Yennefer turned away. Dandilion saw her lips pinch, the muscles in her cheek quiver.
'Yes, in the past,' she said and there was something elusive and strange in her voice. 'I used to be a guest there, sometimes. But never uninvited.'
The wind howled savagely, rippling through the grasses growing over the ruins, rustling in the hawthorn bushes and tall nettles. Clouds sped across the sphere of the moon, momentarily illuminating the great castle, drenching the moat and few remaining walls in a pale glow undulating with shadows, and revealing mounds of skulls baring their broken teeth and staring into nothingness through the black holes of their eye-sockets. Ciri squealed sharply and hid her face in the witcher's cloak.
The mare, prodded on by the witcher's heels, carefully stepped over a pile of bricks and passed through the broken arcade. Her horseshoes, ringing against the flagstones, awoke weird echoes between the walls, muffled by the howling gale. Ciri trembled, digging her hands into the horse's mane.
'I'm frightened,' she whispered.
'There's nothing to be frightened of,' replied the witcher, laying his hand on her shoulder. 'It's hard to find a safer place in the whole world. This is Kaer Morhen, the Witchers' Keep. There used to be a beautiful castle here. A long time ago.'
She did not reply, bowing her head low. The witcher's mare, called Roach, snorted quietly, as if she too wanted to reassure the girl.
They immersed themselves in a dark abyss, in a long, unending black tunnel dotted with columns and arcades. Roach stepped
confidently and willingly, ignoring the impenetrable darkness, and her horseshoes rang brightly against the floor.
In front of them, at the end of the tunnel, a straight, vertical line suddenly flared with a red light. Growing taller and wider it became a door beyond which was a faint glow, the flickering brightness of torches stuck in iron mounts on the walls. A black figure stood framed in the door, blurred by the brightness.
'Who comes?' Ciri heard a menacing, metallic voice which sounded like a dog's bark. 'Geralt?'
'Yes, Eskel. It's me.'
'Come in.'
The witcher dismounted, took Ciri from the saddle, stood her on the ground and pressed a bundle into her little hands which she grabbed tightly, only regretting that it was too small for her to hide behind completely.
'Wait here with Eskel,' he said. 'I'll take Roach to the stables.'
'Come into the light, laddie,' growled the man called Eskel. 'Don't lurk in the dark.'
Ciri looked up into his face and barely restrained her frightened scream. He wasn't human. Although he stood on two legs, although he smelled of sweat and smoke, although he wore ordinary human clothes, he was not human. No human can have a face like that, she thought.
'Well, what are you waiting for?' repeated Eskel.
She didn't move. In the darkness she heard the clatter of Roach's horseshoes grow fainter. Something soft and squeaking ran over her foot. She jumped.
'Don't loiter in the dark, or the rats will eat your boots.'
Still clinging to her bundle Ciri moved briskly towards the light. The rats bolted out from beneath her feet with a squeak. Eskel leaned over, took the package from her and pulled back her hood.
'A plague on it,' he muttered. 'A girl. That's all we need.'
She glanced at him, frightened. Eskel was smiling. She saw that he was human after all, that he had an entirely human face, deformed by a long, ugly, semi-circular scar running from the corner of his mouth across the length of his cheek up to the ear.
'Since you're here, welcome to Kaer Morhen,' he said. 'What do they call you?'
'Ciri,' Geralt replied for her, silently emerging from the darkness. Eskel turned around. Suddenly, quickly, wordlessly, the witchers fell into each other's arms and wound their shoulders around each other tight and hard. For one brief moment.
'Wolf, you're alive.'
'I am.'
'All right.' Eskel took a torch from its bracket. 'Come on. I'm closing the inner gates to stop the heat escaping.'
They walked along the corridor. There were rats here, too; they flitted under the walls, squeaked from the dark abyss, from the branching passages, and skittered before the swaying circle of light thrown by the torch. Ciri walked quickly, trying to keep up with the men.
'Who's wintering here, Eskel? Apart from Vesemir?'
'Lambert and Coen.'
They descended a steep and slippery flight of stairs. A gleam was visible below them. Ciri heard voices, detected the smell of smoke.
The hall was enormous, and flooded with light from a huge hearth roaring with flames which were being sucked up into the heart of the chimney. The centre of the hall was taken up by an enormous, heavy table. At least ten people could sit around that table. There were three. Three humans. Three witchers, Ciri corrected herself. She saw nothing but their silhouettes against the fire in the hearth.
'Greetings, Wolf. We've been waiting for you.'
'Greetings, Vesemir. Greetings, lads. It's good to be home again.'
'Who have you brought us?'
Geralt was silent for a moment, then put his hand on Ciri's shoulder and lightly pushed her forward. She walked awkwardly, hesitantly, huddled up and hunched, her head lowered. I'm frightened, she thought. I'm very frightened. When Geralt found me, when he took me with him, I thought the fear wouldn't come back. I thought it had passed… And now, instead of being at home, I'm in this terrible, dark, ruined old castle full of rats and dreadful echoes… I'm standing in front of a red wall of fire again. I see sinister black figures, I see dreadful, menacing, glistening eyes staring at me-
'Who is this child, Wolf? Who is this girl?'
'She's my…' Geralt suddenly stammered. She felt his strong, hard hands on her shoulders. And suddenly the fear disappeared, vanished without a trace. The roaring red fire gave out warmth. Only warmth. The black silhouettes were the silhouettes of friends. Carers. Their glistening eyes expressed curiosity. Concern. And unease…
Geralt's hands clenched over her shoulders.
'She's our destiny.'
Verily, there is nothing so hideous as the monsters, so contrary to nature, known as witchers for they are the offspring of foul sorcery and devilry. They are rogues without virtue, conscience or scruple, true diabolic creations, fit only for killing. There is no place amidst honest men for such as they.
And Kaer Morhen, where these infamous beings nestle, where they perform their foul practices, must be wiped from the surface of this earth, and all trace of it strewn with salt and saltpetre.
Anonymous, Monstrum, or Description of the Witcher
Intolerance and superstition has always been the domain of the more stupid amongst the common folk and, I conjecture, will never be uprooted, for they are as eternal as stupidity itself. There, where mountains tower today, one day there will be seas; there where today seas surge, will one day be deserts. But stupidity will remain stupidity.
Nicodemus de Boot, Meditations on life, Happiness and Prosperity
CHAPTER TWO
Triss Merigold blew into her frozen hands, wriggled her fingers and murmured a magic formula. Her horse, a gelding, immediately reacted to the spell, snorting and turning its head, looking at the enchantress with eyes made watery by the cold and wind.
'You've got two options, old thing,' said Triss, pulling on her gloves. 'Either you get used to magic or I sell you to some peasants to pull a plough.'
The gelding pricked up its ears, snorted vapour through its nostrils and obediently started down the wooded mountainside. The magician leaned over in the saddle, avoiding being lashed by the frosty branches.
The magic worked quickly; she stopped feeling the sting of cold in her elbows and on her neck and the unpleasant sensation of cold which had made her hunch her shoulders and draw her head in disappeared. The spell, warming her, also muffled the hunger which had been eating at her for several hours. Triss cheered up, made herself comfortable in the saddle and, with greater attention than before, started to take stock of her surroundings.