Durnik stared at him.
“Trust me, good Durnik,” Wolf said. “The matter is urgent. Bind him and hide him someplace; then come to the kitchen. Come with me, Garion.” And he turned and left the stable.
Aunt Pol was pacing her kitchen nervously when they returned.
“Well?” she demanded.
“He was attempting to leave,” Wolf said. “We stopped him.”
“Did you-?” she left it hanging.
“No. He drew a sword, but Durnik chanced to be nearby and knocked the belligerence out of him. The intervention was timely. Your cub here was about to do battle. That little dagger of his is a pretty thing, but not really much of a match for a sword.”
Aunt Pol turned on Garion, her eyes ablaze. Garion prudently stepped back out of reach.
“There’s no time for that,” Wolf said, retrieving the tankard he had set down before leaving the kitchen. “Brill had a pouchful of good red Angarak gold. The Murgos have set eyes to watching this place. I’d wanted to make our going less noticeable, but since we’re already being watched, there’s no point in that now. Gather what you and the boy will need. I want a few leagues between us and Brill before he manages to free himself. I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder for Murgos every place I go.”
Durnik, who had just come into the kitchen, stopped and stood staring at them.
“Things aren’t what they seem here,” he said. “What manner of folk are you, and how is it that you have such dangerous enemies?”
“That’s a long story, good Durnik,” Wolf said, “but I’m afraid there’s no time to tell it now. Make our apologies to Faldor, and see if you can’t detain Brill for a day or so. I’d like our trail to be quite cold before he or his friends try to find it.”
“Someone else is going to have to do that,” Durnik said slowly. “I’m not sure what this is all about, but I am sure that there’s danger involved in it. It appears that I’ll have to go with you – at least until I’ve gotten you safely away from here.”
Aunt Pol suddenly laughed.
“You, Durnik? You mean to protect us?”
He drew himself up.
“I’m sorry, Mistress Pol,” he said. “I will not permit you to go unescorted.”
“Will not permit?” she said incredulously.
“Very well,” Wolf said, a sly look on his face.
“Have you totally taken leave of your senses?” Aunt Pol demanded, turning on him.
“Durnik has shown himself to be a useful man,” Wolf said. “If nothing else, he’ll give me someone to talk with along the way. Your tongue has grown sharper with the years, Pol, and I don’t relish the idea of a hundred leagues or more with nothing but abuse for companionship.”
“I see that you’ve finally slipped into your dotage, Old Wolf,” she said acidly.
“That’s exactly the sort of thing I meant,” Wolf replied blandly. “Now gather a few necessary things, and let’s be away from here. The night is passing rapidly.”
She glared at him a moment and then stormed out of the kitchen.
“I’ll have to fetch some things too,” Durnik said. He turned and went out into the gusty night.
Garion’s mind whirled. Things were happening far too fast.
“Afraid, boy?” Wolf asked.
“Well-” Garion said. “It’s just that I don’t understand. I don’t understand any of this at all.”
“You will in time, Garion,” Wolf said. “For now it’s better perhaps that you don’t. There’s danger in what we’re doing, but not all that great a danger. Your Aunt and I – and good Durnik, of course – will see that no harm comes to you. Now help me in the pantry.” He took a lantern into the pantry and began loading some loaves of bread, a ham, a round yellow cheese and several bottles of wine into a sack which he took down from a peg.
It was nearly midnight, as closely as Garion could tell, when they quietly left the kitchen and crossed the dark courtyard. The faint creak of the gate as Durnik swung it open seemed enormously loud.
As they passed through the gate, Garion felt a momentary pang. Faldor’s farm had been the only home he had ever known. He was leaving now, perhaps forever, and such things had great significance. He felt an even sharper pang at the memory of Zubrette. The thought of Doroon and Zubrette together in the hay barn almost made him want to give the whole thing up altogether, but it was far too late now.
Beyond the protection of the buildings, the gusty wind was chill and whipped at Garion’s cloak. Heavy clouds covered the moon, and the road seemed only slightly less dark than the surrounding fields. It was cold and lonely and more than a little frightening. He walked a bit closer to Aunt Pol.
At the top of the hill he stopped and glanced back. Faldor’s farm was only a pale, dim blur in the valley behind. Regretfully, he turned his back on it. The valley ahead was very dark, and even the road was lost in the gloom before them.
Chapter Six
THEY HAD WALKED for miles, how many Garion could not say. He nodded as he walked, and sometimes stumbled over unseen stones on the dark road. More than anything now he wanted to sleep. His eyes burned, and his legs trembled on the verge of exhaustion.
At the top of another hill – there always seemed to be another hill, for that part of Sendaria was folded like a rumpled cloth – Mister Wolf stopped and looked about, his eyes searching the oppressive gloom.
“We turn aside from the road here,” he announced.
“Is that wise?” Durnik asked. “There are woods hereabout, and I’ve heard that there may be robbers hiding there. Even if there aren’t any robbers, aren’t we likely to lose our way in the dark?” He looked up at the murky sky, his plain face, dimly seen, troubled. “I wish there was a moon.”
“I don’t think we need to be afraid of robbers,” Wolf said confidently, “and I’m just as happy that there isn’t a moon. I don’t think we’re being followed yet, but it’s just as well that no one happens to see us pass. Murgo gold can buy most secrets.” And with that he led them into the fields that lay beside the road.
For Garion the fields were impossible. If he had stumbled now and then on the road, the unseen furrows, holes, and clumps in the rough ground seemed to catch at his feet with every step. At the end of a mile, when they reached the black edge of the woods, he was almost ready to weep with exhaustion.
“How can we find our way in there?” he demanded, peering into the utter darkness of the woods.
“There’s a woodcutter’s track not far to this side,” Wolf said, pointing. “We only have a little farther to go.” And he set off again, following the edge of the dark woods, with Garion and the others stumbling along behind him. “Here we are,” he said finally, stopping to allow them to catch up. “It’s going to be very dark in there, and the track isn’t wide. I’ll go first, and the rest of you follow me.”
“I’ll be right behind you, Garion,” Durnik said. “Don’t worry. Everything will be all right.” There was a note in the smith’s voice, however, that hinted that his words were more to reassure himself than to calm the boy.
It seemed warmer in the woods. The trees sheltered them from the gusty wind, but it was so dark that Garion could not understand how Wolf could possibly find his way. A dreadful suspicion grew in his mind that Wolf actually did not know where he was going and was merely floundering along blindly, trusting to luck.
“Stop,” a rumbling voice suddenly, shockingly, said directly ahead of them. Garion’s eyes, accustomed slightly now to the gloom of the woods, saw a vague outline of something so huge that it could not possibly be a man.
“A giant!” he screamed in a sudden panic. Then, because he was exhausted and because everything that had happened that evening had simply piled too much upon him all at one time, his nerve broke and he bolted into the trees.
“Garion!” Aunt Pol’s voice cried out after him, “come back!”
But panic had taken hold of him. He ran on, falling over roots and bushes, crashing into trees and tangling his legs in brambles. It seemed like some endless nightmare of blind flight. He ran full tilt into a lowhanging, unseen branch, and sparks flared before his eyes with the sudden blow to his forehead. He lay on the damp earth, gasping and sobbing, trying to clear his head.
And then there were hands on him, horrid, unseen hands. A thousand terrors flashed through his mind at once, and he struggled desperately, trying to draw his dagger.