The Swans' War 1 - The One Kingdom (29 page)

And then she looked down. While the ledge was sloping up, the base of the cliff had been sloping down, so that suddenly she was very high up, and getting higher with each step. If she were to fall even now, it would likely mean her end.” River take me ..." she heard herself say. Morn's soft nose nudged her arm, and she looked up to see Alaan now far ahead. She went on, afraid to hurry, but just as afraid of being left behind. She kept her eyes fixed ahead, watching her footing, looking neither left nor right— nor down. Alaan slowed to wait for her.” Are you all right?" he called over Briss's head.” No, but I'm coming along, all the same. Keep moving. Let's be done with this." She glanced right and almost stumbled. The valley spread out below, the great trees diminutive from her eagle's view. If fear had not already done so, the view would have taken her breath away. Alaan had disappeared around a corner, and she pressed on, not quite sure how she went forward. A strange thought went through her mind: / would like to see one of my witless cousins do this! This heartened her, somehow, and she pressed forward. Around a corner she found Alaan and his gelding waiting among trees. The ledge had widened out to twenty feet, and here there was a little oasis of green in the vast desert of stone. He was untethering his bow and quiver from the saddle.” You'll have to take both horses on," he said.” Morn will follow if you lead Briss." "And what will you do?" Alaan sprung his bow and slipped the string into its notch. She didn't like the look on his face.” I'll teach Hafydd to be so foolish as to follow me along a narrow ledge." He handed her the reins of his horse.” Don't look so dismayed. When you fled you should have realized there would be consequences."Before she could protest, he stepped past her and set out along the ledge at a trot. For a moment Elise stood utterly still, watching him go. She looked around at the little island of safety in the hard world they traveled. The soft green of leaves and ferns made her want to cry suddenly. And then Briss perked up his ears and whickered. There were other horses near.

She pulled the reins over Morn's head and fastened them loosely to the saddle—she didn't want her mare tripping on her own tack—and led Briss on, leaving Morn to follow. She hesitated only a second before stepping back onto the narrow track, the world opening up to one side, cold stone to the other. The wind ghosted up the bluff, and a hawk broke the silence with a shrill, plaintive cry. The cliff was in shadow, but beyond, the world was green and russet brocade thrown down upon the sunlit hills. The horizon seemed impossibly distant, the far hills fading to hazy blue.

Briss pricked up his ears again, suddenly alert. Elise stopped to listen but heard only the wind licking dryly over stone.

The path turned up in broken steps and ramps, and she clambered over stone, trying to stay clear of Briss, who made small jumps at each rise. The wall curved slowly inward and Elise found herself in a narrow draw that went steeply up. The path, which she was sure only wild goats could have made, snaked among fallen stone, worn smooth by the wind and rain. A tiny brook, barely a trickle, tripped and tumbled down the draw in small falls and clear pools. She let the horses drink for a moment, hoping Alaan would appear on the path below.

The whole endeavor had taken an ugly turn suddenly. She wanted to escape this marriage and the ambitions of Men-wyn and the Prince of Innes, but she wouldn't have anyone die so that she might accomplish this. Part of her felt like a spoiled child, petulantly running from duties she did not care to face; and now this mad minstrel was killing men to aid her. A wind came up the draw, hissing in reproach. Prince Michael kept his shoulder against the coarse stone, not caring if he wore holes in his clothing or if he were the object of teasing on the morrow. He cast his eyes down a little now and then, catching just a glimpse of the valley far below. The horse before him knocked a stone free; and it spun through the air, taking longer than he would have thought possible to strike the scree below. The Prince took a deep breath, pressed his shoulder hard to the wall, and walked stiffly along. Ahead of him the column of men and horses made their halting way forward, few of the men more comfortable than he. The Prince could hardly believe that Lady Elise had gone willingly along this ledge. Perhaps she had been abducted. A horse screamed and reared up some ways ahead of him, and the horse right before him started back, hammering the Prince's shin with a hard hoof. For a second he was caught between his own horse and the one before, and then he squeezed back against the wall and let the two horses jostle each other. Another horse reared, and men began shouting. Then an arrow sparked off the wall three feet away. Arrows! Someone was shooting arrows at them. Horses lumbered into him, their weight crushing him against the wall. He kept moving his feet, trying to save them from being broken. A roiling sea of horses rose up before him like a sudden storm. One horse slipped, its forequarters going down, and another horse had turned and was knocked forward half over it. For a moment they scrambled like that. Michael struggled to get clear, pressing his back against the wall, jiggling his own mount's bit. And then both horses toppled and were gone. The Prince heard himself cursing over and over. And then something like calm returned, horses frightened but under control. He heard men moaning, injured by their own horses, he guessed, or shot with arrows. Near the head of the column Hafydd was giving orders, then they began to move forward again, the Prince wondering if an arrow would suddenly find him.

