‘What’s true?’
‘The Prophecy.’
Tain looked at Willow with amazement.
‘They say He’s coming. To avenge us all. For many suns there has been talk of nothing else in the Low Lands. He’s the Lera’s only hope.’
Again Tain looked at Willow and both of them felt a quickening in their hearts.
‘Do you know where Sgorr is?’ asked Tain.
‘Oh yes. He’s very close. If you. . .’
As the pine marten began to explain, the Outriders from the loch stirred expectantly. They could not understand what the creature was saying, but they could see from Tain’s expression that something very important was being discussed.
‘What is it, Captain Tain?’ one asked eagerly, when the creature had finished.
Tain shook his head gravely and the Outriders pressed in to listen.
‘Sgorr. He’s just two suns away, to the south, with the Great Herd. They have settled around a small lake. There are over three thousand of them. From the sounds of it Sgorr has the Sgorrla in constant training. He sends them out every day and they practise their viciousness. . .’
Tain’s voice had dropped to a whisper. He looked sadly at his friends.
‘They practise their viciousness on the Lera. That’s what happened in the clearing. The animals round here are terrified. Some even believe that Sgorr wants to exterminate them all.’
The Outriders shuddered.
‘Then we must strike quickly,’ said Thistle suddenly, ‘for all our sakes.’
‘It’s going to be hard,’ said Tain.’We’ll have to get through the Sgorrla for a start. And then it seems he’s guarded day and night.’
‘But we will have the element of surprise,’ said Thistle.
‘Sgorr is not expecting anything, least of all an attack right at the heart of his power base. If we can just infiltrate the herd.’
‘No,’ said Tain suddenly, ‘it’s not possible. The Sgorrla are all marked. They’ll recognize us.’
Thistle looked very grave.
‘Well, we’ll have to try. Use the cover of night to cloak us. Travel in stealth. Use the instincts of the Outrider to find a way through.’
The others nodded but with that they heard a noise up ahead. Something was approaching fast through the trees. The Outriders readied, but before Thistle could issue any orders, Braan came crashing through the branches. He was followed by the three Outriders who had gone scouting ahead with him and Bankfoot.
‘Bankfoot,’ he cried as soon as he saw Thistle, ‘they’ve got Bankfoot.’
‘Who? Who has?’ said Thistle.
‘The Sgorrla,’ panted Braan. ’They took us by surprise. We’d come to the top of a small hill and Bankfoot told us to wait while he ran down to spy the land, but as soon as he got to the bottom they came from the trees. There must have been twenty of them. There was nothing we could do.’
‘Then we must rescue him,’ said Tain.
‘They’re moving fast,’ said Braan. ’They’ll probably be back with Sgorr before we can catch up with them.’
‘But we’ve got to try.’
‘Did they see you, Braan?’ asked Thistle suddenly.
‘No,’ answered Braan, ‘we were shielded by a copse.’
‘Then they still don’t know we’re here,’ said Thistle gravely.
‘Well, they’ll know soon enough,’ cried Tain, already preparing to set off.
‘Wait, Tain,’ said Thistle, ‘you musn’t be so hasty. Our greatest hope now is the element of surprise and they still don’t know we’re here. But if we go blundering into camp to rescue Bankfoot, it could ruin everything. Think, Tain. The Sgorrla are all marked, as you said.’
Tain paused.
‘But we’ve got to do something. I’ll steal in at night.’
‘Yes, it’s possible,’ said Thistle, ‘but we must be careful. I wish I’d known about their brands sooner, because there’s not one of us who could get into Sgorr’s camp easily without being spotted. And as for getting past the Sgorrla. . .’
‘Yes, there is.’
Thistle swung round to find Willow standing behind him. Peppa was next to her. He blinked with surprise at the hinds.
‘We could go,’ said Willow calmly, ‘Peppa and me. Their hinds are not marked. We could get into the camp.’
‘No, Willow,’ said Thistle immediately, ‘I won’t hear of it.’
‘Why not?’ said Willow.’What notice will the Sgorrla take of two hinds moving through three thousand deer? At the least we can find out where they’re holding Bankfoot, at best try to rescue him. Besides, somebody needs to find out about Sgorr.’
