The Far Side Of Forever Part 34

made it down to the ground, though, and the bushes were still there, but fearless leader looked arounc' at them as if he knew they were thinking about disappearing.

"This is closer to the road than I like being, but I suppose we have no choice," he said, running one hand through his hair. "We have to rest, and we have to hide the horses white we do it. Kadnm, you take first watch, then wake me for the second. I'll wake you, Zail, and if we need a fourth watch, Su will take it. 1 hate leaving the horses saddled, but that's something else we have no choice about. We might need to move out of here in a hurry."

"Wouldn't worry too much about being close to me road," Su told him. stretching wide and hard. "The trail brought us this way, like it means to go back and join the road again. Better if we don't get too far from the trail."

"I think I'll have to agree with that," Rik told her, but not very enthusiastically. "If we lose the trail we have trouble, probably more than anything the road will bring, but that doesn't mean we can forget about everything else.

Whoever happens to be on watch had better move around during his or her time, just to make sure they don't fall asleep. Okay, Kadrim, it's all yours now."

"And if it becomes necessary, I'll take the watch after Su's," I put in just as everyone began moving in different directions, looking for their own piece of ground. "Don't forget to wake me, Su."

With everyone stopped it was my turn to move away, fairly well satisfied with my announcement and the way I'd made it. Fearless leader had deliberately left me out of his arrangements for guard watch, but I'd just as deliber- ately put myself back in them. The only other one who hadn't been included was Dranna, but considenng the fact that she was already asleep on the ground, she didn't count. I hadn't been asked if I wanted to be left out, so / hadn't asked before inviting myself back in.

"If a watch after Su's becomes necessary, Kadrim will take it," I heard behind me, an acknowledgment of what I'd said I hadn't been expecting. "How many watches we stand will depend on how long each watcher can stay awake alone, and just how much sleep we need before we

220 .

can move on again. It also doesn't make much sense having someone stand guard who's unarmed. If we're attacked, we need someone to fight back who's wide awake, giving the sleepers a chance to drag themselves out of the fog. Simply yelling for help doesn't serve the same purpose."

I turned back at once intending to argue what he'd said, but this time I was the only one, aside from Kadrim.iwho was still standing. The others were down on the gra.s.s and stretching out wearily, already ignoring a subject which had been closed. The redheaded boy-man looked at me with sympathy, but the look also showed complete agree- ment with what had been decided. I was unarmed and without magic, a total noncombatant, someone who needed to be protected rather than someone who could help pro- tect everyone else. I hated being treated like that, hated the very thought of it, but no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't force them to risk their lives to prove it wrong.

Three more steps brought me to the piece of ground I'd chosen, and when I'd lain down I moved my gaze to the trunk of a nearby tree. I stared at it and stared at it for a least a minute, but at the end of that time 1 was still able to see nothing more than peeling brown bark. I hadn't known how flat and shallow the world was without the Sight, how vague and uninteresting everything would look. It was like being locked in a small cage lined with thick cotton pad- ding, enough to keep you from reaching any part of the real world, not enough to become something that could be fought against. It was stifling and horribly confining, but it didn't mean 1 was entirely useless and helpless. I may have been without magic but I wasn't helpless, and as soon as the opportunity arose, I would prove that to all of them.

I didn't realize I'd fallen asleep until I woke again, curled up on my right side with my face on my arm.'I was warmer than I'd been during the night but not that much warmer, which had led me to believe at first that I was waking up in some abandoned warehouse, the rest of the pack not far from me. Instead it was the group who weren't far from me, and not all of them were awake.

221.

I stretched the painful stiffness out of my arm as I sat up, then went to work on the matching stiffness in my neck. It was hard teliing how long I'd slept, but the middle of the day seemed already to have pa.s.sed, something the sky above the trees refused to confirm. The clouds of the day before were back again, and although they were fairly high up they didn't seem close to breaking up and blowing away. Their almost constant presence made that world seem even flatter and duller than losing the Sight would account for, and 1 was getting very tired of looking at it.

"Come and have something to eat with us," Zail said in a very low voice as he crouched next to me, his sympa- thetic gray eyes showing that he'd also had to go through destiffening when he'd awakened. "We'll be waking Dranna and Su in a little while, and then we'll be moving on."

If he'd been inviting me to socialize I would have refused, but with two people still sleeping there would be "nothing in the way of chitchat to ignore, and the idea of food sounded good. I moved myself to my feet without looking at him, stretched my way over to the saddlebags, then helped myself to some rabbit without paying any more attention to the other two men than 1 had to Zail.

Fearless leader had been the one who had refused to let me stand a watch, but Zail and Kadrim had made no effort to get him to change his mind. It hadn't been hard to decide that if they agreed with him so completely, the least I could do was accord them the same treatment I was giving him. I took my rabbit and sat down with my back to the three to eat it. and somewhere behind me someone sighed.

I didn't know which one of them it was, but it really didn't matter.

Dranna was the first one to be awakened, and from Kadrim's whispered explanation to her I gathered that Su had stood a very long watch and was therefore going to be allowed to sleep a little while longer. Dranna had some difficulty getting herself unwound from where she'd slept, but I couldn't help noticing how comfortable Su looked, as though she were stretched out on the softest of beds rather than on stiff gra.s.s covering very hard ground. I'd spent a lot of years sleeping on hard, uncomfortable surfaces, and looking at Su reminded me of the trouble I'd had the first

222.

nights in Morgiana's house. A soft bed isn't a luxury when that isn't at atl what you're used to, and I remembered how surprised Morgiana had been when she'd walked in one night to find me curled up on the nig in front of the Fireplace in my room. It had taken me time to get used to using the fine bed I'd been given, and I wondered with a faint smile if Su had used the bed I'd created for her along with her pavilion. If we ever did get out of there to a place I could use magic again, I'd have to remember to ask her what she preferred in the way of sleeping accommoda- tions.

Dranna was mostly moving freely again and was already eating some of the rabbit, when Zail came quickly back into our bushes from wherever he had gone, gesturing toward us unmistakably to keep quiet. Rik got immediately to his feet and Kadrim put a hand on Dranna's shoulder, but straining my ears didn't bring me any sounds I hadn't been hearing before. Zail gestured over his shoulder as he moved soundlessly to Su's side to wake her, and then the noise began coming to us, the noise of hoofbeats mixed with voices. The voices appeared to be enjoying them- selves and the hoofbeats were taking their time, and when i looked around at our group again there were four swords in four fists, the weapons having been drawn soundlessly.

Su had gone from sleep to full wakefulness almost instan- taneously, doing a good job destroying one of the excuses Rik had given me, and then we were all crowding around Zail.

' 'It's a group of riders, probably members of that Sacred Guard from the looks of them," Zail whispered low, mainly to fearless leader. "Coming up the road, most likely heading for the city we just pa.s.sed. Considering the number of blades involved, we might be better off not mixing it up with them."

"If the choice stays ours, I'll keep that in mind," Rik murmured, and then he glanced around at me rest-of us.

"Everyone get mounted as quietly as you can, and once in the saddle stay low. If they just keep going, we'll move out as soon as they're out of sight, but if our luck turns bad we'll have to be ready. In case of a fight, Zail, Kadrim and 1 will hold them off, Su, while you run as fast

223.

as you can with Dranna and LacieL You'll be following the trail and once we break free we'll be following you, so make sure you leave some sign. You'll also have to take care of the girls if you run into any more of these, but we'll be along as fast as we can so it shouldn't be for too long. