个黑点。
“您说什么,黑暗秘术夺取了莱斯与狮鹫间的羁绊?”吉尔赛那斯问。
“有一位和我一起在啸海通过考验(trials)的骑士,她一部分的童年时光是在光明城堡渡过的。她能用心之力量(powers of the heart)与动物们交流,有一回我见过她说服一位猎人忠实的猎犬放弃了一头鹿,因为她希望那头鹿自由。要是她能做到,那些黑暗精魂的秘术师们应该也能。”
“这枚标志与他们有关联吗?”我把羊皮纸递给吉尔赛那斯,他目不转睛地研读着。
“是的,”雪莉儿女士答道。“今年早些时候我们去亚苟斯皇宫的时候,皇女说对她说话的那些精魂警告她当心这枚标志所象征的邪恶。图书馆员们经过研究发现,这枚标志的含义是长枪战争期间掀起的一场旨在侍奉萨苟纳(Sargonnas),破坏亚苟斯帝国(Empire of Ergoth)的运动。”
“可是为什么要劫持艾拉呢?”吉尔赛那斯问。
“我不清楚,”雪莉儿女士说。她再度看向威廉的遗体,剧烈地颤抖着。“神眷之女或许会知道。我们该去请教她。”
“是的,”我说,“我们走吧,你待在这儿会冻死的,雪莉儿。”
“也该把他带去个远离寒冷的地方,”她说,双眼仍然盯着那具遗体,“他待在这儿会比我还要冷得多。”
“走吧,雪莉儿。去请神眷之女准备接见我和吉尔赛那斯王子。”
“是,盖文爵士。”她的目光转向我的脸。她的下唇颤抖着,但声线仍然平静,“我和他说了多少次,让我教教他怎么更好地使剑。”
我朝着两名正大张着嘴呆望着我那死去的被监护人的侍从怒吼:“快把他带去地下墓穴,你们这群懒东西。为他整理遗容准备下葬!”
“他们很亲密吗?”吉尔赛那斯朝着雪莉儿走进大厅的背影点点头。她走得太慢太慢,肩头低垂。她的剑刃几乎垂到了地上。
“不,”我答道,“但他们真该亲密些。”
劇透 - :
I jumped off the wall and strode to Willam's side. Blood was streaming from the wound and the page stood
over him, looking confused and frightened. The boy was actually wringing his hands.
"Fetch one of the mystics," I barked. "And make sure it's one who knows how to heal!"
The page blinked at me, then rushed into the castle, leaving the door open behind him. I put my sword
aside and kneeled next to Willam. I pulled him into my arms and said, "It'll be all right, Willam. Just relax."
He looked at me, his face twisted with pain. Then he coughed, and blood spilled forth from his mouth as he
trembled in my arms. I'd seen enough good men die to know that he didn't have much time.
"Get a healer to the northern battlements," I shouted. "To the Abyss with the damn mystics, just bring me a
healer!" Elsewhere in the castle, someone finally sounded the alarm.
Willam clutched at my cloak. His breath hissed over his lips, forming bubbles in the blood. "Alla," he
moaned, his eyes locking with mine. "Alla."
"You did your best, Willam. There is no dishonor in failing, only in not trying to perform your duty. You and
I shall hunt down the villains that abducted her when you have healed. They will pay for what they've done with
their lives, and we shall mete out justice together."
His eyes widened and a strange look passed over his face, a look the meaning of which I coud not
determine—it almost seemed like desperation. He drew a shuddering breath and spoke her name again.
"Alla."
Then his eyes went blank. His final breath bubbled across his lips as life fled his body.
"By Mishakal!" I heard someone cry. It was the young girl who served as the Revered Daughter's assistant
and the page I had dispatched. She was wearing only a dressing gown and ran across the icy flagstones of the
battlement in bare feet. "I will help him, Sir Knight. Goldmoon has instructed me in healing magic!"
She kneeled at our side and placed her hands on Willam's bloody chest. She closed her eyes and prepared
to use the final gift of the gods, but then her eyes flew open and she drew back her hands as though she had
been burned.
"It's too late," I said, regretting the words even as they left my lips. It had been an unbidden phrase, said
without consideration. They were not the words this child needed to hear.
