The Great Troll War полностью

‘One hundred percent human. Zambini sourced you as a baby so I don’t know who your parents were, but they were good people, who trusted Zambini when he said that the vessel for Shandar’s rejected Better Angels had to be someone with a Human Moral Worth Index that was off the scale – and you fitted the bill. Your parents understood that, shouldered the sorrow of your loss and gave you up, knowing that there was vital work for you to do in the Grand Scheme of Things.’

I was silent for a moment, trying to take this in. But I wasn’t thinking about the parts of Shandar that were me, I was thinking about my parents, and that, given the finality of Zambini’s farewell, I had missed any chance to find out who they were, and who I was.

‘So why would Shandar want me on his journey to the stars?’

‘Shandar knows that while utter ruthlessness is a useful skill for taking power,’ said Mother Zenobia, ‘it’s overrated when it comes to keeping power. To maintain a sustainable dictatorship, he needs to harness those skills he foolishly cast out: tact, diplomacy, magnanimity, mercy. They can all be powerful weapons, especially when a thousand star systems are looking to marshal their forces against him. He knows you have them, and that without you and he seamlessly working together, his empire will barely last ten thousand years – it’s amazing how quickly subjects tire of their tyrants once the mass murder begins. Tea?’

‘What? Oh, yes, yes, I’d love a cup.’

A novice nun had been hovering at the entrance to the garden, and at a signal from Mother Zenobia trotted in with two cups of tea and a couple of Chelsea buns. I nibbled on one, and wrapped the other in a napkin for Ralph and Tiger. I sat and thought for a while, sipping my tea. Now my purpose was clear, everything suddenly seemed to shift into greater focus. My function in the Grand Scheme of Things was to defeat the most powerful sorcerer the planet had ever seen.

‘So,’ I said, ‘I can get close to him, but how do I destroy him?’

‘Ah,’ said Zenobia, putting down her tea, ‘our plan was not without a few wrinkles. We have engineered only an opportunity but without clear instructions. Your power and strength lie in your Moral Worth, courage and sense of intuitive action. Sometimes it’s better not to think too much about something, and assistance, when times look bleak, can often come from unexpected quarters.’

‘Zambini said something similar. What does that mean?’

She didn’t answer, simply smiled, reached out for my hand again, and squeezed it.

‘It is up to you now,’ she said with a weak smile. ‘Goodbye, Jennifer, I hope it all works out. You were our star orphan, my girl, there was none better.’

She took a deep breath.

‘My work is now done. Will you stay with me until I am gone?’

‘I would be honoured, ma’am.’

So I held her hand until her breathing stopped. I sat silent for a minute or two until her novice returned, then kissed her gently on the forehead and returned to the courtyard.

‘What have you learned?’ I asked, meeting up with Tiger ten minutes later.

‘That Trolls don’t like cricket bats,’ he said, ‘and nuns really frighten them, especially violent ones with a steely-eyed sense of purpose.’

‘That’s not a surprise to me.’

‘Me neither. Sister Asumpta’s platoon succeeded in corralling them into the walled garden. They caught eighteen of them that way, but most escaped almost immediately.’

‘Why didn’t the others free their comrades?’ I asked.

‘They’re not sure.’

I untied the Angel’s Feather from the house brick and let it go, whereupon it started to rise into the air, along with the faint sound of a chorus and a shaft of light. As good as his word, Ralph came down to pick us up and, five minutes later, we were heading south-west, back towards Cornwall and Penzance.

‘What about you?’ asked Tiger.

‘I learned that when you have less than twenty years to defeat a plan over three hundred years in the making, it’s okay to cut a few ethical corners.’

‘Meaning?’

I explained what Zenobia had told me as we winged across the Severn estuary. He stared at me incredulously for a moment once I had finished.

‘How do you feel about all that?’ he asked at length.

‘Calm,’ I told him. ‘Now my purpose in the Grand Scheme of Things has been revealed, everything is quite clear: I am to defeat Shandar. All other concerns are secondary. Nothing else matters.’

We were silent for a minute or two until we made landfall and then followed the North Devon coastline. Tiger asked me what our next plan of action would be.

‘I guess we wait for events to unfold and act accordingly.’

‘That’s your plan?’

‘You have a better one?’

‘No.’

‘Hang on,’ I said as an idea popped into my head, ‘Let’s take a detour and see how Colin’s getting along.’

I drew a rough map of the Isles of Scilly on a sheet of paper and showed it to Ralph.

‘Ook,’ he said as we sped low across Dartmoor, annoying a group of Trolls doing their mid-morning religious veneration.