Read Online A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay - Free Book Online Page B

and Vanne’s body was lying in it.
    Beside Blaise, Maffour swore violently and made his way swiftly down the rope. He sprang over the boulders and into the skiff, bending quickly over the man lying there.
    He looked up. ‘He’s all right. Breathing. Unconscious. I can’t see any sign of a blow.’ There was wonder and the first edge of real apprehension in his voice.
    Blaise straightened, looking around the plateau for a sign of Luth. The other corans stood in a tight cluster together, facing outwards. They had drawn their swords. There was no sound to be heard; even the forest seemed to have gone silent, Blaise realized, with a tingling sensation along his skin.
    He made his decision.
    ‘Hirnan, get him into the skiff. All of you go down there. I don’t know what’s happened but this is no place to linger. I’m going to take a fast look around, but if I can’t see anything we’ll have to go.’ He glanced quickly up at the moon, trying to judge the hour of night. ‘Get the skiff free and give me a few moments to look. If you hear me do a corfe cry start rowing hard and don’t wait. Otherwise, use your judgment.’
    Hirnan looked briefly as if he would protest but said nothing. With Evrard of Lussan slung over his shoulder like a sack of grain, he made his way to the rope and down. The other corans began following. Blaise didn’t wait to see them all descend. With the awareness of danger like a tangible presence within him, he drew his sword and stepped alone into the woods on the opposite side of the plateau from where they’d entered and returned.
    Almost immediately he picked up a scent. Not of hunting cat or bear, nor of fox or badger or boar. What he smelled was the drifting fragrance of perfume. It was strongest to the west, away from where they had gone.
    Blaise knelt to study the forest floor in the near-blackness. He wished Rudel were with him now, for a great many reasons, but in part because his friend was the best night tracker Blaise had ever known.
    One didn’t have to be expert, though, to realize that a company of people had passed here only a short time before, and that most if not all of them had been women. Blaise swore under his breath and stood up, peering into the darkness, uncertain of what to do. He hated like death to leave a man behind, but it was clear that a large number of priests and priestesses were somewhere ahead of him in the woods.
A few moments
, he had told Hirnan. Could he jeopardize the others in an attempt to find Luth?
    Blaise drew a deep breath, aware once again now of that pulsing in the forest floor. He knew he was afraid; only a complete fool would not be afraid now. Even so, there was a core truth at the root of all of this for Blaise of Gorhaut, a very simple one: one did not leave a companion behind without an attempt at finding him. Blaise stepped forward into the darkness, following the elusive scent of perfume in the night.
    ‘Commendable
,’ a voice said, immediately in front of him. Blaise gasped and levelled his blade, peering into blackness. ‘Commendable, but extremely unwise,’ the voice went on with calm authority. ‘Go back. You will not find your fellow. Only death awaits you past this point tonight.’
    There was a rustling of leaves and Blaise made out the tall, shadowy form of a woman in the space in front of him. There were trees on either side of her, as if framing a place to stand. It was very dark, much too black for him to see her face, but the note of assured command in her voice told its own grim story about what had happened to Luth. She hadn’t touched Blaise, though; no others had leaped forth to attack. And Vanne had been unharmed in the skiff.
    ‘I would be shamed in my own eyes if I left and did not try to bring him out,’ Blaise said, still trying to make out the features of the woman in front of him.
    He heard her laughter. ‘Shamed,’ she echoed, mockingly. ‘Do not be too much the fool, Northerner. Do you truly think you