The Brothers Lionheart
”
chapter 6
“Tengil’s time will come one day,” Jonathan said. We were lying in the green grass down by the stream, and it was one of those mornings when you simply cannot believe that Tengil or any other evil in the world exists. It was perfectly still and peaceful, the water bubbling slightly around the stones under the bridge the only sounds you could hear. It was lovely, lying there on your back, seeing nothing at all either, except the little white clouds up in the sky. You could lie like that and feel happy and sing a little to yourself, not bothering about anything.
And then Jonathan started talking about Tengil! I didn’t want to remember him, but all the same I said:
“What do you mean by that? That Tengil’s time will come?”
“That what’ll happen to him happens to all tyrants sooner or later, said Jonathan. “That he’ll be crushed like a louse and will be gone forever.”
“I hope it’ll happen soon,” I said,
There was a little mumble from Jonathan.
“Though he’s strong, Tengil. And he’s got Katla!”
Again he had said that terrible name. I wanted to ask him about it but I didn’t. I t was just as well not to know anything about Katla on such a lovely morning.
But then Jonathan said something even worse than everything else.
“Rusky, you’re going to be alone at Knights Farm for a while. For I’ve got to go to Wild Rose Valley.”
How could he say anything so terrible? How could he think that I would stay at Knights Farm for a single minute without him? If he was thinking of hurling himself straight into Tengil’s jaws, then I was going to be with him and I told him so.
Then he looked at me very strangely and said:
“Rusky, I have only one brother, whom I wish to protect from all evil. How can you ask me to take you with me when I need all my strength for something else? Something that’s really dangerous.”
That didn’t help at all. I was sad and angry so that everything boiled inside me, and I cried out:
“And you, how can you ask that I stay alone at Knights Farm, waiting for you, when perhaps you’ll never come back?
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There was once a king who was very powerful. He had great influence over the wild beasts and animals. Now the tortoise was looked upon as the wisest of all beasts and men. This king had a son named Ekpenyon, to whom he gave fifty young girls as wives, but the prince did not like any of them. The king was very angry at this, and made a law that if any man had a daughter who was finer than the prince's wives, and who found favour in his son's eyes, the girl herself and her father and mother should be killed.
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