Again Thistle shook his head.
‘No, Willow, I’m not putting you in danger.’
‘Then why did you let us come?’ snorted Willow.’To tend to your wounds perhaps, or watch you die? No, Thistle, we came to help you fight Sgorr and though we have no antlers and may just be hinds, our eyes and ears are as good as yours and I hope our courage is as great.’
Thistle looked at Willow’s fine face and bold eyes and was silent.
‘Besides,’ said Willow, ‘there’s something else I want to do. If I can get into their camp, I want to try and find Fern.’ Both Tain and Thistle felt a tightening in the gut, for they had hardly dared think of their mothers.
‘But Willow. . .’ said Thistle.
‘It’s settled then,’ said the hind.’Braan, can you show us where they captured Bankfoot? We’ll pick up their tracks and follow them straight into camp.’
Thistle could see the determination on Willow’s face and he realized it was pointless arguing with the hind.
‘Very well, Willow,’ he relented at last, ‘then listen to me. If you can get into camp you must do as I say. Find out where they’re keeping Bankfoot and anything you can about Sgorr, then get away again. We’ll need to arrange a meeting point. Tain, ask Sek if he knows the country round here.’
Tain nodded and turned to the pine marten.
‘But Willow,’ Thistle went on, ‘you must promise me not to try anything foolish.’
Willow looked back at Thistle and smiled, but the hind nodded.
‘Sek says he knows a good spot where we can wait,’ said Tain. ’He says there’s a corrie about a quarter of a sun from Sgorr. There’s plenty of water.’
‘Very well,’ said Willow, ‘we’ll meet you there. Sek can tell us how to find you. Now we must hurry. Braan, show us where you lost Bankfoot.’
Willow spent a few moments talking to the pine marten and then, nodding gravely, she took her farewell of Thistle and Tain. She and Peppa turned with Braan and ran off into the evening.
The Outriders watched them go, tilting their antlers gravely among the trees. They all felt deeply proud of the hinds.
Sgorr lowered his head and took in a great gulp of water through his thin lips, then, looking around the lake at the massed deer stretching around him as far as his eye could see, he sighed with a grim satisfaction.
Rannoch was probably dead by now, he thought, and the Great Herd was ready to go north. The Sgorrla were at the very peak of their training and the Lera’s daily suffering kept them in constant trim. He had drawn them all back from the Great Glen to prepare for the trek north and to help with the ‘Cleansing’. Sgorr smiled as he thought of the orders he had given to exterminate the Lera in the Low Lands. It took him back to all those years ago, to that day when the wolf had taken his eye.
They’ll pay, he thought to himself. They’ll all pay. Across the Low Lands and the High.
As Sgorr thought of the High Land, again his mind turned to Rannoch.
‘The Healer. Isn’t that what they called him?’ snorted Sgorr to himself with disgust. ‘So, has my assassin done his work or is Rannoch just hiding in the heather?’
Sgorr suddenly felt strangely unnerved. He often thought of Rannoch now and even dreamt of him. Although he told himself there was no truth in the Prophecy, those thoughts always made him nervous. So
mewhere deep inside him there was a nagging doubt, some secret voice that kept whispering to the stag of the future. Sgorr kept the voices at bay, but still the doubts came.
He looked up. Narl was coming towards him. When Narl got to the Sgorrla bodyguard he stopped and exchanged a few words with them, then came straight up to his master.
‘Lord,’ he said.
‘The reports?’
‘More word of the humans,’ answered Narl. ’They are everywhere. They all seem to be travelling west.’
Sgorr nodded.
‘When I was a fawn, Narl,’ he muttered, ‘they always used to tell me that when man is on the move the Herla should beware.’
‘What do you think they are doing?’
‘Who knows. But they are carrying their shining sticks, so there will be bloodshed. That’s what man is best at. That’s what I have learnt from him.’
Narl suddenly looked keenly at his master. This was the first time he had ever heard Sgorr talk of man in this way.
‘You, Lord?’ he whispered. ’You have knowledge of man?’ Normally such an impertinent question would have brought an angry response, but Sgorr was feeling indulgent.
