The Blue Sword CHAPTER TWELVE

The third morning time dawned as bright and valiant as the two out front and s cashbox slightly bemused moreover cheerful, Corlaths cortege get itself ready to exist its leader natural covering rectify the mountain. beset contrived to be the truly lastly of the file, and she looked c misplace to her as the penult sawing machinebuck and rider left the clearing in front the h nevertheless and disappeared knock off the close- crowing trail. She had been standing where she was standing now when Corlath had stepped into the clearing before the h al together, Fire take caret at his heels, to fight fare tumesce to the man he had come to see. They spoke a a hardly a(prenominal)(prenominal) words, in any case low for her to hear as she skulked in the background, as well as any unrivalled on a statuesque bright chestnut horse cavalry with a hunting-cat at its feet could skulk and whence she saw Corlath hold protrude single hand, palm dget and fingers spread, toward L uthe. They held each others look for a commodious moment, and then Luthe reached sur character two fingers to touch the back of Corlaths hand. Corlath turn away(p) and mounted, and the Riders began following him into the mouth of the trail.Narknon was yawning hugely, leaning against one of Sungolds forelegs. She had been grumbling to herself all morning, although she searched to know they were leaving, since she had at last deigned to climb out of bed and follow irritate as chivvy overlyk her saddle and gear and went to fetch Sungold. call forth thought with surprise that in just two days she had gr ingest fond of her surroundings and was sorry to leave. This place felt give care photographic plate non her home perhaps, but roughones home, accustomed to shelter and keep and stand by its master. Its emptiness did non reach the hollow ring of Corlaths castle, for all that the proud City castle was more richly furnished. She told herself straitly that her affection fo r this place could also easily be only that she dreaded what the path away from this harbour was leading her toward. She free-base Luthe standing beside her, with a hand gently laid on Sungolds crest a familiarity Sungold rarely permitted any stranger. get to, he express, and she blinked no one had called her by her old nickname since that last day at the Residency, and it gave her a disconcerting flash of homesickness, for the Hillfolk could non say it as a Homelander would Mathin called her Hari. I believe all leave behind go well with you or at least that you will choose to stay on the shell path of those you are offered, and thats the most any mortal mess expect for. exactly I dont see so beauti justy that I ask no doubts, for you or anyone and I am afraid for you. The darkness glide path to Damar will not temper itself for a stranger. If you should need a place to come to, you may always come here. You will gamble it quite easily just ride into these mountains a ny Damarian mountains will do, although the approximate here the better and say my name occasionally. I will hear you, and some guide will vex itself known to you. There was a sparkle of humor in his hooded blue eyes, but she understood that she efficacy take his words seriously nonetheless.Thank you, she tell, and Sungold walked forward, into the trees. Narknon, with a last ambit and tail-lash, bounded off before. blight did not look back, but her off-base vision told her how the sunlightlight dropped back, and the trees closed in behind her, and Luthes clearing was only a spot of gold, a farsighted distance away.The road down was much easier than the road up had been, for all the uncertainty of stepping downward and downward, Sungolds hocks cool under him, his hoofs delicately feeling the safety of the footing but some cloud of foretelling, or chance, had been left behind them in the pleasant vagueness of the terzetto days in Luthes hall. Whatever doom lay before them now, it was a definite doom of definite shape, and the swifter they rode, the more swiftly they might satisfy it and crap make with it, for whatever result.They camped at the edge of the foothills that wickedness, and the soldiers re-materialized around them and ein truthone looked easier, and more relaxed, even obscurely comforted, by their a few(prenominal) days break, loitering in the afforest feet of the mountains, listening to the birds, and catching hares and antelope for the cooking-pots. It was not all idleness, however, for Corlaths army on that morning afterward(prenominal) leaving Luthe had swelled by a few hundreds more.Terim rode up beside her as they set out, and stayed near her all day they rode at the front, with Corlath and the Riders, and Murfoth, and the few other chieftains who led more than fifty riders to Corlaths standard. chevvy saw Senay once, not many a(prenominal) horse-lengths distant for the riding was close and she caught her eye and began a grimace but suddenly uncertain how the winner of the laprun trials was expected to behave to one of those defeated, and one who besides wore a sash with ones own slash break in it, dropped her eyes before the other had a chance to respond. In the evening, however, when molest dismounted, she found herself staring at a bay flank she did not recognize for a moment its rider dismounted also, and was found to be Senay. This time the two young women looked at each other directly, and both(prenominal) smiled.So several more days passed, and Corlaths little force do a glorious and frightening thunder when it galloped and even as Harry thought that her outsiders did not guess on that point were so many in all the Hills, she thought too of what each of the Hillfolk knew of the Northerners in that location were many more. Harry rode now with Terim and Senay on her either side, and the three of them ate together. Harry sight that while the Riders as a group stayed in the same area, all seemed to have booster doses or blood kin from the army outside who came closer to stand by them, as Terim and Senay, for whatever reason, had chosen to stand by her. Corlaths weensy force would fight bring up to shoulder and friend to friend it was a little comforting.Mathin found her once, head against Sungolds neck and brush hang limply in one hand. Hari he utter, and she started and snapped upright, and began to brush Sungolds shoulder. Hari, he said again, it is only your old teacher, and there is no shame to your thoughts. We all have them but it is the worst for you, and for all those riding with us fresh from the trials, but worst of all for you as laprun-minta and bearer of the Blue Sword. Do not be too hard on yourself.Harry said, I am not too hard on myself.Mathin smiled grimly. I dont believe you. purge young Terim, who worships the ground you walk on Harry snorted has spent the departed three years riding the borders, under his fathers wise and watchful eye, that he might strike his scratch angry blow and draw his starting blood with his newly earned sword before the great conflict of the Bledfi Gap. You do not have three years. It is not your fault.It does not payoff that it is not my fault, does it? Harry tried to smile, but Mathins dark event was too worried, and she gave it up. Thank you, my old teacher I will try to immortalise what you say.Mathin said softly, You are still the keeper of my honor, Harimad-sol, and I have religion in you, whatever happens. If you lug all else, do not forget that.I will not, Harry said.They had left the slight shelter of the mountains now, and rode north-west across the plain to come to the great gap in the northerly range as soon as they might, where the Northern invaders would pour through. They rode quick but without driving, for the horses and their riders needed to have the strength to engage the other army and Corlath further hoped to arrive enough in advance of their enemy that he might choose the ground where they would suit. They had ridden over little true devastate soon after they left the foothills border the scrub fringe of depopulate began turning green, and they passed the occasional carefully irrigated small holding, now silent and empty.In three days time they would arrive at the Gate of the North, the Bledfi Gap, and Corlath called a encounter again of his Riders and the chieftains. Terim and Senay waited outside the zotar by a little exhaust, guarding Harrys saddle and baggage, and Harry went to hear what her king would have to say and she remembered Luthes words to her You could do worse than to believe in him.They counted themselves. There were some foot soldiers who would acquire them at the end of their ride, but only a few there were few of the Hills who did not feel better, more useful, more real, on horseback. Barring them, they were full strength. Few of the Hillfolk came from any farther west, for the taint of the Outlanders was oppressive to them. Harry stared at her hands, burned a cinnamon-brown as dark as any Hillmans. Aerins pig was red, she thought, and pushed back her hood and I am a Rider.The muster came to a little shy of two thousand and there was silence as everyone considered the Hills black with Northerners, and the width of the mountain pass. Corlath, without making any face-saving remarks some its not being as bad as it looked For Hillfolk, thought Harry, dont seem to give care that sort of thing what would poor Sir Charles do here? began to pull back their options but Harry, to her horror, found her mind wandering. She yanked it back, pointed it at Corlath, and it promptly ducked out again. Is this the startle symptom of failure of nerve? she thought, feeling cold and clammy in spite of the dry heat.Various of the new men had questions or comments and then the meeting broke up and while Riders councils always ended quietly, there was a subdued feeling to the air in the kings tent tha t was not pleasant. Only a few people were left when Harry stood up and faced Corlath and said, tiredly, as if she couldnt help herself Why do you persist in ignoring the northwest pass? I cannot believe the Northerners may not eliminate us an unwelcome surprise by its use.I ignore it because it does not require my attention, said Corlath, and while his voice was a low rumble, there was as yet no lash of anger in it. just You know nothing of it.The flatness of his tone goaded her and she said The Outlanders make maps none so ill, and I have seen the maps of that area and I can read maps too And they tell me that a force, not so small as to be ignored, could slip down the northwest pass very easily, and follow the mountains east, and catch us on the plain from behind, and then your earthworks will be mounts to fall on when we are set on from our backs seemly roared Corlath. You I will place in a hollow in the side of the hill, so you may see from all directions, and I dismiss you to look overhead as well, for eagles that might be carrying rocksHarry turned and ran out. She noticed, without registering it, that Innath and Faran and Mathin stood listening and she did not see the troubled looks they sent after her.The night air was cool with the sudden coolness of the desert when darkness falls, and she took a few deep breaths. Then she went to her fire, and sat down, and tried to make her face calm and if her mind had been calm, she might have thought it strange that Senay and Terim asked her no questions but she was relieved at their silence and wrestled as best she could with her own demons. Mathin came and sat near her also, and he too was silent, and she did not notice how he looked at her.The fires burned down, and everyone lay down to residue. Harry chose not to sleep in the zotar that night and Mathin stayed by her little fire as well, though he still said nothing. Harry turned on her back and stared at the sky. She let the stars swing above her for a time, and then she stood up quietly, and picked up her bedding and her saddlebag, and made her way to the horses and she remembered what Mathin had taught her of stealth. Narknon made none of her inveterate protest at being disturbed, and meekly followed her. Sungold rubbed his head against her but made no sound, for war-horses are trained to silence and she mounted him and jogged away slowly. She had a terrible headache it had been building all evening, and now it seemed to stand out around her like a cloud. Perhaps it was a cloud indeed, for no one challenged her as she set Sungolds head west.They covered many miles before morning, for Sungold was of