[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
evolved for the better, like others in his congregation, or he evolved for the
worse, like those of the group here in Minnesota.
Looking at it that way, he didn't see that he had a choice at all.
"No," he finally answered her. "I'm notlike them. I don't kidnap women or
children. I don't rape or steal or murder for pleasure."
He had to pause to swallow the bile that rose in his throat and a wave of
last-minute fear at what he was about to do.
"But I am one of their kind. I am a protector. One of an ancient race
calledLes Gargouillen ." He pulled his spine straight, lifted his chin and
looked her in the eye. "I am a Gargoyle."
Chapter Eight
Page 51
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Mara's knees wobbled. Her head went muzzy.
She reached out to the wall to steady herself. She'd never fainted in her
life. She wasn't about to start now.
"A-a Gargoyle," she said, hating the breathy sound of her voice. She took a
moment to gather her wits, then looked up at him. No fangs, no wings, no
hooves. For that, at least, she was thankful. "Like one of those stone
waterspout thingies on the sides of big buildings?"
"There was a time when humans revered us. They carved our images on their
holiest cathedrals."
He didn't add that that time had passed. She guessed he didn't have to, since
she didn't know of a single human who'd even heard of Gargoyles living,
breathing ones much less revered them.
"Gargoyles." If this was a dream, she was ready to wake up.
When she blinked hard and didn't find herself in her cozy wrought-iron bed in
her cozy little apartment, she cautiously pulled her hand off the wall. At
least her knees didn't buckle.
"I'd like to go back to the basement now," she told him.
He smiled wanly. Sadly. "You wanted the truth, now you're afraid to hear it?"
"I'm afraid that when the men in the white coats show up to haul you off,
they'll make a mistake and take me too."
"I'm not crazy."
"I guess that all depends on your point of view." From where she was
standing, he looked like a card-carrying loon.
"You're the one who claims she saw men turn into monsters."
"Actually, the monsters turned into men." But he did have a point.
"Okay, so maybe we should just both admit to being a little nuts and leave it
at that."
Was he giving her an easy out? She sighed, wishing she could take it, but she
wouldn't be able to live with herself if she did. She'd spend the rest of her
life wondering what had happened. What she'd really seen.
"Tempting as it is to take the road-less-painful and pretend I didn't see
anything but deer out that window, I have to know the truth."
Know thine enemy, as the saying goes.
Connor took his place on the chair again and gestured toward the bed. She
perched on the edge. On the corner. Practically as far away from him as she
could get without leaving the room.
"A thousand years ago," he started, "what is now known as Europe was mostly a
pagan land. But Christianity swept across the continent like a plague.
Communities that had worshipped the God and Goddess the earth, sea, air, and
Page 52
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
fire for centuries, were pressured to convert, yet many held out. Held on to
their ways."
"And the Gargoyles fit into this how?" she asked.
He raised an eyebrow as a teacher might to an impertinent student, and
continued. "In the village of Rouen, in what is now France, the dragon
Gargouille "
"Gargoyles and dragons?" That nearly did her in. She wasn't sure she could
listen to this. And yet she was fascinated.
Connor's eyes turned smoky gray. "Are you going to hear me out or not?"
She settled into a more comfortable position and folded her hands in her lap
contritely.
Connor continued in a deep, storybook-reading voice. "Gargouille nearly
ruined the village. He sank ships in the harbor, burned crops in the field,
and stole infants from their cribs. The people who lived there began to load
their wagons to move to new territory. The day before they left, Romanus
showed up."
"Was he a good guy or a bad guy?"
"He was a priest. He promised to slay Gargouille if the townspeople would
promise to convert to Christianity once the dragon was dead."
"Good guy."
"But Romanus tricked them."
Uh-oh, not so good.
"He called the twenty-eight healthy young men of the village to the hillside
above Gargouille's den. They didn't notice until it was too late that they
were standing in a ritual circle he had drawn. Romanus betrayed them. He used
their own pagan magic to cast a spell on them.
"He called on the beasts of the air, the forest, and the sea, living and
extinct, real and mythical. He stole the animals' souls and left their
carcasses outside the circle. Then he merged those souls with those of the
men."
Mara shuddered at the amalgamation of eagle and horse she'd seen. "In the
process, a few of the body parts got mixed up, too, I guess."
