The Book of the Crowman Read Free Page B

I’d be happily shoeing horses now. Making pokers and mending gates, instead of worrying about the future. And her.”
    “You’d have your own children, Aaron. You’d be just as worried about them and just as worried about the future. We Keepers are folk, plain as anyone else. The only difference is the knowledge we hold and the burden it bestows upon us.”
    Mr Keeper taps the ash from the bowl of his pipe and refills it. He lights it with a stick from their fire. As the light fades from the day, the glow of the flames picks out the deepening creases in his forehead, around his eyes and mouth. He looks at his old master.
    “Carrick…” He hesitates for long moments. “The story has been eroded over the generations. The people tell it wrong around their hearths when evening comes. They don’t understand the Crowman like they used to. If we lose the thread of his life, we’re finished. You know that. All of this rests on her shoulders now.” Mr Keeper takes a long pull on his pipe stem. “It sometimes strikes me as unreasonable that an innocent must carry such a load.”
    “There are no mistakes in this world. She’s where she’s meant to be.”
    Mr Keeper’s eyes flash.
    “Don’t try to placate me, Carrick. Those are worn out words. They have no meaning now. Nothing is certain. Nothing is ‘meant to be’.”
    The old man sighs but when Mr Keeper glances over it’s a smile he sees on Carrick Rowntree’s face.
    “Listen, Aaron, if it makes you feel any better, I was just as concerned about you.”
    “Really?”
    “Of course. I lost a great deal of sleep over it. But you should understand that it’s absolutely right and proper to fret about your life’s work. Our work is the Black Feathered Path and we can’t help but care for those who travel it. If we didn’t, well, all this would be nothing more than a joke. A bad one.” Carrick Rowntree glances at Megan’s huddled form. “The girl is strong. She is equal to the task. Guide her right and you’re giving everyone a chance at the future.” The old man shakes his head, again good-naturedly. “You’re no different than when you came to me, Aaron, all those years ago. A boy who held a vision. What did I always tell you?”
    “Don’t be distracted by what others are doing. Concentrate on what you’re doing.”
    “Exactly. You need to do the same now. Get your part in all this right and Megan will get hers right. It has to be that way around or nothing will work.”
    Mr Keeper clamps his pipe between his teeth and scoots closer to his old master so that he can whisper.
    “She’s a young woman, Carrick. The first there’s ever been. It’s not as simple as working with a lad. Everything I do or say, it has to be correct. And I can’t just give her a beating when she gets it wrong like you used to do with me.”
    The old man chuckles.
    “It’s not funny,” says Mr Keeper. “I have to think carefully before I speak and act. On every single occasion. And I have to maintain a certain… distance. It would be so much more comfortable if it was a boy.”
    “No it wouldn’t. Lads are troublesome. They don’t concentrate and they think they know better than you do. They’ll earn themselves a beating every day given half the chance. Just like you did.” Carrick takes Mr Keeper’s arm in his old fingers. “Listen to me, Aaron. As a friend. What you have with Megan is unprecedented. It’s as much a challenge for you as it is for her and that is absolutely as it should be. Guiding her, teaching her our ways as you do, you are forced to maintain a sacred mindset throughout. You are required to respect the girl as you respect… who?”
    Mr Keeper blinks.
    “Are you testing me?”
    “Indeed I am. Answer the question, Aaron.”
    Mr Keeper’s anger rises.
    “Listen Carrick, there’s too much water under the bridge for this. How dare you sit there and think you can treat me like a...” The answer comes to him and Mr Keeper’s annoyance