The girl slowly pulled the scarf from her face and smiled. Boreas Mun saw the hideous scar and fought to stifle a shout.
‘Rience,’ said Ciri, still smiling. ‘You were going to teach me pain, weren’t you? Do you remember? With those hands. With those fingers. Those ones? Those, the ones you’re holding the ice with?’
Rience answered, but Boreas didn’t understand what he said, for the sorcerer’s teeth were chattering and rattling so much they made articulated speech impossible. Ciri spun around on her skates and lifted the sword. Boreas clenched his teeth, convinced she would slash Rience, but the girl was picking up momentum to set off. To the tracker’s astonishment she skated away, quickly, gathering speed with powerful thrusts. She vanished into the fog, and a moment later the rhythmic scraping of the skates also died away.
‘Mun… Puuull… me… out…’ Rience barked out, chin on the edge of the ice floe. He flung both hands on the ice, trying to hang on with his fingernails, which had largely been torn away. He spread his fingers, trying to cling to the blood-stained ice with his hands and wrists. Boreas Mun looked at him and was certain, terrifyingly certain…
They heard the grinding of the skates at the last moment. The girl approached at extraordinary speed, literally a blur. She skated up at the very edge of the floe, speeding along right beside the brink.
Rience screamed. And choked on the viscous, leaden water. And vanished.
There was blood on the ice, on the perfectly even tracks left by the skates. And fingers. Eight fingers.
Boreas Mun vomited on the ice.
Bonhart galloped along the edge of the lake, hurtling along, heedless that any moment the horse might break its legs on the snow-covered clefts. Frosted over spruce branches lashed his face, and whipped his arms, and icy powder poured down his collar.
He couldn’t see the lake. The entire valley was filled with fog, like a bubbling witch’s cauldron.
But Bonhart knew the girl was there.
He sensed it.
Deep under the ice, a school of striped perch curiously followed the silver, fascinatingly glimmering casket which had slipped out of the pocket of a corpse floating in the water. Before the casket had sunk to the bottom, raising a cloud of silt, the boldest of the perch even tried to nudge it with their snouts. But they suddenly took flight in terror.
The casket was emitting strange, alarming vibrations.
‘Rience? Can you hear me? What’s been going on? Why haven’t you responded for two days? Give me your report! What about the maid? You can’t let her enter the tower! Do you hear? You can’t let her enter the Tower of the Swallow… Rience! Answer, dammit! Rience!’
Rience, naturally, could not answer.
The embankment came to an end, the shore flattened out. It’s the end of the lake, thought Bonhart, I’ve done it. I’ve trapped the maid. Where is she? And where’s that sodding tower?
The curtain of fog suddenly ruptured and lifted. And then he saw her. She was right in front of him, sitting on her black mare. She’s a witch, he thought, she communicates with that beast. She sent it to the end of the lake and ordered it to wait for her.
But that won’t help her.
I have to kill her. The devil take Vilgefortz. I have to kill her. First I’ll make her beg for her life… And then I’ll kill her.
He yelled, pricked his horse with his spurs and launched into a breakneck gallop.
And suddenly realised he had lost. That she’d deceived him.
Not more than a furlong separated him from her–but over thin ice. She was on the other side of the lake. What’s more, the crescent of open water now curved around the opposite way–the girl, riding along the ‘bowstring’, was much closer to the end of the lake than he was.
Bonhart swore, tugged on the reins and steered his horse onto the ice.
‘Ride, Kelpie!’
Frozen earth shot from under the black mare’s hooves.
Ciri clung to the horse’s neck. The sight of Bonhart pursuing her filled her with dread… She was afraid of him. An invisible fist tightened on her stomach at the thought of facing him in combat.
No, she couldn’t fight him. Not yet.
The Tower. Only the tower could save her. And the portal. As on Thanedd, when the sorcerer Vilgefortz was upon her, was already reaching for her…
The only hope was the Tower of the Swallow.
The fog lifted.
Ciri reined in her horse, suddenly feeling a dreadful heat. Unable to believe what she saw. What was in front of her.
