Читать книгу The Last Musician - Jason Peterson - Страница 13

They were walking when Kristoffer came to his senses. Walking fast. The three sisters appeared to glide over the ground, but Kristoffer stumbled and tripped as he tried to keep up. At least, he thought, that’s what he must have been doing. How long had they been walking? Where were they going? Where had they come from?

The memories came slowly back to him. The muses arriving. The tea. Hurried conversations about finding what they had given away. Alistair. The name hung in Kristoffer’s mind. It sounded like an evil name, and he did not want to go anywhere near anyone with that name.

Kristoffer stopped. The three muses continued a few paces, seeming not to even notice he had fallen behind, their gaits as graceful as a spring breeze.

“The boy,” he heard one say.

“The boy,” the other two said.

They turned around and glided back to Kristoffer.

“Kristoffer, you stopped,” they said together.

Even though he was angry and confused, the sisters’ beauty still took Kristoffer’s breath away. Their names came back to him. Aiode, the blonde. Mneme, the brunette. Melete, the redhead.

“Yes, I stopped. You’ve kidnapped me,” he said.

“Oh, no, Kristoffer,” Melete said. “You agreed to accompany us. It really is the only way for you to find what you seek.”

“The only way, Kristoffer,” said Aiode.

“The only way to live and find what you seek,” said Mneme.

“Don’t mind her, Kristoffer,” Melete said. “She just didn’t get her way.”

“Well, I’m not going with you,” said Kristoffer. “I’ll find my own way, thank you.”

“I’m afraid you have no choice in the matter,” Mneme said, shaking her head.

“There’s always a choice,” said Aiode. She gave Kristoffer a look that raised the hair on the back of his neck.

“Now, now, this is all too hostile,” said Melete. “We are not monsters, are we ladies?”

Mneme and Aiode said nothing.

“Well, we are not, Kristoffer. However, we do get our way, and those who don’t…what’s the word…agree with us…” she paused. “Let’s just say it’s better to agree with us than to not. Now, let’s carry on.”

“No.”

Kristoffer sat down and crossed his arms. Mneme and Aiode gave him nasty looks. As he turned to look at Melete’s face, he expected to see the same calm, comforting expression she had displayed since he had met her. He was wrong.

The face staring back at him was twisted in rage. Melete’s red hair looked to be on fire now, pulsing and moving like blood-red cobras. She stalked back and forth before Kristoffer, and even her sisters cowered as she passed.

Kristoffer trembled.

“Listen here,” she said. “Have you heard the tale of Thamyris of the woods?”

Kristoffer shook his head stiffly. He felt frozen in place.

“Well, dear, sweet Kristoffer.” She spat the words at him. “Thamyris challenged my authority – our authority – one day. We did not kill him, as Aiode and Mneme would have liked to have done to you.”

The sisters smiled wicked smiles at Kristoffer.

“No, we did not kill him. We plucked out his eyes. Then we cut out his tongue. Then we chopped off his little music-playing fingers. He finished the job himself. Seems he couldn’t live without music.”

Melete quickly looked at her sisters, and then fixed her stare back on Kristoffer.

He felt like he might be sick.

“We can pay you the same courtesy, Kristoffer,” Melete said. “Now that we know your…talents.” She laughed.

Melete stopped pacing.

“It didn’t have to be this way,” she said, now as calm as she had been before.”

Kristoffer staggered to his feet.

He heard someone approach from his left.

“And it doesn’t have to be this way now.”

Kristoffer and the three muses turned to look at where the voice had come from. And old man stood there, looking as threatening as a toy sword in a knife fight.

“Colin Williams,” the old man said. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”