The Way Between the Worlds Read Online Free PDF Page B

the fact that I restrain my curiosity is one of the reasons Sibert likes me.
    ‘How are you?’ I asked, moving round to face him as he worked down the long row of onions, pulling up endless weeds. The bank that bordered the strip was just behind me, and I sat down on it.
    ‘All right,’ he admitted grudgingly. ‘I’ll be glad to see the last of these bloody onions.’
    For the second time that day, I pushed back my sleeves, fastened my hair under my coif and set about lending a hand. ‘And your mother?’
    ‘She’s all right too.’
    ‘Hrype?’ I never know whether to refer to him as your uncle or your father , so I usually call him by his name.
    ‘Hrype’s away, so I have no idea.’ Sibert straightened up and fixed me with a glare. ‘What’s all this about?’
    I thought briefly. I decided there was no harm in telling him and so I did.
    ‘A summoning voice?’ he repeated, smiling. ‘That sounds dramatic. Are you sure it’s calling on you for help? Maybe it’s got the wrong person and it’s after old Gurdyman. He’d be a lot more use to anyone than you.’
    ‘If you’re going to insult my admittedly limited powers to do anyone any good,’ I said calmly, ‘you can finish the onion bed by yourself.’
    He straightened up, a hand to the small of his back, and grinned at me. ‘Only joking. I know you’re a fearsome magician these days, as well as a brilliant healer.’
    I was used to his teasing. We went back to our weeding. ‘So Hrype’s away?’ I said after a while.
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Where is he?’
    ‘No idea.’
    ‘When’s he coming back?’
    ‘Don’t know.’
    This was going to be hard. I weeded on for some time and then said, ‘Sibert, I know we’ve been making light of this voice I’ve been hearing, but it’s actually quite important. I’d like to talk to Hrype, so if you have any clue as to where he is, I’d love to know.’
    He stopped weeding. Bending down to look into my face, he said quietly, ‘It is important, isn’t it? I can see it in your expression.’
    ‘Mmm,’ I agreed. We were both standing upright now, eyes on each other’s.
    Sibert said, ‘I don’t know for sure, because my – because Hrype does not confide in me.’ There was pain beneath the abrupt words, and it told me much about my friend’s relationship with the strange, difficult man who fathered him. ‘But I overheard him speaking to my mother, and he said there’s someone who concerns him – a priest, I think. My guess is that he’s gone to find out more about the man.’
    ‘ Concerns him?’ It seemed a rather general term. ‘What does that mean, exactly?’
    ‘ Exactly , I couldn’t say.’ Sibert’s tone was angry. ‘They thought I was asleep, and in any case they were muttering. Mother said did he – Hrype – really have to go, because she’s always fearful and nervous when he’s absent, and he said yes he did, because—’ Sibert frowned. ‘I thought he said, because this man who I think is a priest is a threat and very powerful.’
    I thought about that. Hrype is a cunning man, full of magic, full of a very special sort of force. Had he meant this priest was a threat because of the religion he represented, which in the eyes of many – especially its own clergy – stands firm in its opposition to the old ways? It seemed very likely.
    Could it be, then, that it was Hrype who needed me? That, faced with the problem of a zealous priest determined to route out the last vestiges of the old ways, Hrype had summoned me to help him? For a few delicious moments I almost let myself believe it. Then reality struck me like a shower of rain in the face, and I returned to earth.
    Still, this talk of a very powerful priest was the first lead I had uncovered. I was determined to follow it up. ‘Do you think your mother would know where Hrype is?’ I asked tentatively.
    Sibert had gone back to his onions. ‘Why not stop pestering me and go and ask her?’
    As I hurried back to the village, I