The Anatomist's Dream (40 page)

Bathe in the streams
flowing through the ravines
.

For here is a man's
solitude and his strength
,

A time away from the ever
rolling waves
.

‘It's always been so,' said Brother Langer, ‘always so. And that is why I will never leave my island. For this is my time away from those waves.'

‘And what about you, Philbert?' Jaspis asked. ‘What are your plans?'

Philbert smiled and shook his head. ‘I honestly don't know. Maulwerf told me once to look around, to look ahead, but never, ever, to look back. But I don't seem able to let the past go – not completely. It all remains within me, within my head, and so I suppose I'll just travel onwards, gathering more.'

‘Well, if anyone has the head for it then it's you, my boy,' Langer laughed.

‘Agreed,' Philbert nodded. ‘And I wouldn't be without it, even if I had the chance.'

And that was precisely what Philbert did. He went back to The Anchorage and bade his goodbyes, first standing a while by the big glass window of Ullendorf's study, gazing out over the streets of Lengerrborn down below, at the roofs he'd once thought looked like a deck of thrown-down cards, and still did. The cats still gathered on the other side of the glass, including that same rat-chewed, stub-eared ginger tom flexing his claws, but his look no longer seemed malevolent to Philbert, rather that this cat was a mirror of himself – both were survivors, both ready for what the world was getting ready to throw at them next.

He was Philbert, the boy with the monstrous head, for whom great things had been foretold. Time to throw himself into the ever-rolling waves, take that foretelling with him and shake it by the throat until it screamed.

Acknowledgements

I'd like to thank my family and the RLF for their support when times were at their hardest; Tony Sumner and Michael Fraser for their valuable input, and Laura Longrigg – my agent at MBA. Most of all, my thanks are due to Ed Handyside at Myrmidon for taking a punt on this book. Or perhaps I should say coble – he'll know what I mean.