Whitemantle
The Third coming of Arthur.The final volume in a rich and evocative tale set in a mythic 15th century Britain, to rival the work of Bernard Cornwell.As civil war tears the Realm apart, the sorcerer Maskull's plans to bring about a catastrophe that will rob the world of magic are coming to fruition. The wizard Gwydion knows that the only hope for the future lies with Willand, the young man he believes to be the reincarnation of King Arthur.But Will is beset with doubts. He is being stalked by the Dark Child, the twin from whom he was separated at birth and who now serves Maskull. And as the magic gradually begins to fade from the world, the powers of Gwydion, his mentor and friend, seem to be fading too, leading Will to despair that the destruction of the war will ever be halted, or Maskull ever defeated.Despite the seeming impossibility of his task, Will is not ready to give up quite yet. With the help of his strong-minded wife, Willow, and friends as wise and generous as the loremasters Morann and Gort, Will journeys the Realm seeking his destiny. And soon it becomes clear that only by solving the riddle of his own identity can he save the world he loves so deeply.
Читать Whitemantle онлайн беплатно
Whitemantle
Book Three of the Language Of Stones
Robert Carter
For Andrew Ritchie – the Brompton man – who gave me back my fitness.
‘I think we ought to have as great a regard for religion as we can, in order to keep it out of as many things as possible.’
Sean O’Casey
The Plough and the Stars
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE DOUBLE DEPETRIFICATION
CHAPTER THREE THE BIER OF ETERNITY
CHAPTER EIGHT MAGOG AND GOGMAGOG
PART TWO THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT BE KING
CHAPTER NINE THE LAMB HYTHE YALE
CHAPTER TEN THE WINDOWLESS CHAMBER
CHAPTER ELEVEN PROMISES AND PIECRUSTS
CHAPTER TWELVE THE KING OF PENTACLES
CHAPTER FOURTEEN PROPHECIES, LIBELS AND DREAMS
CHAPTER FIFTEEN THE FAST-FLOWING STREAM
CHAPTER SIXTEEN THE SLEEPLESS FIELD
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN THE DOOMSTONE OF THE WEST
PART FOUR THE END OF ALL THINGS
CHAPTER NINETEEN THE IRON TREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE THE SECOND DUEL
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO THE STONE THAT WAS HEALED
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR A BROKEN LAND
THE STORY SO FAR
Whitemantle is the third novel in the Language of Stones cycle. The first two, called The Language of Stones, and The Giants’ Dance, recount the story of Willand, an ordinary boy who stands on the threshold of manhood. On the day that Will turns thirteen, the wizard Gwydion takes him away from home and explains certain extraordinary prophecies that concern the third and final coming of an ancient hero-king called Arthur. Gwydion suggests that Will himself is that predicted incarnation, but Will does not want to believe it.
However, as Will’s adventures progress dark forces are seen to be at work, chiefly embodied in the person of Maskull, a ruthless sorcerer and Gwydion’s arch-enemy, and the Sightless Ones, a sinister order of tax collectors who squeeze the common people and try to persuade them to believe in the mind-enslaving ‘Great Lie’. Gwydion is at pains to hide Will’s true identity from the world, and so the boy is lodged in secret, first with the fearsome hog-headed Lord Strange, then with the family of Duke Richard of Ebor, where he is educated in lordly ways. Will also comes to learn ‘the redes’ – the rules that govern magic – and he meets a girl named Willow who becomes his friend. He is also befriended by the House of Ebor’s venerable herbalist, Wortmaster Gort, and he stands up to Edward, the Duke of Ebor’s wilful heir, eventually winning his respect.
But while Will is learning, the Realm is slipping into war, for the present king is descended from a usurper, and there are many who believe he is not the rightful king. In fact, King Hal is being controlled by his beautiful but greedy queen, Mag, and her violent ally, Duke Edgar of Mells. Set against their party is the House of Ebor and its allies, who believe that Duke Richard must be recognized as sovereign. Duke Richard himself is content to wait until the sickly Hal dies, for the latter has no heir, but when the queen falls unexpectedly pregnant, rumours begin to circulate that the child has been fathered by the Duke of Mells as part of a scheme to keep Richard from his just deserts. The gauntlet of conflict is thrown down.
Meanwhile Will, who is now fifteen, has begun to see that, whatever dukes and earls may think, the world is actually maintained by magic, and the real reason the Realm is sliding into war is a magical one. Gwydion tells him of something called ‘the lore’, an ancient network of nine ‘ligns’, or earth streams, extending throughout the Isles, which carries power to an array of standing stones. Each of these ‘battlestones’ contains great harm and has the power, when awoken, to draw men to battle. Gwydion also explains that he and Maskull are the last remaining members of a wizardly council of nine whose task it once was to direct the progress of the world along the true path. But as Age succeeded Age and magic gradually left the world their numbers shrank, until there are now only two wizards left. At last, Maskull has revealed himself as ‘the betrayer’. He has turned to sorcery and is now directing the future along a path of his own choosing – but it is a path that will lead to a final Age of slavery and war.
Will and Gwydion set out to thwart Maskull by finding and uprooting the deadly battlestones. Will shows an extraordinary sensitivity to the lorc, and after many heroic struggles he locates the controlling ‘Doomstone’ in the town of Verlamion. There a bloody battle is halted when Will uses a talisman, a green stone fish he has had since birth, to crack the stone, while Gwydion fights a magical duel against Maskull. When Will confronts Maskull the sorcerer tells him, ‘I made you, I can unmake you just as easily,’ but then disappears as Gwydion lands a vanishing spell on him and transports him down into the Realm Below. In the end, the king and Duke Richard are reconciled. Will is rewarded and returns home with the greatest prize of all – Willow. But his origins, and his ultimate destiny, remain shrouded in mystery.
