She was standing some ten feet away from him, in the forefront of the
crowd, which had shaped itself into a semi-circle. She had wanted him
to see her. She was swinging a white hand-bag like a lazy pendulum on
a long strap, and her gaze was fixed on him. She was smiling, and the
smile was an open challenge.
In the reflection of the great bed of glowing embers, Trehearne saw
that she was another of Kerrel's breed--and his own, whatever it might
be. But it was not that recognition that made his heart leap up. It was
herself.
The red-gold light danced over her, and perhaps it was only that faery
glow that made her seem more than a handsome girl in a white dress.
Only a trick of wind and starlight, perhaps, that made Trehearne see
in her a changeling, bright, beautiful, wicked, and wise, and no more
human than Lilith.
She beckoned to him, with a small imperious movement of her head.
He had forgotten his anger for the moment, but now it returned. He
began to walk toward her, across the front of the crowd, a tall man,
splendidly built and strong, bearing in his own face the stamp of that
strange, wicked beauty, his eyes yellow as the fire and as hot. She saw
that he was angry, and she laughed.
Whether it was the sound of her laughter that drew the attention of the
Bretons, or merely a chance look, Trehearne never knew. He came up to
her, and she said,
"I am a Kerrel, also. Will you talk to me?"
He was about to answer, when he realized that the noise of the sabots
had broken rhythm, and that the crowd of tourists was staring at him
and the girl and then past them at the Bretons. He heard an uneasy
muttering of questions in French and English, and behind him a great
silence.
He turned. The ritual circle was broken. The old man who had prayed was
coming toward them, and with him were other men and women, drawn as
though by some compulsion from the ranks of the marchers. They were all
old, their faces weathered and seamed by the passing of many winters,
and in their eyes he saw the spark of an ancient hatred, the shadow of
an ancient fear.
He had seen that same look among the older country folk of
Cornwall--directed at himself.
The old man raised his hand. He stopped only a few feet away, and the
others with him. There was something infinitely threatening in the
squat monolithic bulk of that little crowd, a survival from an older
world. The girl flung up her head and laughed, but Trehearne did not
feel like laughing.
The old man cursed them.
Trehearne had not one word of Gaelic, but he did not need a knowledge
of the tongue. Nor did he need to have explained to him the gesture of
angry dismissal. The Bretons had already picked up their stones from
the fire. In another minute, they would use them, on himself and the
girl.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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