Silver on the Tree Read Online Free PDF Page B

night theCircle shall be summoned, the Circle of the Old Ones, to meet this great need.”
    Will stood straight, as if someone had called his name. He was so deep in this time now that he had no need of calling. There was no thought, even; only awareness. He turned, and saw light glimmering round the doorway in the stone wall; walked forward to the doorway, jumped suddenly at the sight of two figures armed with sword and spear in front of him, at either side of the door. But neither moved; they stood stiff, at attention, staring ahead.
    Will reached out to the heavy, thick-woven curtain that hung over the entrance, and pulled it aside. Bright light blazed into his eyes; he brought up his arm to cover them, blinking.
    â€œAh, Will,” said the deeper voice. “Come in, come in.”
    Will stepped forward, opening his eyes. He stood there, smiling at the tall robed figure with its fierce proud nose and springing shock of white hair. It was a long time since they had met.
    â€œMerriman!”
he said. They moved to one another, and embraced.
    â€œHow do you, Old One?” the tall man said.
    â€œWell, I thank you.”
    â€œOld One to Old One,” said the other man softly. “The first and oldest of them, and the last and youngest. And I too greet you, Will Stanton.”
    Will looked at the clear blue eyes in the weather-brown face; the short grey beard; the hair still brown but streaked with grey. He went down on one knee, and bent his head. “My lord.”
    The other bent forward in his creaking leather chair and touched Will’s shoulder briefly in greeting. “I am glad to see you. Rise now, and join your master. This part of time is for you two alone, and there is much to do.”
    He stood, pushing a short cloak back over one shoulder, and strode to the door, soft-shod feet noiseless on the patterned mosaic floor. Though he was a head short of Merriman’sgreat height, there was an authority in him that towered over any man. “I will go and hear the new count of men,” he said, turning at the door, over the clatter and scrape of spears as the guards presented arms. “A night and a day. Be swift, my lion.”
    Then he was gone, as if the swirl of the cloak had carried him away.
    Will said, “Those guards didn’t challenge me.”
    â€œThey had been told to expect your coming,” Merriman said. There was a wry smile on his bleak bony face as he looked down at Will. Then suddenly he put his head back with a quick intake of breath and a sigh. “Eh Will—how is it with you, in the second great rising? For this now, here, is the first, and I tell you it does not go well.”
    â€œI don’t understand, you know,” Will said.
    â€œDo you not, Old One? After all my teaching, and the learning of the Book of Grammarye awhile ago, do you still not understand how time must elude the consciousness of men? Perhaps you are still too close to men yourself…. Well.” He sat down abruptly on a long couch with curved arms. There was little furniture in the high square room; on its painted plaster walls bright pictures of country summer glowed, sunshine and fields and harvest gold. “Within the time of men, Will,” he said, “there are two great risings of the Dark. One is in the time into which you were human-born. One is here and now, fifteen centuries before that, when my lord Arthur must win a victory that can last long enough to detach these invading ravagers from the Dark that drives them on. You and I have a part to play in the defence against each of these two risings. In fact, the same part.”
    â€œBut—” Will said.
    Merriman raised one bristling white eyebrow, looking at him sideways. “If you dare to ask me,
you,
how it is that someone from the future can take part in something that has, in that foolish phrase, already happened….”
    â€œOh no,” Will said. “I shan’t. I remember