The ledge seemed to go on forever, hugging the undulating cliff face. Prince Michael thought the experience a perfect vision of death: suspended between the earth and the sky; gazing down onto sunlit hills that were always out of reach; nowhere to go but forward on this narrow, endless ledge.

And then he was among trees. He reached out to take hold of a thick branch, as though assuring himself that it was real. The Prince found his father, who stood gazing along the cliff, where to his horror Prince Michael saw that the ledge continued.

"Why are we stopping?" Prince Michael asked.

"We've sent men forward to cut down this archer."Prince Michael nodded. He didn't believe for a moment that they would succeed. Hafydd's whist would elude them. Only a fool would have taken to this ledge without knowing where it led: Hafydd's whist was no fool.

Prince Michael sat down upon a rock, twisting the reins of his horse around a nearby branch.

"Don't become too contented," his father said.” We'll go on in a moment.""Oh, I don't think so, Father," Prince Michael said.” This man we chase has made a fool of Hafydd before. I'll wager he'll do it again."His father did not answer but only cleared his throat. Prince Michael glanced left to find Hafydd staring coldly down on him. The Prince tried to smile, but mocking Hafydd to his face took more nerve than he could muster. The smile wavered and disappeared, and the Prince looked quickly away.

Elise forced herself to go up, the walls of the draw closing in as she went. What if Alaan did not appear below, but only Hafydd and men-at-arms? Would she run or give herself up? But where would she go? She had no plan of her own but followed Alaan blindly.” Bloody fool!" she cursed. She heard a sound and wheeled around, her heart stuttering against the wall of her chest. But it was Alaan, bounding over rocks as he ran. She was both relieved and frightened.” What did you do?" she demanded as he came up, gasping.” Sent them back... for a time," he panted. He bent over, plunged his hands into a pool, and threw water on his face. He looked up.” I don't know if I managed to shoot any men, but I certainly hit horses, which caused some chaos on the ledge." Elise raised a hand to her mouth.” Will they go back?" "Back? No. They'll send armed men with shields ahead on foot. They think they'll brave my arrows that way, but I have no intention of shooting more arrows." He took the reins of the horses and tethered them to low bushes, and led Elise fifty feet back down the draw. They stood atop a little rise of stone, staring out over the vast world. There was a mound of broken stone here, as though much of the rock that tumbled down the draw had collected against this outcropping. Alaan took up a rock twice the size of a man's head and balanced it at shoulder height.” Take up a stone," he said, "as large as you can lift. They will be along in a moment." Elise stared at him.” You don't expect me to—" "Take up a rock," he said, "or I will leave you here for Hafydd! And I'm not sure your uncle has come along to protect you." Two black-clad men appeared below, swords in hand, shields raised—and then a third and a fourth. They came sprinting up the draw, hollering when they saw Alaan.” Wait a moment-----Now!" Alaan sent his rock spinning down the draw, careening wildly off mounds and boulders. Elise waited and then sent her own rock, hardly tossing it. But even so it quickly gathered speed and went crashing and bouncing toward the men. Alaan grabbed up another stone and flung it down the slope, and another. Elise did the same, and the next time she looked the men were in retreat, running for their lives.

"Crouch down," Alaan ordered, pulling on her arm.” We don't want them to be able to see us. Let them wonder if we're still here or if we've gone on.""What will we do now? Are we trapped?" She looked desperately around.