"Hush." But Connor squirmed in his chair a bit, too. "He awakened the beasts
within the men with a ritual chant and gave them two directives: to protect
innocent humans and to procreate, so that the whole world would come to know
the power ofLes Gargouillen . Then he whipped the creatures into a frenzy and
sent them after Gargouille."
"So the men themselves killed the dragon, not Romanus."
Connor nodded. "They ripped him apart with their beaks and teeth and claws,
and burned his carcass. But they were still bound by their promise to Romanus.
They gave up their pagan ways and built a Christian church, where the women of
the town hung carved images of them in their honor.
Page 53
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"The species thrived for a while. We learned to control the beasts inside of
us and awaken them only when they were needed, but as the years passed, the
world changed.Les Gargouillen fell out of favor with both religious leadership
and the governments of the time. Eventually they were forgotten altogether."
"Yet they still survived."
"And still carried out their mission. For a thousand years, we've protected
the humans who have forsaken us."
She couldn't fathom the irony and the sadness of that. She wasn't ready to
face it yet. "So you're like& immortal."
He stretched his back and blew out a deep breath. "Not exactly. We die like
anyone else. But if we've fulfilled our mission and propagated the species by
producing a son, we reincarnate."
Something clicked in Mara's head. It took her a moment to put her finger on
it, then she scooted up the bed and pulled the book of poetry from the
nightstand. She flipped pages for a while, and then read:
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home
Mara looked up at Connor, who smiled. "How did he know?"
"Truth like that only comes from firsthand experience."
"No." She closed the book and set it down quickly as if she were scared to
touch it. "Wordsworth was& a Gargoyle?"
"We don't live in caves, Mara. We go to school and hold jobs and have lives."
"And protect people."
"When we can. We don't have much choice, really. The magic makes it almost a
compulsion."
She frowned. "But these men Gargoyles here hurt people. How is that?"
"I'm not sure. Some of my congregation think that Romanus's spell is finally
weakening, after a thousand years. Others think they may have gone insane.
Reincarnating, having to start life over time after time, is tough on the
Page 54
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
psyche."
"What do you think?"
He hesitated, then spoke sincerely. "I think some beings are just evil. Even
some Gargoyles."
She could buy that. She certainly believed it was true of humans. Why not
Gargoyles, too? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl exclamation.htw.pl
evolved for the better, like others in his congregation, or he evolved for the
worse, like those of the group here in Minnesota.
Looking at it that way, he didn't see that he had a choice at all.
"No," he finally answered her. "I'm notlike them. I don't kidnap women or
children. I don't rape or steal or murder for pleasure."
He had to pause to swallow the bile that rose in his throat and a wave of
last-minute fear at what he was about to do.
"But I am one of their kind. I am a protector. One of an ancient race
calledLes Gargouillen ." He pulled his spine straight, lifted his chin and
looked her in the eye. "I am a Gargoyle."
Chapter Eight
Page 51
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Mara's knees wobbled. Her head went muzzy.
She reached out to the wall to steady herself. She'd never fainted in her
life. She wasn't about to start now.
"A-a Gargoyle," she said, hating the breathy sound of her voice. She took a
moment to gather her wits, then looked up at him. No fangs, no wings, no
hooves. For that, at least, she was thankful. "Like one of those stone
waterspout thingies on the sides of big buildings?"
"There was a time when humans revered us. They carved our images on their
holiest cathedrals."
He didn't add that that time had passed. She guessed he didn't have to, since
she didn't know of a single human who'd even heard of Gargoyles living,
breathing ones much less revered them.
"Gargoyles." If this was a dream, she was ready to wake up.
When she blinked hard and didn't find herself in her cozy wrought-iron bed in
her cozy little apartment, she cautiously pulled her hand off the wall. At
least her knees didn't buckle.
"I'd like to go back to the basement now," she told him.
He smiled wanly. Sadly. "You wanted the truth, now you're afraid to hear it?"
"I'm afraid that when the men in the white coats show up to haul you off,
they'll make a mistake and take me too."
"I'm not crazy."
"I guess that all depends on your point of view." From where she was
standing, he looked like a card-carrying loon.
"You're the one who claims she saw men turn into monsters."
"Actually, the monsters turned into men." But he did have a point.
"Okay, so maybe we should just both admit to being a little nuts and leave it
at that."
Was he giving her an easy out? She sighed, wishing she could take it, but she
wouldn't be able to live with herself if she did. She'd spend the rest of her
life wondering what had happened. What she'd really seen.