‘Yes, Narl. A greater knowledge than that fool of a fawn.’ Narl waited as his master took another drink from the loch.
‘But I never knew,’ said Narl quietly when Sgorr raised his head again.
‘You never needed to know. These things are best kept secret from the Herla.’
Narl stirred. He felt deeply privileged to be allowed into his master’s confidence.
‘But don’t you fear them, Lord? Humans, I mean.’
‘Fear is for weaklings, Narl. Haven’t I taught you that yet? No, I don’t fear man. I admire him. For man is the thinker and has power over the Lera, which he gains with his mind and his reason. Man too is the bringer of violence and violence gives victory, if you know how to use it.’
Now Narl shifted uncomfortably. Though Narl was no stranger to violence, to talk of man in this way sounded like a kind of sacrilege.
‘How does man tell us about violence, Sgorr?’
Sgorr noticed the use of his name with irritation, but he let it pass.
‘Man shows us how to master and direct it. There is violence in all things, Narl, but most creatures are slaves to it, as Herne’s Herd were slaves to their mad belief. But man is no one’s slave and so can use his violence as he wills. No, Narl, far from fearing man I would have the Herla be like him.’
Narl looked at his master in amazement and he suddenly felt a shiver run down his spine.
‘Be like him?’ he gasped.
‘Yes, and we have made a start. For soon we will be marching to the High Land and then, let the Lera really beware, when Sgorr is on the move.’
With that there was a pained bellow and both Sgorr and Narl looked out across the lake. In the distance they could see a group of Sgorrling gathered around the water. The deer were shouting and taking turns to run at a Herla. It was a stag.
‘Go on, kick the old fool, spike him,’ cried one pricket, as another launched himself forward. When he neared the stag, the pricket turned and kicked at him with his back legs. The stag swung round and lashed out with his antlers, but missed the pricket altogether and bellowed in fury and frustration.
‘That’s how the Sgorrling treat traitors,’ sneered the young deer.
‘Go on, kick him again,’ cried the deer that had spoken first. ‘Kick him hard. Make Colquhar suffer.’
A third pricket ran forward to kick the stag and again Colquhar swung round and missed. He lifted his head sadly and barked in pain. But there was little he could do against the Sgorrling. Colquhar couldn’t see them; he was blind.
Beyond the stag, across the wide plain, hundreds and hundreds of hinds, kept closely guarded and regimented by the Sgorrla, were grazing in the unnaturally warm day. Normally so many hinds together would have set up a great clamour as they discussed the life of the herd, or their favourite stags, or the journey that was facing them, but now a strange stillness hung over them, as though they were frightened to speak or had lost interest in the world around them.
But amongst them, when the Sgorrla weren’t watching, some of the hinds would drift together and, looking about nervously, snatch a few moments of greedy conversation. Five of them had come together now and, pretending all the while to graze, they were whispering to each other. Two of them were from the home herd and three from the loch.
‘When are we going north?’ whispered one.
‘Who knows,’ said another. ‘When Sgorr decrees it.’
‘Then those Sgorrla filth might stop throwing their weight around the herd,’ said a third who was from the loch.
‘Shhhh,’ whispered the first hind, ‘you don’t know what you’re saying.’
The hind looked about her.
‘Yes I do. I hate them and Sgorr.’ The others blinked at her fearfully.
‘I don’t know why you put up with it,’ the hind went on.
‘But what can we do?’ said the first hind.’Sgorr’s power is absolute.’
‘But there are many among the stags who have grown to hate him,’ said a fourth hind.’I’ve heard them talking. When they dare.’
‘And it’s more than their life’s worth. Sgorr had ten of them killed last week. The inner Sgorrla never stop hunting down traitors. No. Nothing can challenge Sgorr now.’
‘I put my faith in Him,’ said the last hind quietly. She was also from the loch.
‘Who?’
‘The One in the north.’ The hinds fell silent.
‘He will sacrifice himself to free us all,’ whispered the hind.’That is what He was born for.’
