78.

THE SILVER SUN.

after them. Jabbering excitedly at the thought of a chase.

But after a while they were silent, finding they could not gain.

They galloped for hours, into the afternoon, with Hal and Alan holding their horses to a steady, rhythmic pace and the pursuers straining behind them. By midaftemoon, even at the lope, they had left Arrok's men half a mile behind them. At dusk, they would speed the pace to lose them.

But as the sun dripped, Alao called tensely, "Alfie's taken a stone in his hoof, I think. He's lame."

The horse was hobbling, though still galloping as fast as he could. Hal frowned and loosened his sword in the scabbard. Arrok's warriors drew closer behind them.

"Look!" Alan exclaimed. "How can that be Forest?"

A solid-looking mass of varicolored trees rose invitingly in the distance. Hal whistled softly.

"We must have come farther east than I thought," he called. "Courage. Alfie!" He spoke to the horse in his strange language, and Alfie lowered bis lean head to plunge painfully on.

The pursuit was almost upon them when they reached the trees at last. Hal spun Arundel and drew his sword, thankful for the protection at his flanks. Alan guided Alfie to a sheltering trunk and did me same. But Arrok's men turned away at the fringes of the Forest and gal- loped back toward Rodsen. Hal blinked into the setting sun.

"Huh!" he grunted, puzzled.

Alan was already off of Alfie, checking his hooves and legs. He removed a sharp stone and led the limping horse deeper into the Forest, patting him. Hal followed on Arundel. In a moment they found themselves descending a steep wooded slope to a hidden valley.

"Is it a haunt, Hal?" Alan murmured.

There was a change in the air, hardly definite enough to be called a fragrance, but something clear and fresh.

They straightened and smiled at each other in wonder.

When they reached the floor of the valley, they found an ordinary scene: a clearing with a bubbling brook, some sheep and a milk cow, a small cottage, a garden plot.

Yet something was very special about this serene dell.

The velvety grass fairly shone in the lee of the forested slopes, as if lit from within- Tiny golden flowers in the

The Forest 79 grass sparkled like jewels. The water in the brook shim- mered silkily, and the very wood of the cottage glowed like finest ivory.

"Hal," whispered Alan, "is this valley enchanted?"

Hal was about to reply when out of the cottage came a woman, very old, yet straight and strong. She carried a pan of bread for her flock of chickens, but stopped and smiled when she saw them. At her smile, Alan's suspi- cions vanished.

"Mireldeyn, Elwyndas, come inl" she called. "It has been a long time since I bad company."

"Think of nothing, ask nothing, but only enjoy," Hal told him as they forded the brook and dismounted near the cottage.

The woman fed them eggs, and porridge with honey;

the simple meal seemed to them the ambrosia of the gods.

They spoke of birds, perhaps, that come and go in their seasons, and of trees, the royal apple and the noble rowan, and of the Lady, the Rowan Lady on her Forest island of many trees, and of the Very King. All knowledge was theirs, and yet they could never remember exactly of what they spoke. That night they slept under a crescent moon, and their dreams were the color of springtime, though autumn burned all around them. The next day the old woman sat at her loom. Her web was green and golden, silver and black, but Hal and Alan could scarcely bear to look at it; afterward they knew only that it was lovely. They worked outdoors, tending the garden and gathering wood for the fire. Evening fell scarcely looked for, and the passage from day to darkness seemed a rhythm smooth as breathing.

They could easily have stayed there forever. In the valley, all of Hal's plans and cares were forgotten, for time did not nudge at him; time was like a still pool into which he looked, sitting apart. He could almost have forgotten that other world just beyond the trees, where thin streams of moments forever rushed and circled past.

But the old woman knew of that world, perhaps better than her guests. The next morning she packed their sad- dlebags with fresh bread, eggs and cheese. Without cere- mony they went on their way, and they still did not understand the meaning of their names. They slowly climbed the steep slopes, picking their way through the trees. There was no beaten path.

80.

THE SILVER SUN.

When they left the valley, the world seemed brown and dreary beyond bearing. They rode slowly southward along the western side of the leaf-littered Forest, quite

silent. It was not until afternoon that they began, haltingly, to talk.

"We never asked her name," sighed Alan. "Or else

I cannot remember. . . . And what were the names she called us?"

"I dont know. How long were we there, I wonder?

I could almost believe the year to have come and gone, full circle. But surely the snow would have fallen there as elsewhere, and I remember nothing but sunshine."

"We were there two nights; I remember the moons,"

Aian said. "How drab everything looks! I could almost wish we had never found that valley, for it makes our lot in this world seem the harder. .. . Yet a happiness lingers, like a dream after waking. Is it enchantment, Hal?"

"Nay, only very great good fortune. That is a place, Alan, that has not been touched by the blight of the Dark Kings, but has been overlooked since the beginning of the

Age or before. Do you remember the little yellow flowers in the grass?"

"Ay."

"They were Veran's Crown-gone from Isle seven generations now. Perhaps that woman is as ageless and timeless as the place itself."

The next ten days were the most miserable they had yet spent together. The east wind had brought the autumn rain, and it poured steadily almost every day and night.

Their clothing and blankets were soaked through, and the cold, damp wind chilled them to the bone. The For- est turned to a stark, sodden nightmare of slippery.

rotting leaves. It was impossible to start a fire from the dripping wood. Alan and Hal rode all day in the rain, slept in it at night, and lived on cold, wet food. Their tem- pers flared or were sullen, and even the horses drooped as they plodded along.

When the ram finally stopped, the cold wind continued.

Soon their noses were clogged, their ears ringing and their heads aching with cold and wind. It took several days for their blankets and clothing to get really dry, and even a campfire was small comfort in the squelching Forest So sometimes Hal and Alan went to one of the village ale-

The Forest 81

houses to share the warmth of the evening fire. Their ap- pearance usually caused a silence at first, but Alan had a friendly knack for inspiring trust, and folk talked to him freely, mostly of their crops or their lords.

One lord that was often mentioned was Pelys of Celydon. He was always named with respect, and his tenants were envied. The two travelers did not like to in- quire too closely, but it seemed that Pelys was one of the more powerful lords of the Broken Lands, this hilly, cen- tral portion of Isle. Celydon, his manor, was situated on the Rushing River, and its fields were surrounded by the Forest-an odd chance, since roost lords drove the Forest back from their lands.

It did not take Hal and Alan long to give up thoughts of pushing on to Welas through the winter. They agreed that Celydon should be their destination. Riders and horses alike were in need of shelter. And if fortune were with them. Lord Pelys might prove to be an important friend both now and in years to come.

It was dusk, several days later, when they finally looked down on the manor of Celydon from the fringes of the Forest that ringed its meadows and tilled land. They both felt a pang of longing, almost of recognition, as if they had known the place before, as if they were com- ing home. Celydon was not a walled town with a walled castle, like Whitewater, or even a walled town with a keep, like Firth. Instead, the Rushing River was dammed into a gentle meander through the folds of the bottom- land, and on an island amid its curves stood Pelys's stronghold.

"It is sturdily built," Hal declared.