northward, the blue sweep of the tallgrass prairie, a goodly land where few folk went because north of it again lay the bleak steppes where the warring Fanged Horse Folk roamed. Straight in front of me, but far to the eastward, no more than obsidian glints in the sunlight, the thunder cones. On their flanks somewhere might be a blackstone cave where red wolves had once denned.⦠Somewhat nearer, spread out like the rich mantle of some long-ago king, my homeland, the Red Hart Demesne. I studied its treegreen folds as if one of them might hide the god. I scanned the hills to southward where the Otter River began. Nowhere, no matter how far I looked, could I see anything that might lead me to Sakeema.
But for one thing, much closer at hand. Nearly straight below my feet, a deep mountain tarn, glinting like an eye of earth.
And I felt suddenly glad, eager, and pensive, all at once, for I knew the place where I was. Below me winked the pool of vision, the uncanny tarn where Kor and I had found our swords and formed our bond of blood brotherhood. He had looked up, and seen the strange pinnacles and spires on the mountainside above us, and he had said, âMen made that.â
I left the platform where princes out of the past had once stood. I walked down the stone steps, through the dim great hall and out the gaping entry feeling lightheaded, not so much from lack of food as because I had walked out of legend.
And at the entry I found Talu standing tied by her reins to a young spearpine, as if I were the king of the place and someone had brought her and left her there to wait for me.
Like a colt I shied, and I leaped away like a startled deer into the shelter of the nearest thicket. Who had brought Talu back to me? Who could it have been but some enemy? For a friend would have found me and spoken to me.
Cragsmen? But it was not like them to be so clever. Had they known where I was, they would have come bellowing in and smashed my head into the stones of the floor. At their very wittiest they would have laughed while I stared at my horse, then flattened me. But if not Cragsmen, then who? Ytan? I would have heard his laugh half a heartbeat before my heart stopped forever, pierced by his arrow.
Moving with a hunterâs silent skill, and with sweat of fear trickling down my all-too-naked ribs, I scouted around the great stone lodge in every direction upmountainâfor downmountain of that place lay sheer slopes and the barren country around the tarn, and no one could have gone that way without my seeing him. Ever wider half-circles I made, until I came within sight of the backs of the sullen Cragsmen guarding the place. Nothing had disturbed them.
Who had brought Talu to me? Though still puzzled, I lost my fear. An enemy would have killed me by now, or tried to. But if it were a friend, why had he or she not stayed to greet me?
The sun was standing at halfday when I started my search, and brushing the snowpeaks when I gave it up, put away thoughts of it, untied the horse and led her off by the reins, for the mountainâs ribs sloped down to the tarn too steeply for riding.
Despite whatever danger from Cragsmen, I would spend the night beside that pool of vision, I would see what it could tell me of my quest.
I let Talu drink at the tarn, then tethered her nearby for fear that Cragsmen might see her if she roamed and hunted snakes as was her wont. She would have to be as hungry as I, my Talu. I turned away from her peevish glance and went softly down to the verge of the tarn.
There I washed myself, silently, somberly, hoping it was not unseemly to cleanse myself in this place. I felt a need to be clean for those whom I hoped to petition.
I sat on the verge of the pool, waiting for nightfall, keeping a vigil, glad that I had not eaten that day. In former times it might have been necessary for me to sit and starve myself for several days, but so little had I eaten for so long that already the vigil weakness was
But for one thing, much closer at hand. Nearly straight below my feet, a deep mountain tarn, glinting like an eye of earth.
And I felt suddenly glad, eager, and pensive, all at once, for I knew the place where I was. Below me winked the pool of vision, the uncanny tarn where Kor and I had found our swords and formed our bond of blood brotherhood. He had looked up, and seen the strange pinnacles and spires on the mountainside above us, and he had said, âMen made that.â
I left the platform where princes out of the past had once stood. I walked down the stone steps, through the dim great hall and out the gaping entry feeling lightheaded, not so much from lack of food as because I had walked out of legend.
And at the entry I found Talu standing tied by her reins to a young spearpine, as if I were the king of the place and someone had brought her and left her there to wait for me.
Like a colt I shied, and I leaped away like a startled deer into the shelter of the nearest thicket. Who had brought Talu back to me? Who could it have been but some enemy? For a friend would have found me and spoken to me.
Cragsmen? But it was not like them to be so clever. Had they known where I was, they would have come bellowing in and smashed my head into the stones of the floor. At their very wittiest they would have laughed while I stared at my horse, then flattened me. But if not Cragsmen, then who? Ytan? I would have heard his laugh half a heartbeat before my heart stopped forever, pierced by his arrow.
Moving with a hunterâs silent skill, and with sweat of fear trickling down my all-too-naked ribs, I scouted around the great stone lodge in every direction upmountainâfor downmountain of that place lay sheer slopes and the barren country around the tarn, and no one could have gone that way without my seeing him. Ever wider half-circles I made, until I came within sight of the backs of the sullen Cragsmen guarding the place. Nothing had disturbed them.
Who had brought Talu to me? Though still puzzled, I lost my fear. An enemy would have killed me by now, or tried to. But if it were a friend, why had he or she not stayed to greet me?
The sun was standing at halfday when I started my search, and brushing the snowpeaks when I gave it up, put away thoughts of it, untied the horse and led her off by the reins, for the mountainâs ribs sloped down to the tarn too steeply for riding.
Despite whatever danger from Cragsmen, I would spend the night beside that pool of vision, I would see what it could tell me of my quest.
I let Talu drink at the tarn, then tethered her nearby for fear that Cragsmen might see her if she roamed and hunted snakes as was her wont. She would have to be as hungry as I, my Talu. I turned away from her peevish glance and went softly down to the verge of the tarn.
There I washed myself, silently, somberly, hoping it was not unseemly to cleanse myself in this place. I felt a need to be clean for those whom I hoped to petition.
I sat on the verge of the pool, waiting for nightfall, keeping a vigil, glad that I had not eaten that day. In former times it might have been necessary for me to sit and starve myself for several days, but so little had I eaten for so long that already the vigil weakness was
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