Free Cloud Walker, All Fools' Day, Far Sunset by Edmund Cooper

direct.’
    ‘I am sorry, brother. I thought my answers were accurate and truthful. This accursed leg gives me pain. Perhaps I do not think too clearly.’
    ‘Perhaps so. I shall report our conversation to Holy Church, Kieron. Others, more competent than I, will consider it.’
    ‘That is well, Brother Sebastian,’ said Kieron, thinking it was far from well. ‘Perhaps my childish adventure was ill-timed.’
    ‘Kites are for children only, Kieron. Remember that. You are almost a man.’
    ‘I will remember it.’
    ‘Further, a kite is but a toy. But if a man should choose to ride a kite, it could be interpreted as a machine.’
    ‘I will remember that also.’
    ‘I shall pray for you,’ said Brother Sebastian. ‘You have a great future. Master Hobart tells me that you are gifted in your craft. Do not spoil that future, Kieron. Good painters are rare. Evil men are with us always.’
    ‘I will remember your words, Brother Sebastian, and I shall dwell upon your wisdom.’
    ‘Ludd be with you, my brother.’
    ‘And with you also.’
    ‘Farewell, then.’ Brother Sebastian departed. Hardly had he gone, when Alyx came into the room.
    ‘How went your discussion with Brother Sebastian?’
    ‘He is a fool.’
    ‘My love, I know that. But was he satisfied?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘You should know. Why don’t you know?’
    ‘Because I too am a fool,’ said Kieron irritably, ‘and my leg twitches …’ Then he smiled, and added: ‘And it is a fine day, and I would be out walking in the woods with you.’
    ‘This will teach you to try to walk upon air, when we have so little time.’ She shuddered. ‘You could have been killed. Promise me to be more careful, Kieron.’
    He glanced at his leg. ‘I can hardly be but careful, Alyx.’
    ‘Not now, dolt. In the future, as. you well know.’
    ‘I will be careful until you are carried off to Talbot’s bed,’ he promised rightly. ‘Then I will construct a kite that shall raise me high above your father’s castle. Then I will leap from it and dash myself to death before his eyes.’
    Alyx pouted. ‘I wish Talbot would die. I truly do. And I wish the plague or somesuch would carry off that dreadful Petrina, with her peasant breasts and a bottom like a cow’s rump. Ludd forgive me, I pray for these things.’
    ‘Petrina does not have a bottom like a cow’s rump.’
    ‘She does so. I have studied her.’
    He laughed. ‘Ah, you have studied her, Green Eyes.’
    ‘I hate you! I hate you.’
    ‘Come, let me sketch you while the fire still consumes you. I must earn my keep lest Seigneur Fitzalan and Master Hobart begin to imagine the absurdity that is the truth.’
    ‘Peasant!’ she stormed.
    ‘Yes, I am a peasant,’ he replied tranquilly. ‘Be mindful that the gulf between us is great – with or without Talbot and Petrina.’
    ‘I love you, and I would die for you. Is that not enough?’
    ‘It is too much. I love you, as you know, Alyx, and we must both live in a world where such love is an affront to the minds of men … Besides, I have a destiny to fulfil.’
    ‘I would not stop you painting.’
    ‘You would stop me flying.’
    She looked at him in amazement. ‘Flying! Kieron, my love. You are mad. Men do not fly. Men will not fly.’
    ‘Yes, I am mad – and I will fly. I will construct a machine that—’
    ‘Do not speak of machines! Or, if you must, to me only. Machines are evil. That is the word of the Divine Boy, that is the teaching of Holy Church, that is what all men know.’
    ‘And yet,’ said Kieron, ‘it is not true. Machines cannot be evil. Evil lies only with the human spirit … I will fly, I swear it. I will fly for the good of men. By the spirits of the Brothers Montgolfier, of Otto Lilienthal, of the great Santos Dumont, and of the Brothers Wright, I so swear.’
    ‘Who are these creatures?’
    ‘Nothing but ghosts. Great and friendly ghosts. Men who lived centuries ago upon earth and raised their eyes unto the stars … I