Bonhart saw it too. And yelled triumphantly.
There was no tower at the end of the lake. There weren’t even the ruins of a tower; there was nothing. Just a barely visible, barely outlined hillock, just a mound of boulders covered in frozen, leafless stalks.
‘That’s your tower!’ he roared. ‘That’s your magical tower! That’s your salvation! A heap of stones!’
The girl seemed not to hear or see. She urged the mare nearer the hillock, onto the stony mound. She raised both hands towards the sky, as though cursing the heavens for what had befallen her.
‘I told you that you were mine!’ roared Bonhart, spurring on his bay. ‘That I’ll do what I want with you! That no one will stop me from doing it! Not people, not gods, not devils, nor demons! Or enchanted towers! You’re mine, witcher girl!’
The bay’s shoes jangled on the icy surface of the lake.
The fog suddenly swirled, boiled under the impact of a strong wind appearing as if from nowhere. The bay whinnied and danced, baring its teeth on the bit. Bonhart leaned back in the saddle, and tugged on the reins with all his might, because the horse was frantic, tossing its head, stamping and slipping on the ice.
In front of him–between him and the shore where Ciri was standing–a snowy-white unicorn was dancing on the ice, rearing up, as if on a heraldic shield.
‘Don’t try tricks like that on me!’ roared the bounty hunter, fighting to get control of his horse. ‘You won’t frighten me with sorcery! I’ll catch you, Ciri! I’ll kill you this time, witcher girl! You’re mine!’
The fog swirled again, and seethed, forming bizarre shapes. The shapes became clearer and clearer. They were horsemen. Nightmarish silhouettes of eerie horsemen.
Bonhart stared goggle-eyed.
Skeleton riders rode skeleton horses, dressed in rust-riddled armour and chainmail, ragged cloaks, dented and corroded helmets decorated with buffalo horns and the remains of ostrich and peacock plumes. The spectres’ eyes shined with a bluish light from under their visors. Ragged pennants swished.
An armed man with a crown on his helmet and a necklace bumping against the rusty cuirass on his chest, galloped at the head of the demonic cavalcade.
Begone, rumbled a voice in Bonhart’s head. Begone, mortal. She is not yours. She is ours. Begone! There was no denying Bonhart had one thing: courage. He did not take fright at the apparitions. He overcame his terror, and did not give in to panic.
But his horse turned out to be less resolute.
The bay reared, danced ballet-like on its hind legs, whinnied frantically, kicked and pranced. The ice broke with a horrifying crunching sound under the impact of its hooves, the sheets of ice stood up vertically and water gushed out. The horse squealed and struck the edge with its forehooves, fracturing it. Bonhart yanked his feet from the stirrups and jumped. Too late.
The water closed over his head. There was a drumming and a ringing as though in a belfry. His lungs were full to bursting.
He was lucky. His feet–kicking out in the water–struck something, probably his horse as it sank to the bottom. He pushed off, bursting from the water, spitting and gasping. He seized hold of the edge of the ice hole. Without yielding to panic, he drew a knife, drove it into the ice and hauled himself out. He lay, panting heavily, the water trickling from him and splashing down.
The lake, the ice, the snowbound hillsides, the black and frost-encrusted spruce forest–all of a sudden everything was flooded with an u
nnatural, pallid light.
Bonhart struggled to his knees with immense effort.
Above the horizon, the deep blue was lit by a crown of brightness, a luminous dome, from which fiery pillars and spirals suddenly rose and scintillating columns and vortices of light burst forth. Shimmering, flickering, rapidly-changing shapes, ribbons and curtains hung on the horizon.
Bonhart croaked. It was as though he had an iron garrotte around his throat.
A tower had risen up where a moment before had been only a barren hillock and a pile of stones. Majestic, soaring and slender, black, glassy and gleaming, as though carved from a single piece of basalt. Fire flickered in the few windows and the aurora borealis glowed in the serrated battlements.
He saw the girl, looking towards him from the saddle. He saw her bright eyes and the cheek slashed by the line of an ugly scar. He saw the girl spur her black mare and unhurriedly ride into the black gloom, under the arched stone entrance.
