The Hawk Eternal (26 page)

And so he avoided the elections.

But what had it gained? The Farlain invaded and thousands dead throughout Druin. And what price the future?

He swore as he heard footsteps approaching. Lcofas slumped down beside him, breathing hard. 'No sign of pursuit,' said the old warrior.

'Good'

Talk, boy. Shed the burden.'

'It would shed the burden if you agreed to lead.'

 We've been over that before. I'm not the man for it.'

'Neither am I.'

'Whisht, lad! Don't talk nonsense. You're doing fine. So far we've saved the greater number of our cousins, and with luck there's another two thousand crofters who would have heard the horns and taken to the hills.'

'Damn you, old man. I never gave you much of an argument before, and I should have. You've been on the Council since before I was born. You're respected, everyone would follow you. You're the natural choice. What right have you to shirk your responsibility?'

'None whatsoever, Caswallon. And I cannot be accused of it. A man needs to know his strengths if he is to prosper, and his weaknesses if he is to survive. I know what you are going through but, believe me, you are the best man we have. I'll grant that you would make a bad Hunt Lord; you don't have the application. But this is war. With luck it will be a short, sharp exercise, and you're the man to plan it. Think of it as a giant raid. Ye gods, man, you were good enough at that.'

'But it isn't a raid,' snapped Caswallon. 'One mistake and we lose everything.'

'I didn't say it was easy.'

'That's true enough.'

'You have faith in Taliesen, do you not?'

'Yes.'

'Well, he said you were the only man capable of pulling a victory from this catastrophic beginning. And I believe him.'

'I wish I had your faith.'

'It's because you don't that convinces me,' said Leofas, slapping him on the shoulder. 'I'm going to say this once, boy, for I'm not given to compliments. There's a nobility in you, and a strength you've not began to touch. Rescuing Gaelen showed it to me. It was a fine, bonny thing. But more than that, I remember when we hunted the beast. You lifted Cambil that night when his fear for his son threatened to unman him, and among men who despised you it was you they followed when you walked to the north. When the Queen was dying and delirious you gave her words of comfort. You it was who planned the victory at the Games, and you again who brought us out of the valley.

'So don't sit here bemoaning your fate. You are where you should be: War Lord of Farlain. Do I make myself clear?'

'I should have spoken to you ten years ago,' said Caswallon. 'Maybe I would have been different."

Ten years ago you wouldn't have listened. Whoring and stealing filled your mind.'

'Good days, though,' said Caswallon, grinning.

'Don't say it as though you're letting me into a secret. I was whoring and stealing before you were born. And probably making a better job of it!'

Gaelen awoke, rolling to his back and rubbing his eyes. The night was silent, save for the movement of bats in the trees above him and the skittering sound of badgers in the undergrowth off to the left. These were sounds he knew well. But something else had pierced his dreams, bringing him to wakefulness. His mind was hazy, confused. It had seemed as if horns were blowing far away, whispering in the night breeze.

But now there was silence as Gaelen sat up and looked around him. Render was gone, hunting his supper, and the fire had died down within its circle of rocks. Gaelen added fuel, more for light than heat. As the blaze flared he pushed back his blanket and stood up, stretching the muscles of his back. He was hungry. The sky was lightening and the dawn was not far off. Gathering his bow and quiver, he made his way to the edge of the wood, looking down on to a gently sloping field, silver in the waning moonlight. Upon it were scores of rabbits nibbling at grass and clover. Gaelen settled down on his knees and strung the bow; he then selected an arrow and notched it to the string. Spotting a buck some twenty paces distant, he drew and loosed the shaft. As the buck fell, the other rabbits disappeared at speed. Returning to the fire he skinned the beast, gutting and slicing it for the pot. Render loped through the bushes, jaws bloody, and squatted down beside him, waiting expectantly for the remains.

