“You do not listen very well,” Jaelle said. “I do my own thinking, not the blind will of Hastur. Like all people, I must obey the laws of the land; but the whims of Hastur are not yet the laws of Thendara, and Lorill Hastur has no right to forbid any Free. Amazon, under the Charter, to accept any lawful work. Lorill Hastur is my kinsman-though the only time he saw and spoke with me he seemed not very eager to accept the relationship-but he is not the keeper of my conscience! The Free Amazons owe no allegiance to any liege lord, even if he calls himself the son of Hastur. And it seems to me that if the Terrans could give you, a woman, and born in Caer Donn, the strength and spirit to venture alone into the Hellers, and the-” She hesitated, looking away. “And at the same time, the integrity to honor an oath, even under such conditions of strain, then it seems to me that these Terranan might have something to teach even a Hastur, and that the Free Amazons should be their friends and allies. So I will give you leave, and I will help you, to rescue your friend.”
Magda said hastily, “It must not be known that Peter is a Terran!”
“No, indeed! Rumal would take delight in hanging him from his castle wall that same day!” She held out her hands to Magda and said, “I think I can ride tomorrow; we will ride, then, for Sain Scarp.”
Chapter ELEVEN
Before leaving the shelter, next morning, Jaelle insisted on stripping the bodies of the dead bandits; an unpleasant task, -as they had frozen hard in the bitter cold. They dragged them away from the path. “The kyorebni and the scavenger wolves will do the rest,” Jaelle said cheerfully. “We could never have buried them with the ground frozen hard, so they can do our work for us.”
The day was overcast and grim as they set forth, and Magda was anxious about Jaelle; exposure to cold, with an unhealed wound, could be dangerous. Yet once the pass of Scaravel was closed, no amount of haste could bring them to Sain Scarp before midwinter-night.
They made good time for the first three days; but on the fourth day it began to snow in earnest, and Jaelle looked troubled as they began to ride upward along the road to the pass.
“If we get through before dark, there is nothing to fear; Sain Scarp is a two-day ride beyond it, and there is nothing eke so high as Scaravel. But if we are delayed today, or if we have to pass Scaravel in the darkness…” She was silent, frowning, obviously worried.
Near midday they came to a little village on the mountainside, where they bought some hot soup at a food-stall, and bargained for fodder for their animals. They were about to ride on when the lashings on Magda’s pack animal suddenly gave way, and the pack slipped; the beast snorted and neighed, frightened by the bumping of the heavy pack hanging under its belly. Magda slid down and ran to free it from the swaying, bumping burden, but the frightened animal kicked and reared, and it was half an hour before, even with Jaelle’s help, Magda could quiet the creature enough to get the remaining strap unbuckled and the pack off. Then they had to find a harness-maker who could mend the strap or make a new one; and when Jaelle came back after talking at length with the harness-maker (his dialect was so thick Magda could not understand him), she looked grave. “Lady Rohana, with her escort, crossed Scaravel three days ago, on her way to Ardais,” she said, “and the pass was open then; since then, no traveler has climbed toward the pass. We may find it blocked already; if not, this storm will surely close it till spring-thaw. Come what may, we must cross Scaravel tonight, or we cannot reach Sain Scarp in time. Let us find some more of that woman’s good bean soup before we take the road; we’ll get little warm food tonight.”
Less than half a mile out of the village, Magda looked back down the trail and saw that the thickening snow had already blotted out the lights behind them. Jaelle wrapped a fold of her scarf across her bandaged cheek; her voice sounded muffled through it. “If these folk were not all living in the very shadow of Sain Scarp-and probably in their pay, or at least in fear of them-I think I would have left the horses here and tried the pass on foot. But I would not put such a strain on their honesty. There is a saying in the hills: ‘Don’t trust your bone to another man’s dog.’ “