‘Seek the circle, find the light, Say farewell to flesh and bone. Walk the grey path, Watch the swan’s flight, Let your heart light Bring you home.’
Suddenly her legs buckled and she fell to the snow. Rayster, watching from the ruined doorway, ran to her, lifting her into his arms and carrying her back to the cabin.
‘I will be all right,’ she told him, as he laid her by the fire. ‘I will be fine. As long as I do not sleep.’
CHAPTER TWO
KAELIN RING SLEPT FITFULLY, WAKING OFTEN TO FEED THE FIRE. LITTLE Feargol, exhausted, lay in a deep and dreamless sleep. Smoke drifted lazily to the ceiling of the cave, then out into the night. Rising, Kaelin moved to the cave mouth. The night sky was clear of clouds, and he gazed at the bright stars. Moonlight gave the snow-covered landscape an ethereal quality, and he shivered, partly from the cold, but mostly from the awesome beauty of the land.
A bitter wind whispered across the cave mouth. Kaelin returned to the fire, and wrapped himself in his cloak. He had told the child he would lure out the bear and shoot it, but he doubted Hang-lip would be foolish enough to stand around and be repeatedly shot. At some point he would have to go out and meet the beast with musket and spear. The thought was not a pleasant one.
Chara had urged him not to travel to Finbarr’s cabin. ‘The weather is too fierce,’ she said. ‘It is foolishness.’
‘Perhaps so,’ he admitted. ‘Yet I need the walk.’
‘Then hold your son for a moment,’ she said, her voice angry. ‘And when you are lying in a snowdrift, and your life is slipping away, think of how you will never see him grow.’ With that she had stalked from the room.
‘Aye, you’re a fool right enough, Kaelin Ring,’ he told himself, as he added another chunk of wood to the flames. ‘There’s no denying it.’
Hunger gnawed at him. There was a little meat left, but no cheese and he had finished the last of his bread yesterday morning. The meat he decided to leave for Feargol. The child would need all his strength for the walk to Ironlatch. The fuel store was low now – enough perhaps for half a day. They could not wait out the bear.
Kaelin gazed around the cave, focusing on the jumbled stand of broken rocks that made up the western wall. Maybe men were sleeping here at the time of the roof fall, he thought. Perhaps their bodies are buried beneath those rocks. Cavemen dressed in furs, or ancient hunters sheltering from the snow.
‘There are spirits of heroes wandering every forest and mountain,’ Jaim had told him once. Kaelin wished it were true. Then perhaps he could talk to Jaim one more time, and say his farewells. Perhaps then he could put aside his grief.
‘Is it morning yet?’ asked Feargol, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
‘Almost. Did you dream?’
‘No. I had a lovely sleep. Are you going to shoot the bear with your pistols?’
‘No. I shall use your daddy’s musket. It takes a bigger charge.’
Feargol stood up and looked around. ‘I need to pee,’ he said.
Kaelin smiled. ‘Anywhere you please, my friend. There’s no-one here to scold you for peeing inside.’ The child walked to the cave mouth, then scampered back inside.
‘It’s too cold out there, Uncle Kaelin.’ He ran to the rear wall and relieved himself. Then he returned to the fire. ‘Will it take us long to reach Ironlatch?’
‘It will. It will be very cold, and you’ll need your hat.’
‘I’ll tie it down like Bane.’ He looked across at Kaelin. ‘Can I see one of your pistols?’
The boy had asked many times during Kaelin’s visits to hold one of the Emburleys, but Finbarr had always told him no. Kaelin pulled one of the silver pistols from his belt. Reversing it he passed it to Feargol, who took it in both hands. ‘It is very pretty,’ said the boy, turning it over. ‘What is that animal?’ He pointed to the engraved pommel.
‘Jaim said it was a lion – a ferocious beast who lives in the hot lands far to the south, across the seas.’