Nimue insisted on accompanying us. She had promised us a spell of concealment, and after that nothing would persuade my men to leave her behind. She worked the spell before we left, performing it on the skull of a sheep she found by flame light in a ditch close to our camp. She dragged the carcass out of the thicket where a wolf had feasted, chopped the head away, stripped away the remnants of maggoty skin, then crouched with her cloak hiding both her and the stinking skull. She crouched there a long time, breathing the ghastly stench of the decomposing head, then stood and kicked the skull scornfully aside. She watched where it came to rest and, after a moment’s deliberation, declared that the enemy would look aside as we marched through the night. Arthur, who was fascinated by Nimue’s intensity, shuddered when she made the pronouncement, then embraced me. “I owe you a debt, Derfel.”
“You owe me nothing, Lord.”
“If for nothing else,” he said, “I thank you for bringing me _ Ceinwyn’s message.” He had taken enormous pleasure in her forgiveness, then shrugged when I had added her further words about being granted his protection. “She has nothing to fear from any man in Dumnonia,” he had said. Now he clapped me on the back. “I shall see you in the dawn,” he promised, then watched as we filed out from the firelight into the dark.
We crossed grassy meadows and newly harvested fields where no obstacles other than the soaking ground, the dark and the driving rain impeded us. That rain came from our left, the west, and it seemed relentless; a stinging, pelting, cold rain that trickled inside our jerkins and chilled our bodies. At first we bunched together so that no man would find himself alone in the dark, though even crossing the easy ground we were constantly calling out in low voices to find where our comrades might be. Some men tried to keep hold of a friend’s cloak, but spears clashed together and men tripped until finally I stopped everyone and formed two files. Every man was ordered to sling his shield on his back, then to hold on to the spear of the man in front. Cavan was at our rear, making sure no one dropped out, while Nimue and I were in the lead. She held my hand, not out of affection, but simply so that we should stay together in the black night. Lughnasa seemed like a dream now, swept away not by time, but by Nimue’s fierce refusal to acknowledge that our time in the bower had ever happened. Those hours, like her months on the Isle of the Dead, had served their purpose and were now irrelevant.
We came to trees. I hesitated, then plunged down a steep, muddy bank and into a darkness so engulfing that I despaired of ever taking fifty men through its horrid blackness, but then Nimue began to croon in a low voice and the sound acted like a beacon to beckon men safely through the stumbling dark. Both spear chains broke, but by following Nimue’s voice we all somehow blundered through the trees to emerge into a meadow on their farther side. We stopped there while Cavan and I made a tally of the men and Nimue circled us, hissing spells at the dark.
My spirits, dampened by the rain and gloom, sank lower. I thought I had possessed a mental picture of this countryside that lay just north of my men’s camp, but our stumbling progress had obliterated that picture. I had no idea where I was, nor where I should go. I thought we had been heading north, but without a star to guide me or moon to light my way, I let my fears overcome my resolve.
“Why are you waiting?” Nimue came to my side and whispered the words.
I said nothing, not willing to admit that I was lost. Or perhaps not willing to admit that I was frightened.
Nimue sensed my helplessness and took command. “We have a long stretch of open pasture ahead of us,” she told my men. “It used to graze sheep, but they’ve taken the flock away, so there are no shepherds or dogs to see us. It’s uphill all the way, but easy enough going if we stay together. At the end of the pasture we come to a wood and there we’ll wait for dawn. It isn’t far and it isn’t difficult. I know we’re wet and cold, but tomorrow we shall warm ourselves on our enemies’ fires.” She spoke with utter confidence.