‘Don’t talk like that,’ said one of the hinds from the home herd. ‘If the Sgorrla overheard you—’
‘No,’ interrupted the second hind, ‘I’ve heard about him too. Teela was talking about it only the other day. You know Teela – she stood with Rack last Anlach, before he was killed. The rumours say He’s coming to fulfil the Prophecy and free us all, to restore Herne’s law. That He was born here amongst us and fled long ago.’
‘What’s that?’ came a voice behind them. The hinds started but when they turned it wasn’t Sgorrla they saw but another hind.
They all recognized the old hind for she was famous in the herd, but they were surprised to see her amongst them now. Sgorr kept her at his side perpetually, but in the past suns Sgorr had been busy with thoughts of the march north and Eloin had persuaded him to allow her to wander for a little while every sun, down through the herd. She had just been to see Shira and Canisp, and was walking back when she overheard part of their conversation.
‘Nothing,’ answered the hind that had been speaking, dropping her eyes guiltily.
‘Come, my dear,’ said Eloin, ‘I know you were saying something.’
The hinds looked uncertainly at one another.
‘Please don’t tell Sgorr,’ said the first hind.’If you do we wouldn’t. . .’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Eloin gently, ‘I will tell Sgorr nothing, nothing at all. I promise.’
The hind from the loch, who had first spoken of the Prophecy, looked into Eloin’s face. The fur round her muzzle was grey and she seemed terribly tired.
‘He’s coming,’ she said, ‘to free us all and fulfil the
Prophecy. Herne is coming.’
‘Ah,’ said Eloin sadly, ‘I thought that’s what you were saying.’
‘Have you heard of it too?’ said the hind.’Do you know of the Prophecy?’
‘Oh yes, I know of it.’ Eloin smiled.
‘But do you think it’s true?’
‘Go on believing it, my dear, if it gives you hope,’ said Eloin quietly, and she turned and walked slowly away.
As she went, Eloin shook her head. Poor things, she thought to herself sadly. If they only knew that Rannoch is dead. But they need something to believe in. It can do them no harm.
As Eloin thought now of Rannoch, she fe
lt that familiar anguish in her heart. With the years, the pain of loss and grieving had hardly grown any fainter. She could still picture Rannoch in her mind’s eye. His little face blinking up at her in the night. It was too cruel. Her beautiful fawn, torn to shreds by dogs.
Rannoch was gone and Brechin was gone. Blindweed too.
Only Shira and Canisp remained as a fragile link to her past. She had told them both the truth about Rannoch and the night by the stream. Many times in the past suns she had asked them to recount the story of their journey to the loch and dwelt lovingly on their descriptions of Rannoch as he began to grow. But the stories had always ended in the same way. In the pained silence of the hinds as she asked them about that day in the gully.
Eloin looked out across the lake and spotted Sgorr with Narl. The hatred she felt for him swelled in her stomach as she watched ten Sgorrla rushing towards them. They were escorting a single stag.
‘Lord Sgorr,’ cried one of the Sgorrla, rushing ahead.
‘What is it now?’ snapped Sgorr, furious at being interrupted.
‘To the north,’ panted the stag, ‘a sun away. Herla stags.’ Narl looked at his master.
‘Well?’ said Sgorr.
‘They came off the Great Mountain,’ said the stag nervously.’They’re Outriders.’
‘Outriders? Are you certain?’
‘None of their heads were marked like the Sgorrla’s.’
‘None of them? Are you absolutely positive?’ said Sgorr quietly. The stag was surprised by the urgency of Sgorr’s question.
‘Yes, Lord.’
‘You didn’t see one among them,’ said Sgorr, ‘with a white mark on his head, like a leaf?’
‘No. I’m sure of it,’ said the Sgorrla.’We watched them for a sun. We’d been shadowing the humans as they travelled west.’
Sgorr nodded to himself. He was pleased.
‘How many of them are there?’ he asked.
‘Eighty and there are two hinds with them. They’re coming towards us.’
‘Well, well,’ said Sgorr, ‘eighty Outriders and a couple of hinds come to face a thousand stags. They’re certainly brave, I’ll give them that.’
‘Lord Sgorr,’ said the Sgorrla, looking back towards his companions, ‘we captured one of them.’
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