Robert Carter - The Giants’ Dance

For Gerald Wiley, Four Candles.

‘First there were nine,

Then nine became seven,

And seven became five.

Now, as sure as the Ages decline,

Three are no more,

But one is alive.’

The Black Book of Tara

Cover Page

Title Page The Giants’ Dance Robert Carter

Epigraph ‘First there were nine, Then nine became seven, And seven became five. Now, as sure as the Ages decline, Three are no more, But one is alive.’ The Black Book of Tara

PROLOGUE

PART ONE JEOPARDY’S DILEMMA

CHAPTER ONE THE BLAZING

CHAPTER TWO LITTLE SLAUGHTER

CHAPTER THREE WHAT LIES WITHIN

CHAPTER FOUR THE LIGN OF THE ASH TREE

CHAPTER FIVE MAGICIAN, HEAL THYSELF!

CHAPTER SIX AN UNWELCOME GUEST

CHAPTER SEVEN A GOOD NIGHT’S REST

PART TWO A LOSING BATTLE

CHAPTER EIGHT THIS BLIGHTED LAND

CHAPTER NINE STONEHUNTERS

CHAPTER TEN THE MAD BARON

CHAPTER ELEVEN THE FLIES

CHAPTER TWELVE CAPTIVES

CHAPTER FOURTEEN THE KINDLY STUMP

CHAPTER FIFTEEN A THIEF AT LUDFORD

CHAPTER SIXTEEN MOTHER BRIG

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN THE HOSTS GATHER

PART THREE MADNESS AT LUDFORD

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN HONEY MEAD

CHAPTER NINETEEN A TOAST BY THE DUKE

CHAPTER TWENTY THE MADNESS GROWS

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE A GLIMPSE OF THE ENEMY

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO RAW MEAT

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE THE BLOOD STONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR FLESH ANEW

PART FOUR THE TURNING OF THE TIDE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE TURLOCH’S RING

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX CASTLE CORBEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN THE DRAGON’S JAWS

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT JASPER

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE THE NIGHT FLIER

CHAPTER THIRTY THE DUEL

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE A SURFEIT AT DELAMPREY

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO THE SECRET WEAPON

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE IN THE AFTERMATH

AUTHOR’S NOTE

APPENDIX I THE OGDOAD

APPENDIX II THE LORC

APPENDIX III THE LORC IN OUR WORLD

THE STORY CONTINUES IN

About the Author

By Robert Carter

Copyright

About the Publisher

The Giants’ Dance is the second book in the Language of Stones cycle. The first book, called The Language of Stones , recounted the story of Willand, a boy whose life was changed forever when the wizard, Gwydion, arrived at the village of Nether Norton in the Vale.

Gwydion, it is revealed, brought Will to the Vale when he was a baby, and has returned to reclaim him on his thirteenth birthday. Before Will leaves, Breona, the woman Will has always thought of as his mother, hangs about his neck a talisman of green stone which is carved in the likeness of a leaping salmon. She tells him how she found it inside his blanket when he first came into her arms, and says that it should go with him now he is entering the wide world.

No one from Nether Norton has ever been out of the Vale, and the wide world seems terrifying to Will. Gwydion explains that he must leave the Vale for his own good. Twice he tries to run away and go home, but each time he is prevented by Gwydion’s magic, and eventually the wizard tells him they are being hunted by a fearsome enemy. At first, Will imagines it must be the Sightless Ones, the sinister fellowship of tax collectors who both squeeze the common people and engage in crooked politics with the lords of the Realm, but it soon becomes clear that a far more formidable foe is looking for them. Gwydion will drop only vague hints about this, but he says that Will is a ‘Child of Destiny’ – one whose coming has been foretold in the Black Book.

Soon they arrive at a gloomy tower in the depths of the Wychwoode, and there Will is lodged with the grotesque Lord Strange, a man who is afflicted by a vile spell and who wears the head of a boar. Gwydion leaves Will to live in the tower all summer long, and there he is taught to read and write. He also learns from the local Wise Woman something of the ‘redes of magic’ – these are curious rules that reveal the wisdom of the world and enable magic to be done. But Will’s spirit rebels against Lord Strange. He secretly looks in a forbidden book and reads certain spells, which he then uses for the unworthy purpose of trying to impress a pretty girl. What he attracts instead is the marish hag, a dangerous supernatural creature that inhabits the ancient wood. He is almost drowned by the hag, and only saved by Gwydion’s return.

But Will has also gained friends in the Wychwoode, among them the mysterious Green Man to whom he renders an unwitting service, and the girl, Willow, with whom he discovers Grendon Mill. This, it turns out, is Lord Strange’s secret armoury, where men have cut down the great oaks of a sacred grove to roast into charcoal so that weapons of war may be forged.

When Gwydion returns, he shows his great displeasure at Lord Strange’s activities. In turn, the hog-headed lord blames King Hal whose preparations for war are being fed by the mill. The wizard then leaves angrily, taking Will with him.

As they travel south Will is asked if he knows about King Arthur. He says he knows about him from old tales. Gwydion tells him that the tales about the sword in the stone speak about an Arthur who became king a thousand years ago, but that he was only the second incarnation of an original Arthur. That Arthur was an adventurer who lived in the time of the First Men in the far distant past, and travelled from the land of Albion into the Realm Below to bring out sacred objects known as ‘the Hallows’. Moreover, there is a prophetic verse that speaks of a third and final incarnation of Arthur…

Will begins to feel uncomfortable because it seems that the wizard is convinced that Will himself is that third incarnation.

Unfortunately, the prophecy is confirmed at every turn. At Uff, Will recognizes the White Horse, and stands upon the Dragon’s Mound where he experiences a vision of an army massing below. The earth yields up the gift of a horn to him, and in Severed Neck Woods Will is given the freedom of the wildwood by the Green Man himself.

They come at last to the royal hunting lodge of Clarendon, where Gwydion warns the weakling monarch, and asks for aid in a vital magical mission that will prevent the Realm from sliding into war. But the royal court is already deeply under the influence of the beautiful but greedy queen and her violent ally, Duke Edgar of Mells.

The queen is pregnant, and it seems to Will that Duke Edgar is the father. Will also suspects that the gentle king has been poisoned by them. And he notices a sinister figure lurking nearby, invisible to everyone but Will and the queen. Only later does he learn that this is the sorcerer, Maskull, Gwydion’s arch-enemy, who, among other things, is trying to find Will and kill him. Fortunately, Maskull does not realize Will is present, but even so events are about to take a turn for the worse. Gwydion’s request for royal aid is refused, and he is attacked by Duke Edgar, and forced to employ a powerful vanishing spell, which is accomplished only just in the nick of time.

Where Will and Gwydion vanish to is a sacred place, even by the standards of the Blessed Isle. They appear on cliff tops high above the sea, standing on the westernmost point of land in the whole world. Here Gwydion renews his strength and explains to Will about ‘the lorc’. This is a network of powerful earth streams that extend throughout the Isles. Long ago, he says, an array of standing stones was set up on these streams of power by an ancient race, the fae, who lived at the time of the First Men, but who long ago retired into the Realm Below. Each stone is filled with an immense quantity of harm.