Dragon's Winter (42 page)

He had hidden his pony near the stream, among the birches. The spindly trees shifted and trembled, but the pony, a placid beast, never moved. The grass beneath the birches was green and thick, delicious if you were a pony. He had eaten grass once, just to see what it tasted like. It had made him sick. The pony was grey and white, mostly white; he had named her Bella, after the white flowers that opened in early spring and looked like upside-down bells.

A cold friendly nose poked into his ear. “Morga!” He rolled on his side. Morga licked him happily. He hugged her.

“Lie down,” he whispered, patting the dirt. She lay down immediately. She was the biggest dog he had ever seen, much bigger than Turtle, bigger even than Savage, the great bull-headed, scar-faced leader of the Dragon Keep hounds. Her lean body was solid with muscle.

He butted his head companionably against her furred flank. “Big dog,” he said softly, “you big old dog.” He dug into his shirt and brought out the strip of meat. Her tail thumped.

“Don’t grab,” he admonished her sternly. Morga took the meat from his fingertips with terrible delicacy. Her immense, triangular teeth were sharp as swords.

He rolled on his back, and stared at the cerulean sky. No one—except Morga—knew he was here. That had taken some cunning. Turtle? usually his constant companion, was tussling with his brothers in the dog pen, under the watchful gaze of Luga the dog-boy. Kiala thought he had gone with Devin to play in the buttery. Devin thought he was in the stable. Rogys, who had helped him saddle the pony, thought he had gone for a sedate, permitted trot to the training ground. Devin would not tell; even though he was eight, and Shem nearly six, they were the same weight, and the last time they had wrestled, Shem had won. Kiala would not tell; she liked it when he was gone; it meant she had less to do. Rogys
would
tell, if he went to the training ground, and Shem was not there.
Listen, cub,
Rogys had said,
ride carefully! If you’re hurt, Herugin’ll skin me.
Shem had promised to be careful. He meant to keep that promise; he did not want Herugin to skin Rogys. He was nervous of Herugin, who was extremely strict, and more than a little frightening to look at, with that long red scar on his face. Shem had once asked him where it came from. Herugin had told him that a bad man had put it there, and that he, Herugin, would someday find that man and kill him.

Hawk had told him that there had been a terrible fire on this hill, many years ago. He had been a baby, then, too small even for a pony. He was older now, old enough, surely, to ride alone, even this far from the Keep. It
was
quite far; he knew that. But he was a good rider. And nothing could happen to him here. This was Dragon’s country, all of it, from the tall dark mountains where the condors lived, to places that were farther than he could ride even if he rode all day.

He rolled on his stomach, and peered down at the little stone house in the holly thicket. When first he had seen it, riding behind Hawk on her horse’s back, it had seemed familiar, as if he had seen it before. He thought he must have dreamed it. When a tall, slender woman with long brown hair came from the cottage, she had looked familiar too.

He had said to Hawk,
She was in my dream
.

Hawk had said,
What dream was that, cub?

But he had not been able to answer her. And then it seemed to him that he was wrong, and that he did not know the brown-haired woman. A strange sadness had come over him. It made his face all prickly and hot. From that moment, the little house seemed to him to hold a mystery. Thrice now he had come here, alone, and stretched himself in the tall brown grass, and watched, unnoticed by any but the ebullient finches and the big black dog.

Then he heard the drumming.

He thought at first it was the bees, roused to rage by something invisible. Then he felt it, through his skin. He laid his ear to the ground. It was horses: no, not horses—one horse. Morga had heard it too; her body quivered; her lean head lifted, ears turning to track the sound.

He craned his head around to watch the ridge top. He saw the shadow, and then the big black horse came over the ridge. He knew that horse, and the fair-haired, dark-clad man who rode it. Swiftly he crunched himself small, and thrust himself deep under the lip of the boulder, where the shadow was deepest. Morga barked, a high flat yelp of welcome. She dashed up the slope, ears pricked, head erect, tail waving like a flag.

Shem held his breath. Bella knew the black horse, too. Bella might whinny. If Bella whinnied, she would be discovered, and so would he... If he was found, Kiala would be beaten, and Herugin might indeed skin Rogys. And Dragon, the fair-haired man, the most important person in all the world, would be angry with him, for riding so far alone, for pretending to be where he was not, and most of all for doing what he knew would mean that others would be punished... He felt cold.
Don’t let it happen,
he whispered silently to the friendly bees.

The fair-haired man brought the horse to the trough to drink. Morga sidled up to him, and he gentled her ears, and scratched her under the chin the way she loved. Bella did not whinny. Shem breathed again.

The cottage door opened. The brown-haired woman came out. She was wearing blue. She called Morga. The wolfhound trotted to her instantly. The woman petted her and told her something which made the dog’s ears flatten and her tail sag in disappointment. Then she went and lay down beside the door.

Dragon tied Smoke’s reins to the gatepost. He did not hurry.

The woman waited, her face still and bright and warm as sunlight.

Taken by that stillness, the boy beside the rock watched as the man walked down the path. The woman held her hand out. Their fingers laced together. They passed beneath the holly that grew over the door, and, silent as the figures in a long-forgotten dream, entered the little house.
 

Table of Contents

Epigraph 

Prologue 

PART ONE 

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

PART TWO 

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

PART THREE 

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

PART FOUR 

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

PART FIVE 

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Epilogue