“You were so good to give Melwas and me that gold ring, but we’ve used it all to improve the shop,” she said, her face twisted with regret-but her unspoken question was all too clear.
I smiled back, for I was able to press into her hand four gold coins-of an old Roman minting-that I had in niy pouch, received for messages I had delivered.
“Oh!” Flora exclaimed, turning them over, unable to believe I could have so much to give. “But Mother will-” And she half turned back to the house, for I was watering Ravus.
I took out a gold ring and showed it to her. “This I will give Mother,” I said, and then I closed her fingers over the coins. “You see to Lavinia’s dowry.”
“Oh, Galwyn, you are so good to us. Uncle Gralior certainly would never have parted with this many coins.” She put them carefully away.
“He’s been to see you again?”
Flora made a face. “Too often. How you stood Uncle so long I shall never know! You’re much better off as a messenger, even if Mother cannot see it.”
I presented the ring to my mother on my departure, and she was so surprised that I had gold to give her that I thought I would never be able to take my leave.
“You will pass by again this way, won’t you, my son?” she said, quite full of smiles now, and patting my chest with her hands.
I noticed that she tucked the ring into the bosom of her dress as unobtrusively as possible. Odran might never profit from that generosity, but I could not find it in my heart to blame my mother. She had been accustomed to luxuries, and this austere life-for all she had a roof over her head and food on the table-must have been difficult for a proud woman to bear. I felt the better for sharing my good fortune with my blood kin.
SOI LEFT THE OLD FORT Ide with a cheerful heart and set Ravus into a canter. I thought to reach the wayside inn where I often stopped well before dark.
Following the winding road through the dense forests, I was not particularly surprised to come around a bend and find trees fallen across the track. I approached at a trot, for I wanted to see if there might be a way around the trunks; if not, how wide a jump it would be for Ravus.
We were about four strides away from the trees when suddenly men jumped out of the bushes, yelling and waving stout cudgels.
“Get him!” screamed a voice I had not heard in a long time but instantly recognised. Iswy!
“Bring down the horse! Get him!”
I clapped my heels to Ravus’s side and the brave horse plunged forward and soared over the trunks, clearing them on the far side by a length or more.
“Go after him! Aim for the horse! Bring it down!”
Leaning down on Ravus’s neck to make myself a smaller target, and urging the gray to his best speed, I did glance over my shoulder at my attackers. Three were clambering over the trees, then- cudgels hindering their movements. Two, however, were whirling slingshots over their heads, and that was a real threat, for Cornovi-ans were famous for their accuracy with sling and stone.
I kneed Ravus into a swerving course to make us a more difficult target. A stone glanced off his flank and he
screamed, galloping even faster down the road. A second stone caught me on the right shoulder-the one I had twice dislocated-but by then its force had almost been spent. I gave no thought to my bruises, being far more worried about Ravus, though I didn’t dare pull up until we were well down the road. We’d to cross a river farther on. I could stop there and still keep ahead of men on foot. But-what if they had mounts hidden in the woods?
I had traveled this way often enough, it was true, but how had Iswy known? I was almost sick with my fury over the ambush. Of course, this was the quickest route for me to take back to Deva from Isca. Was it mere chance that he’d seen me at Prince Cador’s? He was, after all, a subject of Cador.