Urssain breathed out very quietly.

'You're a man who'll learn. And quickly when needs be. You learned immediately that to tell me other than the truth would be not only foolish but dangerous.' There was a dreadful chill in his voice and the coincidence of the words with his own earlier thoughts shook Urssain profoundly. He remained motionless and involuntarily held his breath again. He wanted to be a long way from here.

'And you have wants, have you not? Desires?' A long bony hand airily encompa.s.sed the room.

'Ambitions? For wealth? For power?' Again the coincidence of words. Urssain shrank within himself as if to close off his own thoughts.

'Nothing is hidden from me, Urssain,' Dan-Tor stood up and, placing his hands on Urssain's shoulders, stared deeply into his eyes. Urssain felt himself dwindle into nothingness in the shadow of such power, then he felt himself lifted up and carried somewhere high above his wildest ambitions.

Abruptly the power was withdrawn, leaving only a lingering after-image of some attainable goal burning in his mind. Dan-Tor was matter-of-fact again.

'I'll call you when I need you, Captain. Return to your barracks.'

'Lord,' said Urssain as steadily as he could, then he turned to leave the room. As he reached the door, Dan-Tor spoke again. 'The Mandrocs, Urssain. How did they behave in Orthlund?'

Urssain thought for a moment. 'It upset them, Lord. It's a creepy place. They were very unsettled anxious to be . . . home . . . somewhere else. I didn't like it very much myself to be honest. But they fought well enough.'

Dan-Tor nodded slowly. 'Send word they're to be kept in isolation until I've had an opportunity to study them. Don't let them mix with their own.'

Urssain acknowledged the order and closed the door quietly behind himself.

That at least is one useful piece of salvage from this wreck, thought Dan-Tor when Urssain had left. He had been watching the man for some time, looking for someone suitable to place in charge of the restructuring of the City Garrisons as the Mathidrin were gradually eased into power. Urssain's conduct while making his report had confirmed his worth the right balance of self-seeking cunning and stark fear, a perceptive man in his own barbarous way. And his ambition! Dan-Tor nodded to himself. You haven't even got your own measure of it yet, Urssain, he thought.

But, despite this, Dan-Tor's thoughts were dominated by Hawklan. Escaped again. Escaped with the knowledge that Fyorlund was under threat from some unknown enemy. Escaped to tell the Orthlundyn that Mandrocs were abroad and had killed on their blessed land if they didn't feel it already. Not even his Master could foresee how the Orthlundyn would react to such news. And why were Hawklan and that oaf of a Carver riding armed with Jaldaric? And where was the girl? Things were moving too quickly. Dan-Tor had the uneasy feeling that he was watching one pebble dislodge two as it rolled away from him down a hillside.

He dismissed the thought. Whatever the Orthlundyn had been, they were not so now and, in any case, they were too few to offer any serious opposition. All the damage that had been done could be repaired with a little thought. Useful experience would have been gained from the Mandrocs' exposure to Orthlund. More traps could be laid for Hawklan. Time was on the Master's side. Tomorrow he would interrogate Jaldaric.

'We'll weave a net to hold you yet, Hawklan,' Dan-Tor muttered softly to himself. 'Weave one from the threads your new-found friend will give us.'

A moth fluttered against the window, futilely rattling its wings against the gla.s.s as the invisible barrier kept it from its goal of light.

Chapter 13.

The journey back to Pedhavin was a strange, uncomfortable affair. Hawklan and Isloman both wavered in and out of different moods as they tried to adjust to recent events. But no real peace was to be found.

Something had been lost forever. Such tranquillity as they could achieve from time to time was only the stillness of the sea between breaking waves. Havoc would descend again on their minds all too quickly and with it came the grim feeling that it would never end.

Gavor returned eventually, exhausted but with news that Hawklan, at least, found heartening. The Mandroc patrol had maintained its rapid progress to the north and, leaving the road, had a.s.siduously avoided all contact with the villages and communities that lay between it and Fyorlund. Jaldaric was aliveand mounted, though bound.

'It looked to me as if they were leaving by the same way they came in, judging from the tracks,' he concluded.

'That's a relief,' said Hawklan. 'At least there'll be no more killing.'

Isloman snorted. 'The presence of those creatures in Orthlund is a murder in itself. Wherever they've come from they're a defilement. The very ground they tread on cries out in pain.'

Hawklan looked at him, a puzzled frown on his face at this unexpected vehemence. Isloman met his gaze.

'Can't you feel it?' he said impatiently, as to an obtuse pupil.

'I'm sorry . . .' began Hawklan, but Isloman interrupted him with a remorseful gesture.

'Don't apologize, Hawklan. It's my fault. It's hard to remember you weren't born here.' There was regret in his voice, though whether it was at his own impatience or because Hawklan was not an Orthlundyn was not clear. A little further on he spoke again. 'I can't explain, Hawklan, any more than I can explain rock lore to you, but everyone will know that something terrible has happened. You see. The first village we reach they'll be out, asking, worried.'

