CHAPTER 15
SwineherdBladud lay on the floor of the forest on a thick bed of dead leaves and stared up at the fretwork of sky he could see through the screen of living ones.
After Rheinid’s dramatic revelation the scene had turned really ugly. There was uproar in the hall largely orchestrated by Liel’s followers. Those loyal to Bladud claimed that a few sores did not make him ineligible for the throne. He did not hear who first mentioned the dread word ‘leprosy’ — but the instant it was said those around him drew back, looking at the man they had been cheering a short while before with total and unmistakable horror. Bladud looked around him and his whole world had changed because the centre of it, himself, was now perceived in a completely different way. From being seen as an honoured, ac