Gaelen threw the offal to the hound, who set to work on his second meal of the night. As dawn light seeped into the sky, Gaelen found himself thinking of the Queen Beyond. Often her face would come to him, sometimes in dreams but more often as he went about the chores of the day. She had died for him - for them - and Gaelen wished, with all his heart, that he could have repaid her. And what did she mean when she promised to come again?

By mid-morning Gaelen and Render were picking their way down a wooded slope alongside a tumbling stream. Every forty or fifty paces the water hissed over rocky falls, gushing at ever-increasing speed towards the valley below. Birds sang in the trees, and crimson flowers bloomed by the water. Every now and then, as they came to a break in the trees, Gaelen stopped and gazed on the mountains, still snow-capped, like old men in a line. Gaelen knew he should be feeling guilty about his leisurely pace and the wide western swing he was making, for there was plenty of spring work back home. But after the winter cooped up in the valley, he needed the solitude.

A woman's scream pierced the glade. Render's head came up, a deep growl starting in his throat. Gaelen flashed his hand up, palm outwards, and the dog fell silent. The scream came from the right, beyond a thicket of gorse. Gaelen eased his hunting-knife into his hand, released his pack and bow from his shoulders and moved forward silently. Render padded beside him.

Once in the thicket other noises came to them - the rending of cloth, and slapping sounds as if open-handed blows were being struck. Creeping forward, bent double, Gaelen came to the edge of the thicket. Three Aenir warriors had pinned a young girl to the ground. Two held her arms, the third crouched over her, slashing her clothes with a knife and ripping them from her.

Gaelen calmed the dog and waited. He couldn't see the girl's face, but from the clothes she was Farlain. The Aenir stripped her naked, then one forced her legs apart, dropping his hand to loosen his breeches. As he did so Gaelen pointed to the warrior holding the girl.

'Kill!' he hissed. Render leaped forward, covering the ground in three bounds, snarling ferociously. The three whirled at the sound, dragging their knives clear. Render's great jaws closed upon the throat of his victim, the Aenir's neck snapping with a hideous crack. Gaelen, long hunting-knife in hand, was just behind the dog. He hurdled the beast, batting aside a wild slash from the second Aenir, then himself back-handed a cut across the man's face. The warrior's cheek blossomed red and he fell back, dropping his knife. Gaelen threw himself forward to plunge his own blade through the man's leather jerkin, up under the ribs, seeking the heart. The man's eyes opened in shock and pain. Gaelen twisted the blade to free it from the suction of the man's body and tore it loose, kicking him away. Spinning, he was just in time to parry a thrust from the third warrior who aimed a vicious cut at his head. Gaelen ducked beneath it, stepping inside to hammer the knife into the man's groin. The Aenir screamed and fell. Gaelen dragged the knife clear, punching it to the man's throat and cutting off his screams. Render, still growling, tore at his victim, though the man was long dead.

'Home!' hissed Gaelen. In the following silence he listened intently. Satisfied the Aenir were alone, he ran to the girl.

It was Deva, her face bruised and swollen, her lips cut and bleeding. She was unconscious. Gaelen gathered what remained of her clothes and lifted the girl to his shoulder. Then he made his way back through the thicket to his pack and laboured on up the slope, keeping to the rocky paths and firmer areas that would leave less sign of his passing.

His breathing was ragged as he reached the highest point of the slope, cutting into a sheltered glade where he lowered Deva to the ground. She was breathing evenly. Her shirt was in tatters and he threw it to one side. Her skirt had been ripped in half. Removing it, he spread the cloth and sliced an opening in the centre. Sheathing his knife he lifted the girl to a sitting position and put the skirt over her head, widening the slash until the garment settled over her shoulders like a cape that fell to her knees. He tore her shirt into strips and fashioned a belt which he tied round her waist, then he laid her back.

'Stay!' he ordered Render and the hound settled down beside the girl. Gaelen gathered up his bow and quiver and retraced his steps to the slope, crouching in the undergrowth, eyes searching the trail.