And that, thought Hawklan, is all the explanation I'm going to get, judging from the tone of your voice.

Gavor broke the slight uneasiness with a throaty chuckle. 'I'll tell you what those Mandrocs don't like, though.' He fell silent, awaiting a response from one of them. Hawklan looked at him sideways and raised his eyebrows, indicating it would not be from him. After a few moments, Isloman's curiosity got the better of him and, reluctantly, he asked what that might be. 'Ravens,' laughed Gavor. There was a note of malevolent exultation in his voice that made Hawklan turn sharply.

'What have you been doing, Gavor?' he asked before Isloman could respond.

'Nothing, dear boy,' replied Gavor innocently. 'Just ruffled a few feathers, metaphorically speaking.'

'Never mind the metaphors,' Hawklan said firmly. 'What have you done?'

'Well . . . I just flew round a little.'

'And?'

'Nothing much. Just sang them a little tune I'd remembered.' Green eyes and black eyes locked. Old friends.

'That little tune, as you call it, is a death cry, isn't it? A warning. Something out of your murky past, you feathered ancient.'

Then Gavor was all devilment. 'Yes it is. Yes it is. I don't know what it means, dear boy, b.u.t.they do.

And they don't like it. They becamevery restless. The poor man at the front had a very difficult time with them.' He chuckled again and hopped on to Hawklan's head. 'And less of the ancient, dear boy,' he said, ruffling Hawklan's hair with his wooden leg and hopping nimbly out of the way as a hand came upto dislodge him. 'After all, we're no hatchling ourselves, are we?'

Hawklan ignored the comment. 'Well?' he demanded.

'Well what?'

'What else did you do?'

'Oh. Nothing special. Just had a closer look at them once or twice.'

'How close?'

Gavor was gone, then . . .

'This close,' he shrieked, flying tumultuously between the two men from behind, and catching their heads with his thrashing wings. Both of them jumped at his sudden appearance and Isloman offered him a clenched fist as he soared high up above them. Gavor laughed raucously and tumbled over in the air.

'Theydidn't like it either,' he cried.

'I'll put you in a pot, you black-hearted crow,' roared Isloman as he struggled to regain control of his startled mount.

'Really, dear boy,' came the reply from above. 'Crow. Tut tut. No need to be personal. Your little brother's influence, I suppose.'

Then he soared in a great circle over their heads laughing to himself. The sound was infectious and Hawklan laughed quietly. 'There's a paradox for you, Isloman. It takes a bird to put our feet back on the ground again.'

Isloman replied with a formidable grunt and the two men rode on, the silence between them now a little easier and more companionable.

Shortly afterwards, strange noises could be heard overhead. Hawklan's face a.s.sumed an expression of mock pain, and Isloman slumped noticeably.

'He's practicing his bird impressions again,' said Hawklan plaintively.

Isloman looked up. 'There are times when life seems to be just one burden after another,' he said.

A faint voice came down to them. 'Thank you, thank you, ladies and gentleman. Now the nightingale . . .'.

The first village they came to was Little Hapter.

As Isloman had foreseen, the people came out to meet them. Hawklan knew many of them, and they acknowledged his greetings courteously enough, but there was a general air of preoccupation about them that was unfamiliar, and it was around Isloman that they all gathered. Hawklan looked at the growing crowd, and for the first time in twenty years felt that he was not one of these people. There was nothing hostile in their att.i.tude, or even unpleasant, but something had disturbed them at a level which heightened his position as an outsider and drew them to look first to their own kind.

Sensing it was a time to listen and learn, he was content to let Isloman answer their questions. He wanted to ask, 'How did you know?' but he knew that no answer would be forthcoming. Their responses to the news of the Mandrocs and the fighting ran the gamut of shock, alarm, and anger, as might be expected, but though these were sincere, Hawklan felt that the deeper shadows in the Orthlundyn were eased by the light of knowledge, however bad, and he felt himself brought back into their circle again.

He was inclined to dismiss the feeling of being an outsider as being over-sensitivity on his part or perhaps even a little residual shock, but he examined it again and found it true. There had been a strange but definite mood in the crowd as they turned initially to Isloman. One that he had never seen before. He set the thought aside for future consideration. It seemed to be important in some way.

Then he was with Isloman, sharing equally the centre of attention, and it was agreed that one of the elders should accompany them to Anderras Darion to discuss the matter thoroughly with elders from other villages.

So it was as they pa.s.sed through each village on their southward journey Greater Hapter (the smaller of the two villages), Astli, Perato, Oglin, Halyt Green, Wosod Heath, Lamely Bend and others the response was always the same. The people knew that something horrific had happened. They knew. And always their darkness eased a little when they learned the truth.

Hawklan had never known the Orthlundyn to be a simple folk. Each year he had lived with them he had learned to respect more and more the sophistication and deep wisdom that lay in their apparently simple life; their natural awareness of balance and order, of freedom within discipline, their respect for each other's freedom. A respect that had made him welcome and left him unquestioned in all his years with them, despite the mystery of his sudden appearance and his acceptance by Anderras Darion. Now, however, a force was at work deep within them that he had never known before, never even suspected.

