Apprentice: A Novel - Softcover

Libby, Lewis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312284535 ISBN 13: 9780312284534

Verlag: Thomas Dunne Books, 2002

Inhaltsangabe

A gripping novel of suspense set against the unique background of Japan's secluded snow country.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Lewis Libby is the current Chief-of-Staff and National Security Advisor to Vice President Cheney and Assistant to President Bush. He previously held positions at the U. S. Departments of State and Defense. The Apprentice, originally published by Graywolf in hardcover, is his first novel.

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The Apprentice

By Lewis Libby

St. Martin's Press

Copyright © 2001 Lewis Libby
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-312-28453-4

CHAPTER 1

On the edge of a ridge removed from the sea lay a small wooden inn half-buried in snow. Four hooded figures, grunting against the storm, struggled unbidden into its darkened entry. Snow swirled in around them, and the clouds of their breath were torn away.

The tallest of the four bore upon his back a wicker trunk, and this he lowered awkwardly until his upper body collapsed upon it. A hunched, dwarf-like figure dropped with a cry to the earthen floor beside the trunk and huddled shivering and bobbing its head. A short girl-child stumbled over the dwarf and sat heavily against a platform at the edge of the entry. The last of the four pulled jerkily at the wood slat door to shut out the storm.

A pale light approached from the recesses of the inn, and a broken female voice, deadened by the wind and the wooden walls, called out to the entry. Soon a middle-aged maid appeared, holding an oil lamp before her. She shuffled hurriedly to the very edge of the wooden platform and, although barely an arm's length away, thrust the light out into the air.

Shouting above the storm, the woman asked the four wayfarers if they had passed through a village with the pox. She bent her body forward and peered from face to face to read their answers. The lamp, shaking in her hand, cast a yellow globe of light that caught the snow settling in the air and lit the near side of the wayfarers. Their shadows moved against the walls.

The tall man slumped over the trunk said they had been to no place with the pox, nor was there disease among them. Then he straightened and called upon the woman to vouch the same and breathed upon his hands as if to warm them.

Raising the lamp to the side to see better, the middle-aged woman named several villages in particular, and the tall man shook his head at each and swore they had avoided them all and others farther south where the pox was found. With the movement of the light, the shadows rushed across his face so that his features, like liquid, seemed for an instant to rise and fall.

To the side of the entryway stood a steep, unlit set of stairs. Crouching in the dark at the top, a youthful apprentice to the inn looked down at the wayfarers and tried to judge their answers true or false. He looked at the man and the huddled dwarf and at the tiny girl-child slumped on the platform, and in the moment that he looked at the last of the four, the outer door closed against the storm and a girl turned back into the room.

The girl wore a matted fur cloak the color of a yellow dog. She tilted back her head and shook off the snow-covered hood, and the lamplight caught the bottom of her nose and parts of her eyes and the bridge of her forehead. She put the backs of her hands to her cheeks.

It occurred to the youth in the dark at the top of the staircase that none of them knew he was there.

The wayfarers turned their heads suddenly and looked toward the outer door, and the youth saw that it shook violently from a gust of the storm. Snow blew in through cracks in the wall and around the edges of the door and snow on the floor whipped up around the wayfarers' legs. They looked toward their shadows on the door and far wall long after the gust had passed.

The middle-aged maid had set the lamp down on the steps, and the girl who wore the cloak of yellow fur now moved closely over it. She wiped at her nose and held her hands near the flame, and the lamp lit the front of her body.

Then the girl reached into her mountain trousers and tugged at her clothing. The young apprentice could see the movements of her hand inside her pants.

Creeping silently to the very edge of the stairs, the youth crouched slowly down to get a better look. His mouth, inches from the floor, hung slightly open.

* * *

The apprentice entered the main room of the inn. Across from him a dozen wayfarers sat close upon one another, pressed around a firepit sunken into the floor. Not a word was passed among them. They hunched their shoulders and held their arms around themselves and bore all manner of clothing. They wore odd patches and patterns all but blackened, and some wore tattered leggings and some frayed mufflers or strips of wadded cotton wrapped around their heads, and one wore backward a European hat. The small fire before them filled the room with an acrid smell and cast a yellow-orange light on those huddled closest to it and on the faces of a few just beyond. Occasionally the light would catch the clouds of their breath in the cold.

The far corners of the room were in darkness except for one lamp and the glow of a few smokers' pipes. From one side came the indistinct sounds of men talking in low voices. Despite the cold, there was the smell of sweat and wet clothing.

As the apprentice drew closer to the firepit, he had difficulty stepping around those who lay in the shadows or sat huddled and rocking for warmth. He could see the tops of some faces and even the wetness of some men's eyes as they caught wisps of firelight. Struggling with his balance, he had to look down repeatedly into the darkness at his feet, and the obscure movements there gave him the sense that the floor itself was shifting.

The apprentice could not see if the girl who had worn the cloak of yellow fur was in the room. He glanced about quickly, for he knew those on the far side of the fire could see his eyes.

"You," an old man's voice said from the darkness near the apprentice's knee.

The apprentice could not make out the face of the man who had spoken only inches away. He tried to lean to the side so that the dim fireglow might catch the man's face; but each time he moved, the man, who seemed to misunderstand, moved with him.

"He wants to know when the snow will stop," a female voice to the side said, and then with a biting tone to the old man, "He doesn't know."

A narrow-faced man by the firepit had taken up a piece of wood and sat beating the end impatiently against the coals. He called to the apprentice, "How long before a new path is beaten north?"

"If the snow falls all night?" The youth tilted his head to the side. "Nearly a day to dig out," he said. "Probably another before there's a new path north."

There was a silence as the wayfarers listened to the storm strike against the sides of the inn. Some looked up into the darkness of the rafters. In scattered places the white of hoarfrost could be faintly seen clinging to the beams.

A spasm of coughing seized a form curled up on the floor beneath a thin blanket. Around this form like an island lay the only patch of empty floor. The cougher's head was turned downward into a wad of cloth to stifle the sound. A tattered blanket shifted as the cougher's legs convulsed.

At a sound the youth turned toward the blackness of the entryway. He hoped to see there the girl who had worn the cloak of yellow fur, but it was only the middle-aged maid Matsuko with her thick hips. She entered the room with a pile of worn cushions.

The youth looked into the emptiness after her, where the light of the fire did not reach. He did so, although he knew in truth there was no reason for the girl to be coming from the entry.

Even so, he liked the sudden feeling that came upon him at the thought that he might see her.

Some of the wayfarers began to grab at the cushions. The extra cushions would be from the storage room, the youth realized. He should have thought of getting them.

In the darkness beyond the firepit sat men who were headed north to tap the...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Thomas Dunne Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2002
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0312284535
• ISBN 13: 9780312284534
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 248
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland