Growing alarm began to vibrate down the mental link, when suddenly a shout made me open my eyes. Only it didn’t come from the direction of the horses, but rather from the river. The men near the cooking fire jumped up and went running that way. It seemed the perfect opportunity for me to escape, yet I hesitated.
What had happened? Down at the river somebody yelled Lord Rhys’s name. Oh, by the nine freezing hells! What had the man done now? Coming to a decision, I grabbed my bags and clambered up on Hami’s neck. “Go!” I shouted.
“My lady, what are you doing?” one of the few remaining guards called, but I ignored him and urged Hami on.
The rope snapped when he surged forward and I directed him downriver. I would just have a quick look; after that I could still cross over and be away. Yet in my mind the connection to the horses frayed, my concentration faltering.
We pushed through some elder bushes to find the men clustered on the bank, shouting at each other and gesticulating wildly at the river, which was strewn with boulders at this point. Flotsam had accumulated amongst them and it took me a moment to spot what they were pointing at: a branch of a tree had caught on some rocks in the middle of the stream and somebody was clinging to it. White water foamed around a small blond head. Wynn!
How had he fallen in? Farther along the river narrowed, the banks closing in, and I heard the rushing noise of rapids. That moment one of the men launched himself into the water, a rope tied around his waist. Lord Rhys! His friend Taren and another man held the end of the rope, while the others shouted encouragements to the boy. I held my breath as Lord Rhys ploughed through the water. But suddenly I saw another large tree branch coming floating down the river, carried along by the rapid current. It turned lazily, as if reaching out for him. Lord Taren called a warning and Lord Rhys looked over his shoulder just as the branch swept by, tangling his rope. He went under, but metal flashed and he resurfaced. He’d cut the rope! By now the current had nearly swept him past Wynn, but he launched himself towards the boy and somehow managed to catch hold of one of the rocks. Only what good did that do? They were both caught out in the middle of the river now!
The men holding the rope had it torn out of their hands as the current swept the branch away. At once somebody went running off to fetch more, but surely that would take too long. They had to be freezing!
Lord Taren took off his shirt. “I’m going in.”
I started swearing inwardly. So much for my lovely plan of escape. The heavens must be laughing at me! I nudged Hami to walk up to Lord Taren’s side. He swivelled round in surprise and stared up at me.
“Here. Watch these.” I lowered my bags into his arm. “You’ll be sorry if they get wet.” I urged Hami forward.
He hesitated on the bank, balking at the rushing water, but I stroked his head in encouragement. “Come on, Hami. Trust me!”
Another firm nudge behind the ears and obediently he slid down the muddy bank. The impact of the current jarred through his whole body, nearly unseating me, and I gasped as ice cold water lapped against my legs. “Well done!” I shouted and Hami trumpeted a complaint.
Step by careful step I directed him into the middle of the stream, all the while keeping an eye out for more flotsam coming down the river. “You can do it,” I murmured more to myself than to the elephant. Hami rumbled unhappily, while the men on the bank had fallen silent.
Amongst the rocks two heads turned my way, Wynn looking white and exhausted, Lord Rhys grim. He had one arm slipped around the boy to keep him from being swept away, but surely he couldn’t hold on much longer and then the rapids would pull them under. The muscles on his back stood out in strain. Oh for a competent Water mage! Yet I had to go slow, for one stumble would be enough to do us all in.
The branch the two were clinging to didn’t look particularly sturdy either, and I feared it might break any moment, so I directed Hami downriver of the rocks, where the water streaming past gleamed like green glass. Hami needed all his great strength just to keep his position in the current and couldn’t stand sideways to help the two mount his back. But at my urging, he slipped his trunk under Wynn’s arms and wrapped it round the boy’s waist. I extended a tendril of awareness to Hami to impress him with the importance of holding on tight and as always a deep sense of strength flowed back from him.
“Let go!” I shouted at Lord Rhys. When he released his grip, Hami lifted the boy clear out off the water.
“Pass him up!” I commanded. His trunk still wrapped around Wynn for safekeeping, Hami threw back his head and I reached out for the boy and somehow managed to pull Wynn into my arms. The boy slumped in an icy bundle against me as Hami let go.
“I’ve got him,” I shouted to Lord Rhys and settled myself behind Hami’s ears more safely, “now you.”
That moment Hami shuddered as a particularly strong current hit him. How would we get Lord Rhys up? I doubted Hami would be able to lift a grown man so high. And I couldn’t help either, not without risking having Wynn fall in again.
Lord Rhys slung his wet hair out of his face. “I can swim to the bank.”
Really, I hadn’t come all this way to watch him drown! “Don’t be a fool!”
Struck by an idea, I pushed my feet against Hami’s ears, giving him the signal to pick up a load, and along our mind link sent him a picture of Lord Rhys. Hami hesitated for a moment, then my clever elephant wrapped his trunk around the man’s waist and plucked him up. Lord Rhys gave a shout of surprise.
“Hold still,” I called.
With his face dangling a bare hand span from the water, Lord Rhys stopped wriggling and nodded. Surely he didn’t weigh more than a log and those Hami was well used to carrying round. But now we had to get back, for the sides of the river were too steep farther down for an elephant to climb out. So I urged poor Hami back upriver against the current, though he had to be cold and exhausted. The boy in my arms seemed a block of ice and I was shivering from cold myself. As for Lord Rhys, he grabbed one of Hami’s tusks with one hand to hold onto, but it didn’t look very comfortable. Ah well, he couldn’t expect to be rescued in style.
The men on the bank cheered us on, but the river seemed reluctant to give up its victims and fought us every step. Yet eventually we reached the ford where the stream widened out. Hami splashed through the shallow water and with a last effort struggled up the bank to stand there with his head hanging. Lord Rhys got dumped unceremoniously on the ground.
I slumped forward. “Hami, you’re the best,” I murmured and patted him. He lifted his trunk weakly in acknowledgement.
After a moment a hand touched me lightly on the foot. “Lady, you need to get down.”
I nodded, but felt too cold for the moment to move. Lord Rhys extended his arms for Wynn and I lowered him down. Catching the boy neatly, Lord Rhys handed him over to one of his men, who wrapped a blanket round him, and held out his arms again. “Now you.”
With an effort I swung my leg over Hami’s neck and let myself slide down. Strong hands seized me and set me gently on my feet. For a moment we stood so, with my head resting against his bare chest in exhaustion, then I caught myself and stepped back. At once he released his grip.
“How’s Wynn?” I asked.
Lord Rhys ignored my question and instead called for more blankets. That moment the cook bustled up with mugs of hot tea. I could have kissed him! At my insistence Hami too got some blankets to put on his back and a pile of freshly cut grass. The cook meanwhile had built up the fire and we all huddled round. Poor Wynn’s face slowly regained some colour as he sipped his tea.
The cook patted him on his back. “You’re one lucky boy!”
Lord Rhys nodded grimly. “Perhaps you could now explain how you ended up in the river.”
The boy’s face lost all the colour it had gained. “I…I…I fell in.”
“And how did you manage to do that? I thought I’d given orders for you to groom Gwynt?”
“I did,” the boy stuttered. “But there was a tree growin
g by the river with a nest in it.” His voice grew smaller and smaller. “I thought it might be a hawk’s nest…with an eyas in it…or at least a few feathers. Only I fell in before I reached it.”
“So let me get this right,” Lord Rhys said in a level tone. “You nearly lost your life and Lady Arisha had to risk hers, because you wanted to gather some feathers?”
Wynn hung his head. “I’m sorry.”
“Aren’t you being a bit hard on the boy?” I protested.
Lord Rhys raised an eyebrow. “If he wants to lead men, he needs to learn what risks to take or avoid. Feathers have to be earned.”
Was that meaning of the feather ornaments? That moment Lord Taren put down my bags next to me. “Lady Arisha, here are your things back. I’ve kept them dry for you.”
“Thank you.” I couldn’t keep the irony out of my voice.
Lord Rhys stared at the bags. He slewed round towards Hami, who still had a bit of rope dangling from his hind leg. When he looked back at me, his eyes narrowed. He knew.
I raised my mug in a salute. What an irony that I had just saved Sikhand’s worst enemy from what might have been a watery death. And at what price to myself?
EIGHT
Once we had all changed into dry clothes again, we got ready to continue. In my bags I had some aromatic spice balls made from cardamom, ginger and other spices, so I gave a couple to Hami, who gobbled the restoratives down greedily. Yet he still hung his head in dejection, making me worry. I made him take a few steps and saw it at once: he favoured his right hind leg. When I crouched down and touched the skin, it felt hot and swollen and Hami winced.
“Is something the matter?” Lord Rhys had come up beside me unnoticed, making me jump.
I straightened up. “Hami must have strained his leg in the river. Perhaps he slipped on some stones.”
He frowned. “What can we do?”
The first priority was to cool the affected limb. “I need to stand him in the stream for a bit.”
Lord Rhys nodded and went to confer with his men while I led Hami down to the ford. He didn’t even bother to send a guard with me. He must have realised as quickly as I that my chances of making an escape had just gone up in smoke. I stroked Hami’s head, and he regarded me with his beautiful amber eyes framed by long lashes.
“It’s all right,” I said. “I’ll think of something.” If only I had training as a healer, but that took years to learn properly, and all my schooling had been with animals.
Too soon, Lord Rhys came to fetch me. “We need to move on if we want to reach the Eyrie in daylight.”
Biting back the reply that I had not the least desire to do so, I coaxed Hami out of the water and led him back onto the road. Perhaps a little exercise would even do him good, as long as I didn’t ride him. Lord Rhys offered me the use of a horse, but I declined, so in the end we walked either side of Hami.
Lord Rhys said very little, except to comment that his stable master made a good liniment for horses that might also help elephants, but every now and again I caught him giving me a brooding look when he thought I wasn’t paying any attention. What was on his mind now?
In this manner we travelled on for the rest of the afternoon, except for short breaks to bathe Hami’s foot whenever we crossed one of the small brooks that brought crystal clear water down from the snowfields up in the mountains. The sun had come out, making the fresh, green leaves of the birches and oaks carpeting the hills glitter like jewels and picking out the small white heads of wood anemones amongst the leaf mould on the forest floor.
Slowly the woods receded, giving way to tilled fields and open grassland, but straight ahead of us a mighty spur of the hills extended out into the plains, cut off abruptly at the end as if by a knife. With the sun setting, it cast a long shadow across the lands. When we got closer, I spotted a village huddling at the foot of the cliff, surrounded by an earthen wall topped by a stockade. Tents of all shapes and colours dotted the large field in front of it, as if the population of the village had over-spilt onto it. We had already been hailed by outlying guards, but now a cry went up from the palisade and a horn was blown.
“Home,” Lord Rhys said with evident satisfaction.
“That is the Eyrie?” I asked. It seemed a strange name for a village with no distinction except that it was the Eagle’s base.
Lord Rhys chuckled. “Not that.” He pointed upward. “Up there.”
I followed his glance and caught my breath. What I had taken for jagged cliffs were the ruins of a tower and some other buildings. A blue and gold banner flew from the very top. “How do you get up there?” I exclaimed. “Do you fly?”
“There is a path winding up the mountainside, even suitable for horses,” Lord Rhys explained. “But nobody lives up there at the moment.”
“Why not?”
He shrugged. “The old watchtower has fallen into disrepair. However, I intend to use the place as my seat. It’s unrivalled for its defensive capabilities and commands the road.”
His seat? That sounded rather grand! The tents were strewn across the field in no discernible order, not at all like a Sikhandi camp, but at our approach a mounted company formed amongst them and rode to meet us. One of the men held a black and red banner aloft.
Lord Rhys drew in his breath with a sharp hiss. “Pellyn’s here already!” Abruptly he turned towards me. “Arisha, can you make the elephant trumpet?”
“Of course, but–”
“Do it!”
His voice was so forceful, I gave Hami the signal for the rallying call. But as the loud trumpeting rang out over the field I was annoyed with myself for obeying without thinking. What hold did the man have over me? The effect on the group of horsemen was immediate: their mounts reared in terror and a couple even ran away with their riders. While they still fought to get their horses back under control, the riders got overtaken by a mixed crowd of people cheering and calling the Eagle’s name. They lined the road a safe distance away, waving and laughing.
I chanced a glance at the man beside me and saw a rare smile on his face. However, that got quickly suppressed when the leader of the horsemen – on foot now, since no untrained horse would come near Hami – approached us. Had that been Lord Rhys’s intention, to make the man meet him on the same level?
“Pellyn,” Lord Rhys said, “you must excuse me for not being here to greet you upon your arrival.” He indicated Hami. “As you can see, I had some urgent business to attend to.”
Lord Pellyn stared up at the elephant, clearly awed. I judged him to be a few years older than Lord Rhys, with a long neck supporting a thin, severe face, upon which hardship had long ago driven out any kindness it had ever held. “Lady of Darkness!” he exclaimed. “I don’t believe it, you’ve captured an elephant! How did you manage to do that?”
“We had a piece of luck. One of their handlers ran away with one and we managed to intercept her on the way to Ysgol Pass.”
“Her!” His gaze fastened on me and hard eyes raked me over. “I see you’ve captured something else as well…” He smiled in a way I did not like at all. “A piece of luck indeed!”
“Lady Arisha is my guest,” Lord Rhys said, his voice flat.
Guest? I doubted I could just leave! Lord Pellyn echoed my thoughts. “Guest? Is that what you call it now?”
“Yes.”
The tone invited no further comment, but Lord Pellyn ignored the warning. “Rhys, those pigs take our women for slaves.” He cast me a speculative look. “Why shouldn’t we get back our own and do the same to them?”
“Because we’re not like them.”
“I had no idea you were growing soft-hearted with age.” The other man shrugged. “Well, do whatever you want with your captive.” He dismissed me from his attention and greeted Lord Taren.
I released my breath slowly. Soft-hearted? That had to be a new accusation for the Eagle. It struck me then that as far as encountering rebel groups went, perhaps I hadn’t done too badly.
That mo
ment the crowd parted to let a woman through. “Rhys!” she shrieked and flung herself into his arms.
Lord Rhys laughed and hugged her, his usually stern expression transformed with affection. “Little one, did you miss me?”
So that was his wife? She had a mop of blond curls framing a pretty face speckled with freckles and eyes that sparkled with a mix of joy and annoyance. She poked a finger in his chest. “What did you think you were doing, riding off without so much as a word?”
“We got news of the elephant in the middle of the night,” he answered. “I didn’t want to wake you.”
Mollified, she took his arm. “As if I cared!”
Somehow I had expected Lord Rhys’s wife to be a lot more subdued and quiet than this smiling girl who now greeted all the men. Out of nowhere a stab of annoyance hit me not to find her the poor, downtrodden creature I had imagined her. It took an effort to wrestle down the irrational feeling.
Lord Rhys introduced me to her. “Cerwen,” he said, “this is Lady Arisha tal Ardavan. Will you look after her for me? And her elephant needs care.”
“Of course.” Blue eyes regarded me in a frank appraisal. “Welcome to the Eyrie, Lady Arisha.”
“Thank you.” I couldn’t quite keep the irony out of my voice.
“You can put her in my rooms for tonight,” Lord Rhys added.
His wife threw him a look of surprise. “If you wish.” She seemed to take being turfed out of her bedroom in astonishingly good part. I wouldn’t have been so meek!
Lord Pellyn had listened to the introductions with a sneer on his face. “Enjoying the company of your guest, eh?” he threw in.
“I’ll be sharing with Raven,” Lord Rhys answered with a smile as edged as a blade. “He won’t mind. It’s only for one night until we can sort something out.” He took the other man by the arm. “But you must tell me about your journey. And do you require assistance with your horses? The elephant seems rather to have upset them. My men would be honoured to help you.”
“We’ll manage,” Lord Pellyn snapped, obviously riled at being reminded of the undignified way they’d had to dismount, but he allowed his host to lead him away.
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