Dragonlance Tales, Vol. 3 – Love and War

from the size and voice, a centaur.

Nonetheless, he peered at it curiously.

“Ah,” he said as if in recognition. “A draft human. Tell

me, how is life in harness?”

The centaur regarded him, as always, with the easy

contempt that the hooved and human show the merely

human or the merely hooved.

“We are not in harness but in service – as others should

be,” the centaur said heavily. He tossed his head restlessly.

“I have heard rumors and smelled scents this day, as well.

Are more strangers in Darken Wood?”

The stag would not look in the centaur’s large, dark

eyes. “Perhaps you smell the strangers from last night. Is

there any reason that their smell would cling to you?”

“We bore them on our backs,” he said with dignity.

“As all in this wood know. Are more strangers in Darken

Wood?” he repeated.

“Why ask me? Surely you think you know more than I;

your breed studies stars as well as any beast of burden

could.”

“Mockery. It’s all tha has.” He snorted, horselike. “Try

to hide the truth from us both, if tha wishes. I study little,

but I know stars. These past nights they tell of battle, and of

life and death for a stag. It’s a’ there – for them as looks

close.” He added, “Maybe tha has not seen these strangers –

but tha will.” He turned to go.

The stag watched him. “I have a retort,” he called,

“timed and well framed, laden with irony and literary

allusion – but I refuse to favor you with it. I have my

dignity.”

The centaur said nothing, and in the stag’s heart he

knew that was the best retort of all. The centaur waited a

moment longer, then went his way.

A moment later the lead draconian appeared, sword

ready, behind the stag. “He is gone?”

“He is.” The stag was looking where the centaur had

been, thinking hard. He tried to imagine the centaurs dead

and defeated, bleeding as the wood fell again to strangers.

He could not imagine that any centaurs would run, or

would turn traitor, or would think at all of themselves.

“Then we remain undiscovered.”

The stag thought over the centaur’s words. “Let us say

you remain unseen. Remain so a while longer, by moving

behind me again.”

The draconian looked at the stag without love and

withdrew. The stag moved slowly, thoughtfully, toward the

center of Darken Wood.

He caught himself humming. “It’s that damned song,”

he muttered. “Crude and folkish, but the tune sticks in the

mind.”

Actually, it was the words which stuck in his mind. He

found himself singing, half-unwillingly:

THE STAG LED ON FROM NIGHT TO DAWN,

FROM SUNRISE INTO MORN,

AND IN THE SHADE OF SHADOW GLADE

BETRAYED THE UNICORN.

SHE SPOKE TO HIM; HER VOICE WAS GRIM:

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR PRIDE?

YOU KNOW AND SEE YOUR DESTINY

AND YET YOU TURN ASIDE.

YOU WOULD BETRAY ME TO MY DEATH

AND QUITE FORSAKE YOUR VOW?

THEN SERVICE LENT WITHOUT CONSENT

IS ALL YOU DO ME NOW.”

SHE TOUCHED HIM ONCE, SHE TOUCHED HIM TWICE,

AND THREE TIMES WITH HER HORN;

AND THERE HE FELL, AND WHERE HE FELL,

HE ROSE A UNICORN.

He heard reptilian muttering behind him and stopped

singing. If those behind him were truly to kill the

Forestmaster, all music here – perhaps, eventually, all the

music in the world – would cease, and all for the stag’s petty

revenge.

A winged shadow drifted overhead. He ducked

automatically, but it was only one of the pegasi, cir cling

and diving above the wood.

The stag could picture something larger, something

with wings like the draconians’, stooping onto the pegasi.

He could hear them shrieking, flapping frantically,

tumbling from the sky –

“Not them,” he murmured. “Not by my doing, surely.

But what can I do against these invaders?”

And a moment later, he thought, startled, “And could

I give up my revenge, my vengeance for being scorned,

after treasuring it for so long? In this cycle of sorrow,

vengeance is all that sustains me.”

It was something to consider on a long walk.

At mid-day the stag entered the Central Glade alone,

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *