Their goal was not quite that far, on a plateau short of the ultimate heights. But it was at least a week’s journey, through a land harsh enough.
They rode between glacier-scarred boulders and wind-gnawed crags, up and up the long slopes, over razorback ridges and through ravines so narrow they were almost lightless. The woods thinned out into rare clumps of twisted scrub oak; grass grew sparse and stiff ; the air was chilly by day and cold by night, with clouds scudding over the pale sun and the bitterly brilliant stars. Often they had to ford streams that torrented from the peaks. It was all their animals could do not to be yanked away to drowning. Hugi, whose short legs hardly came below the packs on which he rode, was the only one who didn’t get drenched. He would shout jovial remarks like “Ship ahoy!” and “Stow the mizzenmast!” which got little appreciation. Carahue snuffed and sneezed and swore imaginatively at the weather (he denied that this land had climate), but he stuck with the others.
“When I get home,” he said, “I shall lie under orange blossoms in the sun. Slave girls will play me music and drop grapes in my mouth. To keep fit, I shall take exercises: twice daily will I twiddle my fingers. After a few months I will weary of this and set forth on a new knightly quest: let us say, as far as the nearest coffee shop.”
“Coffee,” sighed Holger. He was even running low on Unrich’s tobacco, or whatever the stuff was.
Alianora turned swan from time to time and flew ahead to check their course. When she was gone from view, the fourth day in the wilderness, Carahue regarded Holger with unaccustomed sobriety. “Despite her taste in clothes,” he said, “that is a girl whose like is rarely found.”
“I know,” nodded Holger.
“Forgive my impudence in asking, but God did give me eyes to see with. She’s not your leman, is she?”
“No.”
“The more fool you.”
Holger couldn’t quite resent that. It was probably correct.
“’Tis wha’ I ha’ been telling him and telling him and telling him,” rumbled Hugi. “Yon knichts be an eldritch breed. They’ll cross the world to rescue a maiden, and then dinna know aught to do wi’ her but take her home and mayhap beg a bit o’ hair ribbon to wear on their sleeve. ’Tis a wonder their sort ha’ no died oot erenoo.”
Alianora came back toward dusk. “I’ve seen the kirk from afar,” she reported. “I saw also, closer to us, two strongholds o’ the wild men, wi’ skulls on poles all around, and the folk in a bustle as if readying for war.”
“They are.” Holger nodded.
Alianora frowned. “I’ve scouted a way for us through one pass, up onto the wold. No settlements lie near, belike because a troll dwells in some cave thereabouts. Yet the widely ranging huntsmen may spy us e’en so, and bring a party to capture us for our flesh.”
“Ha, a sad end to a valiant knight, barbecued in his own armor,” said Carahue. He grinned. “Though methinks Sir Rupert and Hugi and I would prove tough steaks, nothing like your tender pretty limbs.”
Alianora smiled in a confused way and blushed. Carahue took her hand. “Come worst to worst,” he said gravely, “you must fly and not heed us. The world can well spare our sort, but would become dreary indeed without you to light it.”
She shook her head, tongue-tied, and did not quickly withdraw her hand. This boy, thought Holger, is an operator. He couldn’t find any words of his own, and couldn’t stand to listen. So he rode ahead, his mood thickening by the hour. Carahue was not poaching, he told himself; but himself paid scant attention. Didn’t the guy have any sense of decency or whatever? Didn’t Alianora have any sense, question mark? . Well, how could she? She’d never been exposed to this sort of thing before. She’d take the most worn-out flatteries for wit and honest sentiments. Blast his soul, Carahue had no right to shoot a sitting swan like that. Besides, on a trip as dangerous and important as this, no one had a right to—to—Oh, damn it all, anyway!