Abruptly he felt lonely and lost, and woefully inadequate to serve these people who seemed now, in some way, to be looking to him for guidance.

With the pa.s.sing of each village their little party grew and, as most of the newcomers were old, their progress necessarily became slower. Gavor chuckled to himself from time to time as he looked down on the raggle-taggle parade wending its painstaking way along the old road, through the Orthlund countryside, boisterous with new growth and life.

'A fine strapping army you have there, O mighty Prince,' he gloated, landing with wilful awkwardness on Hawklan's shoulder and steadying himself by sticking his wooden leg in Hawklan's ear. Hawklan glowered at him and Isloman shook with silent laughter.

It was Gavor's irreverent clowning that had prevented the little cavalcade dropping into corrosive introspection and fretfulness, but Isloman found it difficult to equate this Gavor with the one who had filled the sky with an ancient death song and then slit the throats of Mandrocs with his murderous black spurs. Spurs of the same metal as Hawklan's strange sword. Spurs found by his brother near where the sword had fallen. Spurs that fitted his ridiculous wooden leg.

Isloman stared thoughtfully at the pair riding just ahead and to one side of him. Occasionally Gavor would hop on to Hawklan's head and extend his great shining wings in a luxuriant gesture and, to Isloman, the image of his old friend changed briefly from travel-stained and weary healer to a haunted,haggard leader, battle-wearied and a long way from what he loved, a terrible helm on his head and a black slaying sword by his side.

Eventually the distant towers of Anderras Darion came into view and, in spite of himself, Hawklan began to find it increasingly difficult to maintain the leisurely pace that the older people needed.

Gavor found it quite impossible and, as the party prepared to leave Tulhavin, the last village before Pedhavin, he appeared, meticulously groomed and carrying a particularly obnoxious morsel in his beak.

'I'll tell them you're coming,' he spluttered out of the side of his beak, then, as if an afterthought, 'Then I'd better see my friends. They'll be missing me.'

Shaking his head as he watched the black shape dwindle urgently into the distance, Hawklan turned to Isloman. 'I'll be glad to see familiar faces around me again,' he said. 'And familiar things.'

Isloman nodded and looked at his hands. 'Yes. I've been too long away from my rock. All this has awakened too many old memories.'

Hawklan looked at him seriously. 'I've no idea what's going to happen, Isloman, but I'm certain that we'll only get a brief respite at the Castle. I fear there's more than old memories being awakened and my heart tells me we're on the verge of journeyings and events that'll offer us no rest in the future.'

Isloman leaned forward and patted his horse's head with his great gentle hand. 'I know,' he said. Then, enigmatically, 'Everyone knows.'

Hawklan did not reply.

'We still have to seek out this Dan-Tor,' continued Isloman. 'And I can't avoid the feeling that when we do it'll only be the beginning of more trouble.'

'Rrisss awake.'

The voice sounded distant in Hawklan's head, whispering with an unrelenting urgency. He turned sharply to Isloman.

'What did you say?'

Isloman shrugged. 'I said it'll probably be the beginning of more trouble.'

Hawklan shook his head irritably. 'No, no. After that.'

'Nothing,' said Isloman.

'Thriss . . .'came the voice again or voices. There was a quality in the sound that could brook no delay. It was the same sound he had heard in his dream in the mountains and it drew him irresistibly. He stood in his stirrups and looked around desperately.

'There it is again,' he said, steadying Serian, who had become restless under him.

'I heard nothing,' said Isloman. 'It's the wind in the trees.' 'Sssss . . .'again, but fainter, as if carried away by the wind, or as if the caller were tiring.

'There,' cried Hawklan excitedly. 'Right there.' He pointed. 'Right ahead of us. Over the hill.'

Isloman watched his friend's agitation in amazement. He was about to say that he could hear nothing when Hawklan bent down over his horse's head.

'Now, Muster horse, let me see you gallop,' he said, and with a shake of his proud head, Serian leapt forward.

Momentarily dumbfounded, Isloman stared after the thundering horse now rapidly receding into the distance with its rider's cloak flying wildly behind him. Then, coming suddenly to his senses, he shouted to the group to wait until he returned, and urging his horse forward, he set off at full gallop after his friend.

Chapter 14.

Serian carried Hawklan to the top of the hill effortlessly. There, Hawklan reined him to a halt and looked along the road ahead. In the distance the towers of Anderras Darion shone in the morning light like great jewels crystallized in the ancient mountains, but the road in front of him dipped down into a wooded hollow untouched by the sun, and isolated tree tops protruded through a thick mist like saplings and shrubs in the snow.

Hawklan felt a surging excitement.

'Ethriss. Awaken,'came the voice, or was it voices? Strong at first, seeming almost to echo from the distant towers, but fading rapidly.

'No!' roared Hawklan at the top of his voice. 'No!' And driving his knees into the horse he urged him forward at full gallop down into the mist.