And disappear.
The aurora borealis exploded in dazzling swirls of fire.
When Bonhart regained his sight, the tower was gone. There was the snow-topped hillock, the pile of stones, the withered black stalks.
Kneeling on the ice, in the puddle of water trickling from him, the bounty hunter screamed savagely, horribly. On his knees, arms raised towards the sky, he screamed, howled, swore and railed against people, gods and demons.
The echo of his cries rolled over the spruce-forested hillsides, drifted over the frozen surface of Tarn Mira lake.
At first, the inside of the tower reminded her of Kaer Morhen–the same long, black corridor behind a colonnade, the same unending abyss in the perspective of columns or statues. It was beyond comprehension how that abyss could fit into the slender obelisk of the tower. But she knew, of course, that there was no point analysing it–not in the case of a tower that had risen up from nothingness, appearing where it had not been before. There could be anything in such a tower and one ought not to be surprised by anything.
She looked back. She didn’t believe Bonhart had dared–or managed–to enter after her. But she wanted to make certain. The colonnade she had ridden into blazed with an unnatural brilliance.
Kelpie’s hooves rang on the floor; something crunched under them. Bones. Skulls, shinbones, ribcages, thighbones, hipbones. She was riding through a gigantic ossuarium. Kaer Morhen, she thought, recalling. The dead should be buried in the ground… How long ago that was… I still believed in something like that then… In the majesty of death, in respect for the dead… But death is simply death. And a dead person is just a cold corpse. It’s not important where it’s lying, where its bones decay.
She rode into the gloom, under the colonnade, among the columns and statues. The darkness undulated like smoke. Her ears were filled with intrusive whispers, sighs, and soft incantations. Suddenly brightness flamed before her, as a gigantic door opened. One door opened after another. Doors. An infinite number of heavy doors opened before her without a murmur.
Kelpie went on, horseshoes resounding on the floor.
The geometry of the walls, arcades and columns surrounding her was suddenly disrupted; so confusingly that Ciri felt dizzy. She felt as though she were inside an impossible, multifaceted solid, some gigantic polyhedron.
The doors kept opening. But now they weren’t delineating a single direction. They were pointing to infinite directions and possibilities.
And Ciri began to see.
A black-haired woman leading an ashen-haired girl by the hand. The girl is afraid, afraid of the dark, fears the whispers growing in the gloom, is terrified by the ringing of horseshoes. The black-haired woman with a star sparkling with diamonds around her neck is also afraid. But does not let it show. She leads the girl on. Towards her destiny.
Kelpie walks on. More doors.
Iola the Second and Eurneid, in sheepskin coats, with their bundles, marching along a frozen, snowy road. The sky is deep blue.
More doors.
Iola the First kneeling before an altar. Beside her is Mother Nenneke. They are both looking at something, their faces contorted in a grimace of dread. What do they see? The past or the future? Truth or untruth?
Above Nenneke and Iola–hands. The hands of a woman with golden eyes held out in a gesture of blessing. In the woman’s necklace–a diamond, shining like the morning star. On the woman’s shoulder–a cat. Over her head–a falcon.
More doors.
Triss Merigold holds back her glorious chestnut hair, buffeted and tugged by gusts of wind. There is no escape from the wind, nothing can shelter from the wind.
Not here. Not on the brow of the hill.
A long, unending row of shadows encroaches on the hill. Forms. They are walking slowly. Some turn their faces towards her. Familiar faces. Vesemir. Eskel. Lambert. Coen. Yarpen Zigrin and Paulie Dahlberg. Fabio Sachs… Jarre… Tissaia de Vries.
Mistle…
Geralt?
More doors.
Yennefer, in chains, fastened to a dungeon wall dripping with water. Her hands are a single mass of clotted blood. Her black hair is tousled and dishevelled… Her mouth is cut and swollen… But her will to fight and resistance are undamped in her violet eyes.
‘Mummy! Hold on! Don’t give up! I’m coming to help you!’
