Nancy Springer.

Isle.

The Silver Sun.

book one.

THE FOREST.

Chapter One.

TheForest was the abode of warlocks, folk said, and gob- lins, and other creatures even worse. Still, Alan bent his staggering steps toward theForest , as a desperate man will. Robbers had stripped him of everything-horse, weapons, even his clothing. The peasants could not spare him more than a beggar's crust. But within theForest wil- derness, Alan hoped, he might be able to find something to eat and a covering for his naked body.

He had not reckoned on his own dizzying weakness.

The world swam before his eyes, and trees encircled him with a green blur. He sensed movement and angry shout- ing, but he did not care. Then the sting of a sword-flat across his back jolted him into full awareness.

Alan found himself facing a big, angry captain at the head of a mounted patrol. The next blow of the captain's sword knocked him to the ground. He lay sprawling, with no strength to flee or defend himself. Closing his eyes, Alan braced himself against the punishing blade.

But as suddenly as the blows had begun, they ceased.

Alan looked up. What he saw was to remain clear in his memory for as long as he lived.

The burly captain had turned pale with fear. His chin quivered above a glinting blade pressed against his fleshy

throat. But more fearsome than the sword's point, Alan thought, was the one who held the sword. He was a youth with the face of a warrior, straight of brow and strong of Jaw-but there was more than a warrior's power about him. His eyes were steel gray, and there was some quality in his hard gaze that caused the captain to tremble and flinch, that caused Alan himself to struggle to his feet in hazy alarm. Yet he could not name the fear that he felt-

The gray-eyed youth spoke a few words that Alan could not understand, while his glance flashed with an eerie intensity of will that shocked Alan anew. Though the stranger had not moved, holding his sword to the cap- tain's throat, the horses plunged away from him. The cap- tain's men could not control them. Squealing and shying, they bolted into the Forest with their hapless riders on their backs. The stranger knocked the captain's sword from his limp fingers, slashed his reins and sent his horse careering after the others.

Alan stood watching, swaying with hunger and pain, vaguely thinking that he should leave as well. He did not have the strength to move a step. But the gray-eyed youth seemed to sense his hesitation. Quietly he dismounted from his big, gray horse and walked to face Alan. "My name is Hal," he said, "and I will befriend you, if I may.

Will you come with me?"

Alan was absurdly glad that a choice was offered to him, though he could not have turned away without fall- ing. He nodded and reached out toward the other, shak- ing with the effort. He could scarcely see. He feit a gentle hand take hold of him, and he gulped burning liquid from a flask. Hal wrapped him in a cloak and helped him into the saddle of his gray steed, then mounted behind. They sped away into the Forest

"It will not take those ruffians long to come after us,"

Hal muttered, and Alan decided he liked the sound of that low voice.

The ride was a haze of pain for Alan. The horse was strong and swift, and theForest whirled by. Alan barely noticed when they came to a rocky stretch of waste, but he did notice when they entered theForest again, for his rescuer guided the horse slowly and carefully over the ground. Then they stopped in a dense stand of cover. Be- fore long Alan heard approaching hoofbeats. The captain and his demoralized troop swept past. The big man had

4 THE SILVER SUN.

found his sword, and his face was as red as his red roan horse.

Hal chuckled, and Alan grinned in spite of his pain.

They moved on, more slowly now. Alan lost track of time until at last they stopped and he felt himself lowered to the ground.

He needed another pull from the flask before he was able to sit up and look around. He was by a small spring which flowed into an open forest meadow. The horse was grazing, and Hal knelt, rummaging in the saddlebags. He drew forth strips of bandage, a dark little jug and a rather old hunk of bread. To Alan the bread was a vision of bliss, and he grasped at it with the impatience of a child.

"Eat slowly," Hal cautioned. His gray eyes were darker now, but softer, as gentle as they had been hard before.

Alan bit into the precious bread. He scarcely noticed as the blood-stiffened cloak was peeled away from his wounded back. Hal carefully washed the sword stripes, applied ointment from the jug, than laid on pads of cloth.

He bandaged these on with strips of cloth around Alan's body and shoulders. Alan was surprised that he could not eat much of the bread, but it did not matter. A blanket was wrapped around him, and he slept.

It seemed only a few minutes later that he was awak- ened by a gentle shaking. But it was after nightfall. A small campfire was crackling nearby, and over it sat a kettle from which issued a delicious aroma of meat.

"Can you sit up?" asked Hal. "Here, lean against this tree." The blanket served as a pad for Alan's sore shoul- ders. The fire warmed his bare legs. Hal filled a battered metal dish with stew, and handed it to him, along with a spoon and a cup of water.

Alan spoke with difficulty. "Hal, have you eaten?"

The other shook his head. "After you. There is only the one bowl and spoon."

Alan ate eagerly. The venison, roots and berries seemed to him food fit for a king's board. But he could not eat more than a few mouthfuls.

"I have not yet thanked you for saving my life," he said as he rested against the tree.

Hal lowered his gray eyes, flushing, genuinely ill at ease. "Never mind that," he mumbled. There was no hint about him now of the power that had cowed the cap- tain and his armed troops. Alan had never believed in

TheForest 5

warlocks; it was his hunger-fogged brain, he thought, that had imagined strange words and a stranger glance half a day before. Still, the horses had run away in spite of curbs and cuffs. . . . What sort of oddity was his new companion, that he could sow such fear with a glance?

"How did you come to be in such a pass?" Hal broke the silence. "Were you robbed?"

"Ay." Alan was still too weak for much speech.

Hal phrased his next question with diplomacy. In those days, when men could be outlawed for stealing a loaf of bread, it was not wise to pry. "Were you going anywhere in particular when you were robbed?"

Alan shook his head. Like Hal, he was a homeless wanderer. It was odd that two such youthful outcasts should meet.

"Will you travel with me, then, when you are better?"

Hal poked at the fire, and Alan could not see his lowered eyes. "My horse is as good as a man in many ways,"

Hal added, "but rather quiet. Sometimes it is lonely. . . ."

"Certainly I will travel with you," replied Alan promptly. For Alan was brave, and inclined to deal gen- erously with life. He saw a shy smile touch Hal's face, and then he went to sleep on his bed of moss without a doubt or a fear. He never afterward questioned his an- swer.

Alan felt much stronger when he awoke the next morn- ing. He put on the patched tunic Hal gave him, and ate some leftover stew. He put a pinch on the ground, first, for the god.

Hal glanced at him curiously. "Whom do you serve, Alan?"

"No one!" Alan smiled sheepishly. "I am not bound by any god of grove or cave or temple. But a lifelong habit is hard to break. . . . My fathers worshiped the Star Son."

"Ah." Hal's face was unreadable. "He is not too de- manding, this Star Son?"

"Nay," Alan answered grimly. "Not like the Sacred Son of the Easterners, who inflicts suffering worse than his own." He spoke harshly, for he was remembering someone he had once known. He could not tell that, be- hind the cloudy sheen of his gray eyes, Hal remembered as well.

After breakfast they scrubbed the pot in the stream, then wandered through the forest glade. It was late spring;

6 THE SILVER SUN.

the trees were covered with bright leaf, and the grass spar- kled like the water. Hal and Alan lay down and basked in the sun. The warmth baked much of the stiffness from Alan's wounds, and he stirred contentedly.

Hal spoke lazily. "I dare say we shall be having com- pany soon."

"Company?" Alan was almost asleep.

The outlaws that control this part of theForest ."

"Outlaws?" Alan was startled awake.

"From what I hear they are decent folk, though rough in ways. ..." A bird whistled from within theForest .