"Gray, Julia - Guardian 01 - The Dark Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gray Julia)

This was bad news for Terrel, and his face must have shown his dismay, but Cadrez's expression remained merely curious. He was evidently not a man to jump to conclusions, nor to dispense instant 'justice'. Terrel shuddered as he remembered how Captain Aylor's very different approach to guilt and punishment had led to Elam's death - and was glad that his present captor at least seemed intrigued enough to want to discover the truth before he acted.
'You don't think the atmosphere of the festival might have made people see something that wasn't there?' Terrel asked. 'Drink wasn't the only influence last night.' He was grasping at straws now, and they both knew it.
'Hallucinations? Because of the enchantment of the Red Moon?'
'And the smoke and the scents in the air, the light of the bonfires . . .'
'The apparently contradictory claims of love and violence,' Cadrez finished for him.
Terrel knew that the seneschal was toying with him now, as a cat plays with a half-dead mouse. It was not a comforting analogy.
'I'm only surprised that it hasn't happened before,' the seneschal admitted unexpectedly. 'The festival always threatens to get out of hand, and what with all the fires, and the drunken pilgrims, accidents are almost inevitable. You just happened to be the one-'
'It wasn't me!' Terrel cut in desperately.
Cadrez remained silent for a while after this outburst, and it was only then that the boy realized he had been offered the word 'accident' as a possible way out. He had ignored the opportunity - and avoided the trap.
'Tell me again what happened,' his inquisitor demanded eventually.
Terrel groaned. They had been over his story twice already, and his headache was threatening to crush his skull. Even so, he decided this time to begin at an earlier point, to set the scene properly.
'I came to the square in the early afternoon, and spent some time looking around. Then I had some work to do for Babak, the apothecary.'
'Yes, I heard about that,' Cadrez remarked. 'Quite a performance, I gather.'
Terrel hung his head for a moment, fighting against his need to justify his part in the pedlar's scam. However much shame he felt, he told himself, that was the least of his worries now.
'When that was over,' he went on doggedly, 'it was almost dusk. I bought a flower - a snapdragon - to lay on the shrine. Why would I have done that, if I meant to burn it down?'
'Perhaps the object of your affections did not return your love, so you decided on revenge instead.'
This was the first time anyone had mentioned a possible motive for Terrel's supposed crime, and he sought to undermine it at once. The unanswered question of why he should have wanted to destroy the shrine was one of the strongest arguments for his defence.
'She wouldn't even have known,' he said. 'She's many miles away from here.'
'Where, exactly?'
'Cotillo. It's a village in Saefir Province.' Terrel was sure that Cadrez would not have heard of it - or know that it was the nearest settlement to a madhouse. He suspected that the seneschal had not really been interested in the answer, only in judging whether his prisoner was lying.
Terrel's answer had been as close to the truth as he could make it - and he could only hope it had been convincing.
'Go on,' Cadrez prompted.
'After the festival proper was under way, I left my flower, then went to an inn and bought some wine.'
'Where did you get the money to buy these things?'
'From Babak. I was his apprentice. Why don't you check with him?'
'I would, but the good apothecary appears to have left town in rather a hurry. As far as we can judge, he left in the early hours of this morning.'
Terrel felt a sense of betrayal, but realized that he was not really surprised. Babak made a habit of vanishing soon after his business was complete - and, on this occasion, he would not have welcomed any association with his former apprentice.
'I sent some men after him,' Cadrez went on, 'but there are dozens of trails he could have taken. He won't be found unless he wants to be, and that doesn't seem very likely. So, what happened when you'd drunk your wine?'
'I told you,' Terrel replied wearily. 'I shared my jug with several people at one of the tables outside.'
'But you can't remember any of their names?'
'No.'
'No matter. We've located enough of them to confirm that part of your story.'
Then why are you making me repeat it? Terrel thought angrily.
'When did you leave the inn?' Cadrez asked.
'I don't know exactly. The bonfires had burnt down by then, and it was getting cold.'
'Had the midnight bells rung?'
'I don't remember hearing any bells. I tried to find my way back to the tavern where Babak and I were staying, but I got lost.'
'Lost? I thought you said you never left the square.'
'I didn't. I must've been drunk, because I couldn't remember where to go, and in the end I had to sit down.'
'Where?'
'Near one of the corners of the square. I leant against the wall, then passed out. The next thing I knew I woke up in here.'
'And that's it?' Cadrez queried. 'You're leaving nothing out?'
Terrel shook his head.
'Nothing.'
There was another silence then, and Terrel felt worse than ever, imagining all sorts of unspoken accusations.
'Tell me something,' Cadrez said eventually. 'When the guard first spoke to you this morning, why did you yell at him about a dream?'
'I didn't . . .' Terrel claimed, recalling his horrified reaction. 'I . . .'
'Your exact words were "No! It was just a dream!",' his interrogator said calmly, and waited.
Terrel had no intention of telling Cadrez about the dream - or the little he could remember of it now. He had been enveloped in flame, and there had been running. And laughter . . . But none of that was real! It couldn't be.
'I'd just woken up,' he said. 'I didn't know where I was, and I was scared. I didn't know what I was saying.'