"I would never lead us into a blind end. No, the path leads to the top from here, but I don't want these others following too quickly behind. They'll try to overrun us again—more of them this time—but we've the advantage here. I'm sure the two of us could keep them at bay the entire day. They might make their way up under cover of darkness, but we'll be gone before then. Here they are!"There were more men this time. Elise hadn't time to count. She hurled stone after stone down the slope, and Alaan worked in a fury. The men came farther up the draw this time, until several of them were hit by flying rocks, and then they retreated.

"That will do," Alaan said, taking her hand. He pulled her, running, up the twisting path. They took up the leads of their mounts and pressed on without a rest. Elise was out of breath in a moment, her shoulders weak from her efforts; but she drove herself on, stumbling, forcing one foot in front of the other.

A massive fissure in the rock appeared before them, ten times the height of a man, though narrow. Alaan led them in, slowing his pace. Inside, the walls were sculpted and curved strangely in and out. The passage would allow only one through at a time, and she followed behind, stepping carefully over the narrow watercourse that trickled and twisted along the floor.

"We have no torch," she said, as the light from the opening grew dim.” We won't need one," Alaan said, not looking back, his voice sounding deep and hollow against the stone. As the light faded from behind, a pale gray appeared before them. After a moment, the walls suddenly flared out, and they entered a chamber perhaps a hundred feet across but with a narrow slit open to the sky high overhead. Small trees and flowers grew among the rocks, and the stream pooled and fell and pooled again, as it found its course among the debris. Leaves and old dried branches littered the floor, and here and there graying logs lay at odd angles among the stones. Elise stopped, she was so surprised. As though they had found another world inside the world. Muted light angled down in rays so sharply defined that she thought she might reach out and feel their substance. Against the coarse gray walls, trees and ferns waved gently on a breeze from above, and water tinkled, echoing softly.” What an astonishing place," she whispered, barely able to take her eyes from the scene. But Alaan did not wait. He led them along one wall, finding his way surely among rocks and logs. At the chamber's far end the passage began again. Elise stopped to look back once.” Elise? You'll have to admire it in memory," Alaan said, and she turned away. They emerged onto the cliff top, into bright sun, and Elise blinked, wondering if what she had just seen could have been real. In every direction the world seemed to retreat from them, hills rising up like waves and stretching to a far horizon. Alaan was on Briss. He paused to take water from a drinking skin, handing it to Elise as she climbed awkwardly into her saddle.” We go along the ridge and then down. The way is easier now, but we'll have to make speed." She handed him the skin, and he wheeled away, setting his horse off at a fast walk along the bare cliff top. In half an hour they were traveling down, over a high meadow and then into trees. Elise was exhausted, hungry, and still frightened Her head had begun to ache, and she felt a growing resentment and anger toward Alaan. She had never meant for anyone to be harmed'.

Alaan, however, seemed unaware of how she felt. He guided them amoung the trees with barely a glance in her di-rection—and even then only to see that she had not fallen too far behind.

When finally he did stop, it was out of concern for the horses. He let them drink from a small creek, then browse on the grasses while he lifted each of their hooves in turn.

"They've come through that well enough," he pronounced. He seemed to have noticed Elise for the first time in several hours.” But what of you?" he asked.” Have you recovered from the heights?""I am bearing up," she said, not meeting his gaze, hating herself for acting so childishly.

"Let's make a small meal," he said, his voice warming a little.” By the evening we'll have left Hafydd and the others behind—or so I hope. A few more hours and we can rest." "But are they not close behind?""I don't think they'll chance that draw again until after dark." Alaan pointed up the hill.” And if they have braved it, I can see the cliff top from here. They'll not catch us unaware." The trees were thinner, the slope covered in grass and bright flowers. The sun shone brightly on this side of the cliff, and the place seemed cheerful and welcoming. She could hardly believe that they were being pursued by armed men. An image of them coming up the draw, swords raised, came to her. This running away had seemed such a lark, so romantic, in a way. But that had changed when they'd sent the rocks flying down the draw. She'd seen one man struck, and he lay still and lifeless afterward.

She turned her mind away, gazing at her sturdy little mare. Morn was game for this life, that was certain. She didn't complain.