Again he made no answer for what seemed a long time. Around us the grey light grew stronger; we were coming into the new day, although in the wood the transition from dark to light might be delayed. The stallion held to his steady trot, now looking forward as if he, too, sensed the need for reaching some goal with as little delay as possible.
“You build too high on a hope-“ Herrel might have been speaking to himself rather than to me. “However we only live by hope and mine hitherto has been a poor, weak thing. But, Gillan, listen to me-the worst is not now behind us-rather does it lie ahead. Their geas is broken, but they have that Gillan of their fashioning. And we must get her forth from them. To do that the Riders have to be faced-in one guise or another.”
“Will they meet us as beasts?”
“You they can face so. With me, no-to me they must give Pack right-if I have my chance to demand it.”
“Pack right?”
“I may demand to meet Halse sword point to sword point in Right and Judgment-since he has taken the other Gillan. And with you at hand I have proof of that.”
“And if you win?”
“If I win, then I can demand repartment from Halse-perhaps of the rest. But they will do all they can to keep me from such a challenge. And here in Arvon they can bend much to their will. From this hour on we ride in danger. I know not what they may send against us. Were it otherwise we would ride for the border, but without that other Gillan that would bring you naught but ill.”
We came out of the woods at last, but the level meadow lands through which the road had led me before now gave way to rolling country, not too unlike the Dales, though perhaps their rises and valleys were not as steep. A bird flew from nowhere to hang above us.
I heard Herrel laugh shortly. “They are well served.”
“It means us some harm?” I questioned. The bird was small, rusty brown, unlike any hawk or winged instrument of war.
“In this much, it watches our path. But they need not keep such a check upon us. There is only this road for us.”
He called aloud in another tongue, that, I believe, of.
The Shadowed Road
“HAS THIS land of yours no water?” I ran tongue over dry lips. “Also, one of humankind can not live on hope and words alone-there needs must be bread and meat-“
“Ahead-“ his answer was one curt word where I had attempted to make my complaint light. Broken as the land about us was, yet did it seem empty of all but us and the birds. But the meadows had not been empty yesterday, save to the outer sight. And mayhap Herrel saw more here than I did. That I must know.
“Herrel-is this land empty as I see it under the illusion, or is it inhabited?”
“Under the illusion-how so?” He sounded genuinely perplexed, so I told him of the manor and the village, and how I had run from there because I believe I had been detected, if not really seen.
“This man in the inn room, of what manner was he?” Out of all my story Herrel caught upon that first.
From memory I tried to build a picture of him. When I had done I ended with a question: “Who was-is-he? And could he have known I was there?”
“He was of the Border Guard by your description. As such he is sensitive, one trained to the ferreting out of any invader. Hard though the way into Arvon may be, still through time men have come into these lands unknowing. For the most part the illusion holds, they see naught but the road, or some ruins. And they are worked upon by threats to the spirit which gives them a dislike of the place, so they pass through. But when you sought the inn, the guard would know an alien presence was there, and that it was aware of more than an empty land. That was why the alarm went forth. You after kept to the road, which was your safety-had you known it-“
“Why can I see only the illusion, save when I call upon my power?”
“You entered not by the gate, but by the mountain.”
Again his arm tightened about me. “And those are filled with many entrapments. How you came safely by all those snares, that is also magic-yours. Tell me, what of that road, and how did you find it?”
So I went back to my awaking in the deserted camp and when I spoke of the coming of the Hounds, then did I hear his breath quicken with a sound like unto a cat’s hiss of anger. I told of the vial and the way I freed it from my bag and there he interrupted:
“True witchery! There is no denying your gift. Had you the proper lessoning in it then-“
“Then what?”
“I do not know, it is not our sorcery. But I think in some ways you might challenge the whole Pack and come off unscathed. So you left those dogs of Alizon asleep in the snow. Let us hope that winter cold made that sleep death! But the Gate was closed-spell laid and bound again-so how found you another way?”
“Up and over the heights-“ I told him of that climb, of my blind struggle with the shifting stones.
“Those were the ruins of Car Re Dogan-reared by wizardy to be a fortress against the evil which once roamed the waste and which is long since gone. You found a very ancient way, one our race has not trod for half a thousand of Dale years.”
I spoke of the barrier of light and its overthrow, and then of my coming into the places of the Guardians.
“The Setting Up of the Kings” Herrel identified for me. “They were the rulers of an elder age. When we first came to Arvon those of that blood were very few, but we mingled with them and took from them some customs which had merit. Thus they did use their kings when each died in turn. So was he buried, standing, allowed to look out upon the world. And should his successor need good council he went thither and abode for a night, waiting to hear that wisdom, or to dream it. Also they were ensor-celled to guard this land.”
“I felt that I was weighed, yet they passed me through-“
“Because they knew the kinship of your power. But-“ Herrel’s voice was troubled, “if you came that way, there are other and far worse dangers to be faced-“
I could not repress a shiver. “Yes, one of them I saw-or saw in part.” And I told him of that noisome, clouded thing which passed me in the night.
“That which Runs The Ridges-! Gillan, Gillan, you have such fortune cloaking you as I have not heard of before! That you survived even so chance a meeting as that! It can not come into our fields, but it is death such as no living thing should ever meet.”
“The rest you know-“ Suddenly I was very tired. “Herrel, where is this drink you promised me? It seems an age since I had aught to even wet my lips.”
“For once I may give you what you wish as you wish it.” He swung the horse off the road and we came to a small shallow stream bubbling along over a pebbled bed. The very sound of that water increased my thirst, so that I wanted nothing more than to plunge head and arms into it, lap at its surface as a dog might lap. But when Herrel aided me down from the saddle I was almost too weak and tired to move.
He brought me to the water’s edge and took a small horn cup from his belt pouch, filling it and lifting it to my lips.
“It would seem that I need this and food greatly.” I commented when I had drunk my fill. “I am as one emptied-“
“For that also there is an answer.” But I thought that he spoke too briskly and avoided my eyes.
“You said that you believed I was one who could listen to the truth, Herrel. It is more than need of food and drink which makes me thus weak, is that not so?”
“I said that time was our enemy. By now they know that I failed them. Now they draw on your life substance to feed their Gillan. They can not slay so, but they can weaken, and so slow your searching, until it is too late.”
I looked down at my hands. They were trembling a little, and I could not, by will or muscle, control that tremor. But-