There were so many questions. Why were the Aenir so far into the Farlain? What was Deva doing alone in the wilderness? What manner of men were these warriors who dressed like foresters and carried hunting-knives like the clans? Had the war begun, or were they merely scouts? How many more were searching these woods? He could answer none of the questions.

He had been lucky today, waiting until the men's lust was at its height before launching an attack. But once the enemy discovered the bodies they would be on his trail like wolves after a wounded deer. More than luck would be needed to survive from now on, he knew.

He was at least two days from the valley, but if the war had begun there was no point going east. If it had not, there was little point heading for Attafoss, a day or more to the north-east.

Down the slope he saw a flash of movement and drew back into the bushes. A man appeared, then another, then a file of warriors bearing bows. They did not seem to be hunting a trail, but if they kept moving along the track they would find the bodies. Gaelen waited until the file had passed, counting them, despair growing as the figure topped one hundred.

This was no scouting party.

Pulling back out of sight he ran to the glade, kneeling over Deva, lifting her head and lightly stroking her face. She came awake with a start, a scream beginning as his hand clamped over her mouth.

'Be silent, Deva, it is Gaelen!' he hissed. Her eyes swivelled to him and she blinked and nodded. He removed his hand.

'The Aenir?' she whispered.

'Dead. But more are coming and we must move. Can you run?'

She nodded and he helped her to her feet. Hoisting his pack, he gathered up the remains of her clothing and bade her wait for him. He moved east for two hundred paces, crossing the stream, leaving his track on a muddy bank, and looping a torn fragment of Deva's shirt over a gorse bush. Satisfied with the false trail, he turned west again, moving more carefully over the rocks and firm ground until he rejoined Deva in the glade.

'Let's go,' he said, heading for Attafoss.

They made almost half a mile when the horns sounded, echoing eerily in the mountains around them. 'They've found the bodies,' he said grimly. 'Let's push on.'

Throughout the long afternoon Gaelen led them ever higher into the mountains, stopping often to study the back-trail and keeping ever under cover. Deva stumbled after him, still in shock after her narrow escape, and yet awed by the authoritative manner in which Gaelen was leading. There was no panic in him, nor yet any sign of fear. He was, she realised not without shock, a clansman.

And he had killed three Aenir warriors. She was sorry to have missed that event.

Towards dusk Gaelen found a secluded hollow off the trail and he dumped his pack and sat down. He stayed there silently for some minutes, ignoring the girl; then he stood and returned to the trail, crouching to scan the mountainside. There was no sign of pursuit.

He waited until it was too dark to see any distance, then returned to the hollow. Deva was bathing her face with water from his canteen and he squatted beside her.

'How are you faring?" he asked.

'Well. Are they close?'

'I can see no one, but that tells us nothing. They are woodsmen, they could be anywhere.'

'Yes.'

'What were you doing in the mountains?' he asked her.

'I had to visit my uncle Lars, who has a croft cabin south of here. I went with Larain. We were coming home when we saw the Aenir and we both ran. I hid in the woods, I don't know what happened to Larain. Most of the night I listened for them, but I heard nothing. This morning I tried to get back to the valley, but they were waiting for me. I got away once but they caught me back there, where you found me.'

'It's an invasion,' said Gaelen.

'But why would they do such a thing?'

'I don't know, Deva. I don't believe they need a reason to fight. Rest now.'

Thank you for my tunic,' she whispered, leaning in to kiss his cheek.

'I could do no better,' he stammered. Reaching past her, he pulled his blanket roll from the pack. 'Wrap yourself. It will be a chill night and we can afford no fire.'

'Gaelen?'

'Yes.'

'I... I thank you for saving my life.'

Thank me when we reach safety. If there is such a place still...'

She watched the darkness swallow him, knowing he would spend the night on the edge of the trail. Render settled down beside her and she snuggled in to his warm body.

Gaelen awoke just before dawn, coming out of a light doze in his hiding-place by the trail's edge. He yawned and stretched. The path below was still clear. Rounding the bushes he stopped, jolted by a heel print on the track not ten paces from where he had slept.