She raised her hands and looked at the blood upon them. They were trembling. Her doelike eyes drifted to
Willam's body, and she burst into tears. "I'm sorry," she sobbed. "I'm so sorry I didn't get here in time. I was
sleeping. I'm sorry!"
"It's not your fault," I said, forcing back tears of my own, struggling to keep my voice steady. I lowered
Willam to the cold stones and covered him with my cloak. I then helped the girl to her feet. She put her arms
around me and sobbed against my armor. I lifted my eyes to sky, to where I had seen the three griffins pass by
the moon. "It's not your fault, milady. They killed Willam, not you. And, by my honor, they will pay."
The battlement exploded with activity. Squires and a healer arrived. Knights in varying states of dress with
their swords drawn suddenly seemed to be everywhere. Somewhere, I heard Leth calling the name of his
beloved. That odd, desperate expression in Willam's eyes flashed in my mind. I wondered if the boy had died
with a burning passion for a woman with another man in her life—died afraid that he would never see her
again.
Then I heard Gilthanas's voice. "What happened?" the elf asked.
I turned to him after passing the sobbing girl off to the page. As he led her away, I said, "The castle was
infiltrated. Someone has abducted Alla, stolen your griffins, and used them in their escape. Sir Willam was
slain trying to stop them."
The elf-lord's brow furrowed in a frown. "That's not possible."
"You saw the blood on that girl's hands, did you not?" I said, anger welling up inside me. "Do you see the
body here on the ground before us? If you check the courtyard, you will see that your mounts are indeed gone.
It is possible, Lord Gilthanas, and it has happened."
"Yes, Sir Knight, I understand, but what you are suggesting has happened here is impossible."
"Are you saying I am lying? Are you calling my honor into question?"
"No, Sir Gavin," he replied softly. "I was thinking about the griffins. They won't obey anyone but Leth. How
could they have taken the griffins with him still here?" As if to prove Gilthanas's point, Leth howled Alla's name.
Someone had told him the news.
"They could have taken the griffins if they used dark mysticism to usurp the bond that Leth has nurtured
with them." Lady Sheryl emerged from the chaos of Knights that were streaming back and forth along the
battlement. She was dressed in her nightgown and steel-toed boots. In one hand, she carried her sword. In the
other, she held a piece of parchment she had picked up from the flagstones. She offered it to me, her eyes
drifting to the shrouded form on the ground. Blood was starting to seep from beneath the cloak.
I examined the parchment. On it was a crude representation of the Seal of the Emperor of Ergoth with a
black spot at the center.
"What do you mean, dark mysticism usurped Leth's bond with the griffins?" Gilthanas asked.
"I went through my trials on Schallsea with a Knight who spent part of her childhood at the Citadel of Light.
She could communicate with animals through the powers of the heart, and I oncesaw her convince a hunter's
loyal hound to abandon the scent of a deer she wanted to go free. If she can do it, so can mystics who are of a
darker spirit."
"And this symbol relates to them?" I passed the parchment to Gilthanas who studied it intently.
"Yes," Lady Sheryl replied. "While at the Ergothian court earlier this year, the emperor's daughter said that
the spirits that speak to her warned her of an Evil that is represented by this symbol. When the librarians
researched it, they discovered that it stands for a movement that rose during the War of the Lance—a
movement devoted to the service of Sargonnas and the destruction of the Empire of Ergoth."
"But why abduct Alla?" Gilthanas asked.
"I don't know," Lady Sheryl said. She shivered violently as she looked at Willam's body again. "The
Revered Daughter would know. We should go ask her."
"Yes," I said. "Let us go. You'll catch your death, Sheryl."
"He should be brought in from the cold as well," she said, her eyes still on the body. "He's going to be much
colder than I."
"Go, Sheryl. Ask the Revered Daughter to prepare herself for an audience with myself and Prince
Gilthanas."
"Yes, Sir Gavin." Her eyes fluttered to my face. Her lower lip trembled, but her voice remained steady as
she said, "I kept asking him to let me teach him how to use his sword better."
I barked at a couple of squires who were gawking open-mouthed at my fallen charge. "Take him to the crypt,
you lazy dogs. Start preparing the body for its time in state!"
"Were they close?" Gilthanas nodded toward Sheryl who was walking down the hall, too slowly and with her
shoulders slumping. The blade of her sword was barely off the floor.
"No," I replied. "But they should have been."