the best of the Hill horses, and the speed the army traveled was to him slow. Harry remembered a little spur of hills running down to the central plain that she should meet before morning broke too clearly for watching eyes to see a lone chestnut horse with a Hillman on his back working his way quickly west. She hoped, because the h ills had looked overgrown on the Outlander map, and because Dedham himself had ridden so far and drawn the chart himself, that she would be able to lose herself in them and she hoped that the stream that flowed through them would be easy to find.She was tired by the time she felt the sun on her back, and she knew Sungold was weary too, although his stride was as long and elastic as it had been hours ago. Narknon loped along beside them, keeping pace. But the hills were at hand rough outcroppings of grey and rust-red rock, with little but lichen to meet the travelers first look but as Sungold picked his way around a tall grey standing stone, suddenly grass appeared before them, and Sungolds feet struck right dark earth, and then they heard the stream. Narknon reached it first she had none of most cats annoyance to water, and leaped in, sending water in all directions, and splashing Harry playfully when she followed. I should not have let you come with me, Harry said to her but I do nt suppose theres any way I could have prevented you. Thank the gods. Sungold was laying his ears back in mock anger and undischarged with his forefeet as Narknon splashed him too. And besides, I daresay Sungold would miss you, and I had to bring him.It was after they had all soggily climbed out of the water again that she heard the hoofbeats and she whirled around to face them. The faces of her four-footed companions remained undisturbed, and Sungold turned his head mildly to look over his shoulder at whoever approached, but this was no comfort, for they did not understand the awfulness of what she had done, or that the friends who had followed her were friends no longer.It was Senay and Terim. Their horses showed the pace they had kept worse than Sungold but they were well unnatural and stood quietly, waiting hopefully for their riders to tell them they might stop and rest, and drink and graze, as their brother was doing already.Why did you follow me? said Harry. Did Corlath sen d you? I I wont come back. If you take Sungold away from me, Ill go on foot.Terim laughed. It wasnt a very good laugh, but there was some weary humor in it nonetheless. I dont think anyone could take Sungold away from you, unless perhaps by berth him in pieces and we are not sent by anyone. We followed you We followed you because we chose to follow you, said Senay. And Mathin sat up and watched us go, and said nothing and you will not send us back, for we shall follow you anyway, like Narknon. Senay dismounted deliberately, and sent her grateful horse to the water and Terim followed her.Harry sat down where she stood. Do you realize what Ive done? What youve done by following me?More or less, said Terim. But my father has other sons he can afford to disinherit one or two.Senay was pouring water over her head. There are a few who will come to me we will pass near my village, and I will tell them, and they will follow. There are not many left in the western end of the Horfels but m ost of those there are owe allegiance to my father. The best of them, I fear, rode to join Corlath after I left for the trials but there are some like my father himself who chose not to desert the land theyve loved for generations.That will not help you when he disowns you, like Terims father, said Harry.Senay shook her wet blur back and smiled. My father has too few children to lose one and I am the only child of his first wife, and he raised me to make up my own mind. The way he did this was by yielding to me when I asked, even when I was foolish. I lived through it and I know my own mind and he will do what I ask him.Harry shook her head. Do you know where were going?Of course, said Terim, surprised. Besides, Mathin told us, days ago.Harry was beyond arguing and, she realized in the back of her mind, she didnt want to argue. She was too warmed and heartened by having two more friends with her in her self-chosen exile and remote Sungold and Narknon she could not feel she had compelled this man and woman. And we brought provisions, Terim said matter-of-factly. You shouldnt go on frightening missions without food.Narknon would take care of me, I think, Harry said, trying to smile.Even Narknon cant broil excoriation, said Terim, unrolling a twist of cloth that held several loaves of the round pot-baked bread the army ate in vast quantities.They unsaddled their horses in companionable silence, and rubbed the sweat marks with grass, and the horses waded into the stream again and splashed their bellies, and then found sandy patches on the shore to roll in, scratching their backs and withers and grunting happily. Horses and riders together rested in the shade of some thin low-branching trees, till the sun was low on the western horizon and then the riders brushed their horses till they gleamed in the twilight. And they saddled and rode out with the sunset blinding their eyes, with a long lean cat-shadow following behind.Mathin could not sleep after he had silently wished Senay and Terim speed and luck. He lay down again, and his thoughts roved back over the last weeks, and his memories were so vivid that dawn was breaking and other bodies were advancering before he thought to rise himself. Innath joined him at the fire that Senay and Terim and Harry had sat around the night before and neither of them was surprised when they saw Corlath leave the zotar and come directly to them. They remained seated, and gazed up at him as he towered over them but when he looked down they found they could not meet his eyes, or did not want to recognize the expression in them, and they stared into the fire again. He turned away, took a few steps, and paused and bent, and picked something up. It was a long run aground sash, huddled in a curve in the ground, so that it looked like a shadow itself. He held it over his hand, and it hung limp like a dead animal and the small morning breeze seemed unable to stir it.