Read Online The Exile by Steven Savile - Free Book Online Page B

but they won't come down again, because of their weight and how they might fall.
    Piaras himself was the butt of another joke less than a week later, when he woke to find that his entire herd had been dyed blue with woad.
     
    Breaking into Grudnew's roundhouse was Dian's revenge for the trouble the others had gotten him into with Cathbad.
    "Fair's fair," he said, grinning as he held up a sprig of poison oak. "In and out. All you have to do is rub the poison oak inside the king's loincloth and he'll be scratching like a pox-ridden doxie for weeks. So, who's game? Cullen?"
    Wide Mouth shook his head. "Uh hunh, no bleedin' way. I may be ugly but I'm not stupid."
    "Ugly and a coward," Sláine said. "Give me the poison oak. I'll be back before sundown."
    "You're mad!" Núada said, more than a hint of envy in his voice. There was an edge of recklessness about Sláine that the others admired even though, more often than not, it was that recklessness that landed him in the most trouble.
    He wrapped the poison oak up in a small oilskin and stuffed it inside breeches, careful that none of the flowers were loose. The last thing he wanted was to be itching for a week.
    The trick was to make it look as if he belonged there. If he acted suspiciously Grudnew's guards would become suspicious. He walked along the banks of the River Dôn looking for a good place to ford it. There was only one place that was safe to cross. That was where he had crossed the river in the first place. His plan had been to swim to the far side, skirt along the treeline and come into Grudnew's roundhouse from the back, out of sight of the guards. It was a simple enough plan but simple or not he had already found one rather considerable flaw in its logic.
    The River Dôn was fast flowing and deep enough to be difficult to negotiate, even for a strong swimmer. And it wasn't just a river - it was an entire landscape of stagnant pools, shingle and rocks waiting to break the flesh of those stupid enough to try and cross, pebbles that massed to from beaches, and sand that banked up against the meanders. The Dôn itself snaked down through the dark heart of this water world, a white water rush.
    The only good fording place was too far away to allow him to sneak up unseen by Grudnew's guards and on this side of the river he had no cover. So he had no choice, he would have to risk the deep water and that required precautions if he didn't want to be swept away and broken on those angry rocks that jutted out of the Dôn like the teeth of some vast sea monster.
    Sláine moved deeper into the trees, out of sight of prying eyes while he foraged for things that might somehow help him cross to the other side. For the first few hundred paces he moved along parallel to the water's edge but he couldn't find what he was looking for so he was forced to move deeper into the woods, away from the trail. Branches hung down low, snagging at his clothes and hair as he pushed through them. He pushed on. The white water rush of the river faded as he moved further into the forest. Then he found it: a huge tree trunk smothered in moss and wrapped in thick creepers.
    He silently thanked Danu and unravelled the thick vine from where it clung to the tree trunk. He coiled it up, slung it over his shoulder and headed back towards the water.
    It took him another ten minutes to find a boulder big enough to anchor him without weighing him down as he battled the current of the Dôn. He made a cradle out of the vine and fastened it around the boulder, tying the loose end around his waist.
    The shallows along the riverbank were low enough for him to splash along in without risking being caught unawares and swept away. It widened as he followed its curve, but the curve itself served to slow the current. He found the perfect spot, masked by the far bank and the roundhouse itself, and plunged away from the shingle into the swirling water. The shock of cold was fierce. He gritted his teeth and sank lower, until