More doors. Ciri turns her head away in distress. And embarrassment.
Geralt. And a green-eyed woman with black, close-cropped hair. Both naked. Engrossed by and consumed with each other. With giving each other sensual pleasure.
Ciri fights to overcome the adrenaline tightening her throat and spurs Kelpie on. Hooves clatter. Whispers pulsate in the darkness.
More doors.
Welcome, Ciri.
‘Vysogota?’
I knew you would succeed, O courageous maiden. My brave Swallow. Did you emerge unharmed?
‘I defeated them. On the ice. I had a surprise for them. Your daughter’s skates…’
‘I meant psychological harm.’
‘I held back from vengeance… I didn’t kill them all… I didn’t kill Tawny Owl… Even though he hurt and disfigured me. I controlled myself.’
‘I knew you’d prevail, Zireael. And that you’d enter the tower. Why, I’ve read about it. Because it has already been described… It has all been written about. Do you know what learning gives you? The ability to make use of sources.
‘How’s it possible that we’re talking… O Vysogota… are you…’
Yes, Ciri. I’m dead. Oh, never mind! What I have learned is more important, what I have worked out… Now I know what became of the lost days, what happened in Korath desert, how you vanished from the sight of your pursuers…
‘And how I entered here, entered this tower, right?’
The Elder Blood that flows in your veins gives you power over time. And over space. Over the dimensions and the spheres. You are now Master of the Worlds, Ciri. You have a mighty Power. Do not let criminals or rogues take it from you and use it to their own ends…
‘I won’t.’
Farewell, Ciri. Farewell, Swallow.
‘Farewell, Old Raven.’
More doors. Brightness, dazzling brightness.
And the heady scent of flowers.
A mist lay on the lake, a haze as light as down, which the wind quickly blew away. The surface of the water was as smooth as a mirror, flowers shone white on green carpets of flat lily pads.
The banks drowned in leaves and flowers.
It was warm.
It was spring.
Ciri was not surprised. How could she be? After all, now everything was possible. November, ice, snow, frozen ground, the mound of stones on the hillock bristling with dried stalks–that was there. But here is here; here a soaring basalt tower crowned with serrated battlements, reflected in the green water of the lake, dotted with the white of waterlilies. Here it’s May, for wild roses and bird cherry bloom in May, don’t they?
Nearby, somebody was playing on a whistle or a pan flute;
they were playing a jolly, lively tune.
On the lakeside, two snow-white horses were drinking, fore hooves in the water. Kelpie snorted and banged a hoof against a rock. Then the horses lifted their heads and nostrils, dripping water, and Ciri sighed.
Because they weren’t horses, but unicorns.
Ciri was not surprised. She was sighing in awe, not in astonishment.
She could hear the tune more and more clearly. It was coming from behind the shrubs of bird cherry festooned with white blossom. Kelpie moved towards the sound by herself, without any urging. Ciri swallowed. The two unicorns, as still as statues, reflected in the surface of the water as smooth as a mirror, looked at her.
A fair-haired elf with a triangular face and huge, almond-shaped eyes was sitting on a round stone beyond the bird cherry shrub. He played on, nimbly running his lips over the pipes. Although he could see Ciri and Kelpie–although he was looking at them–he didn’t stop playing.
The small flowers gave off a scent; Ciri had never before encountered bird cherry with such an intense fragrance. No wonder, she thought quite soberly. Bird cherry blossom simply smells different in the world I’ve lived in until this moment.
Because everything is different in that world.
The elf finished his tune with a long-drawn-out, high-pitched trill, took the instrument from his mouth and stood up.
‘What took you so long?’ he asked with a smile. ‘What kept you?’
END OF BOOK FOUR
By Andrzej Sapkowski
The Last Wish
Sword of Destiny
Blood of Elves
The Time of Contempt
Baptism of Fire
The Tower of Swallows
The Malady and Other Stories:
An Andrzej Sapkowski Sampler (e-only)
The story continues in…
LADY OF THE LAKE
A novel of the Witcher Coming in Summer 2017
The Tower of Swallows Page 46
