The Shattered Goddess Read Online Free PDF Page A

leaned against the wall where it could be easily reached.
    The boy looked at the staff with dread. He knew what it was.
    “Yes, it is for my last journey,” said Tharanodeth. “I have my walking shoes on, too.” He pulled up the blanket so Ginna could see them.
    “Please... don’t...”
    “Die? Please don’t die?” the Guardian laughed softly. Then he sighed. His breathwas wheezing and tired. “I’m afraid none of us has much control over that, any more than we can prevent our epoch giving way to another. Telechronos said that He said it all, the old windbag. But listen to me, my friend. Yes, you are my friend. Guardians aren’t supposed to have friends. They can’t. Everybody wants something, or spies for this faction or is in the power of that lord. It is like acave of spiders, each spinning webs to entrap the rest He who sits aloof, beyond all that, is the most alone. I have only you. You are the only one who is not tainted by intrigue. This is why I have tried to keep your comings and goings a secret. Of course a few people know. But they’ll keep quiet for a while yet, I hope.”
    “But, why me?”
    “There had to be someone. I think I would havegone mad without you. Some guardians have, you know, although their subjects interpret their madness as holy ecstasy. And why not you? You are mysterious enough to hold my interest Yes, very mysterious. I think there is more to you than the eye can see.”
    “What? How am I so mysterious?”
    “Who were your parents?”
    Ginna was left speechless by the directness of the question. All hecould utter was a babble of half-formed words. He sat down on a stool by the bedside and stared at his friend for a while in silence. All around him flickered scented candles, set there to attract the Bright Powers and drive off the Dark. Some sputtered. This and the old man’s dry breathing were the only sounds.
    With a great heave The Guardian sat up, turned, and took the boy by the shoulders.He stared intently into his eyes.
    “You didn’t have any parents,” he said. “You know that much already.”
    “I was... found.”
    “But do you know where?”
    Ginna shook his head.
    “In the same cradle with that horror of a son of mine. You didn’t know that, did you? Did you know that everyone said you were bewitched? My magician wanted you killed. He’s a fusty old buzzard, buthe means well, so I think he really felt there was a danger to me. But I said no. I saw a destiny in you. I don’t know what. These things have a way of working themselves out. But something special.”
    Exhausted at the strain of sitting up, he let go of the boy and dropped down onto his pillows.
    Moved near to tears, wanting to open himself as fully to Tharanodeth as he had to him, Ginnadid something he had never done before in The Guardian’s presence. He folded his hands together, then opened them, then folded them, until he had made a dozen balls of light and juggled them. They drifted slowly, none of them brighter than the candles. When he stopped they fell on the bed and the floor and winked out.
    “Then it is true. You are magical.”
    “I can do what you just saw.When I first came to you, I was afraid to. After that, I guess I never did.”
    Tharanodeth smiled. “I never asked you to.”
    “It’s as easy as talking or moving my fingers, but I don’t think there’s anyone else who can do it. I don’t know what it means.”
    “I had really hoped you would,” said The Guardian, staring up at the ceiling, where the two aspects of The Goddess looked down onhim. “I am going into a far country, from which I shall never return. They say that when we depart thence, when we walk the last long road, if we are brave and true and avoid all the perils, we come to paradise, and sit there listening to The Musician play beautiful songs for all of eternity. But this is uncertain, for no witness has ever come back to report it. I am afraid. I will tell you thatmuch. I had hoped you could provide