"Tempting as it is to take the road-less-painful and pretend I didn't see
anything but deer out that window, I have to know the truth."
Know thine enemy, as the saying goes.
Connor took his place on the chair again and gestured toward the bed. She
perched on the edge. On the corner. Practically as far away from him as she
could get without leaving the room.
"A thousand years ago," he started, "what is now known as Europe was mostly a
pagan land. But Christianity swept across the continent like a plague.
Communities that had worshipped the God and Goddess the earth, sea, air, and
Page 52
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
fire for centuries, were pressured to convert, yet many held out. Held on to
their ways."
"And the Gargoyles fit into this how?" she asked.
He raised an eyebrow as a teacher might to an impertinent student, and
continued. "In the village of Rouen, in what is now France, the dragon
Gargouille "
"Gargoyles and dragons?" That nearly did her in. She wasn't sure she could
listen to this. And yet she was fascinated.
Connor's eyes turned smoky gray. "Are you going to hear me out or not?"
She settled into a more comfortable position and folded her hands in her lap
contritely.
Connor continued in a deep, storybook-reading voice. "Gargouille nearly
ruined the village. He sank ships in the harbor, burned crops in the field,
and stole infants from their cribs. The people who lived there began to load
their wagons to move to new territory. The day before they left, Romanus
showed up."
"Was he a good guy or a bad guy?"
"He was a priest. He promised to slay Gargouille if the townspeople would
promise to convert to Christianity once the dragon was dead."
"Good guy."
"But Romanus tricked them."
Uh-oh, not so good.
"He called the twenty-eight healthy young men of the village to the hillside
above Gargouille's den. They didn't notice until it was too late that they
were standing in a ritual circle he had drawn. Romanus betrayed them. He used
their own pagan magic to cast a spell on them.
"He called on the beasts of the air, the forest, and the sea, living and
extinct, real and mythical. He stole the animals' souls and left their
carcasses outside the circle. Then he merged those souls with those of the
men."
Mara shuddered at the amalgamation of eagle and horse she'd seen. "In the
process, a few of the body parts got mixed up, too, I guess."
"Hush." But Connor squirmed in his chair a bit, too. "He awakened the beasts
within the men with a ritual chant and gave them two directives: to protect
innocent humans and to procreate, so that the whole world would come to know
the power ofLes Gargouillen . Then he whipped the creatures into a frenzy and
sent them after Gargouille."
"So the men themselves killed the dragon, not Romanus."
Connor nodded. "They ripped him apart with their beaks and teeth and claws,
and burned his carcass. But they were still bound by their promise to Romanus.
They gave up their pagan ways and built a Christian church, where the women of
the town hung carved images of them in their honor.
Page 53
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"The species thrived for a while. We learned to control the beasts inside of
us and awaken them only when they were needed, but as the years passed, the
world changed.Les Gargouillen fell out of favor with both religious leadership
and the governments of the time. Eventually they were forgotten altogether."
"Yet they still survived."
"And still carried out their mission. For a thousand years, we've protected
the humans who have forsaken us."
She couldn't fathom the irony and the sadness of that. She wasn't ready to
face it yet. "So you're like& immortal."
He stretched his back and blew out a deep breath. "Not exactly. We die like
anyone else. But if we've fulfilled our mission and propagated the species by
producing a son, we reincarnate."
Something clicked in Mara's head. It took her a moment to put her finger on
it, then she scooted up the bed and pulled the book of poetry from the
nightstand. She flipped pages for a while, and then read:
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home
Mara looked up at Connor, who smiled. "How did he know?"
"Truth like that only comes from firsthand experience."
"No." She closed the book and set it down quickly as if she were scared to
touch it. "Wordsworth was& a Gargoyle?"
"We don't live in caves, Mara. We go to school and hold jobs and have lives."
"And protect people."
"When we can. We don't have much choice, really. The magic makes it almost a
compulsion."
She frowned. "But these men Gargoyles here hurt people. How is that?"
"I'm not sure. Some of my congregation think that Romanus's spell is finally
weakening, after a thousand years. Others think they may have gone insane.
Reincarnating, having to start life over time after time, is tough on the
Page 54
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
psyche."
"What do you think?"
He hesitated, then spoke sincerely. "I think some beings are just evil. Even
some Gargoyles."
She could buy that. She certainly believed it was true of humans. Why not
Gargoyles, too? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]