Read Online The Hammer of the Sun by Michael Scott Rohan - Free Book Online Page B

explored upon previous voyages. The worst perils here were wild beasts, and an occasional nest of human outlaws many times more savage, ready to sally out and assail any small vessel in difficulties or separated from the body of the fleet. Kermorvan had taken strong measures to guard against this, however, and such attacks were swiftly dealt with. On one occasion such a straggler was attacked by two pirate longboats in fog; Kermorvan brought the Korentyn alongside with sweeps and himself led the clearing of its decks. Out of some thirty raiders no more than three escaped him, and that by leaping overboard, swimming for a boat and rowing frantically off into the shadows. "Were it clear, I would have pursued them in the cutters," he remarked, wiping clean his grey-gold sword. "As it is, let them save their hides, if only for the sake of times past…"
    At last, after some three weeks of generally easy sailing, they came to the last of these anchorages and the greatest, a wide river estuary that was of old named Ancarvadoen, the Deep Roads. Beyond it the coasts became rougher, stonier, dangerous in the approach; no voyage had passed without the loss of one vessel at least along this stretch, and many lives. Nor were the lands they guarded any safer; somewhere at their heart stretched the long arm of the Great Forest, turning to tangled jungle with its manyfold traps and terrors.
    Ancarvadoen was remembered in this uninhabited country chiefly because it was known that the last great band of fugitives from doomed Morvan, led by Vayde and the princess Ase, had encamped here through one long winter. On the last voyage men of the fleet had stumbled upon the traces of that brief settlement, a few overgrown hummocks of drystone wails and upon the hill overlooking the estuary, three or four graves, well marked but nameless. It was a melancholy place, but Kermorvan wished to land there once more; he had brought with him memorial stones fairly carven for the graves and the ruins. "And may they lay the unquiet spirits of this land!" he remarked quietly to Elof, as the two of them clambered back down the steep grassy slopes to their shore camp. "For I feel they walk here still, or some memory of their sorrows. Let them learn from this that their suffering was not wholly without result, that the line and heritage of their land lives still, and does not forget them."
    Elof nodded. "I sense something of what you say, strongly. It is wholesome enough, this land, but overhung with feeling; anguish, sadness, loss. And beneath it anger, rage at the injustice of fate. I have felt it somewhere before; in the hollow bones of Morvan the City, perhaps. And not only there… I do not think those stones will assuage it, worthy notion though they were. It does not bode well."
    "I agree. And in any event, we are on the edge of difficult and dangerous country, and a treacherous coast." He looked at Kara, tripping lightly through the tangled grass where others slipped and stumbled. "I think it is time we called upon your unique gifts, my lady. If you are willing, you could scout out our way on the morrow for many leagues ahead…"
    She looked demurely at her feet. "If Elof is willing, my lord, then of course."
    "He does not normally raise any objection," said Kermorvan quizzically, glancing at Elof. "No? Then whenever it pleases you, my lady…"
    "I'll fetch your cloak from the ship, then, Kara," said Elof, a little self-consciously. "You can be getting something to eat, meanwhile…" He hurried off, feeling the king's gaze like a cool gust at his back.
    When his boat came back to the beach he could see her waiting there for him, a slender silhouette against the glow of the campfires, half hidden against the shadows of the bushes around them. "I have it," he said quietly, stepping up to her, holding out the precious garment. She received it in her outstretched hands, held it, did not put it on.
    "Kara…" he began. "Heart… why the reluctance? Why do you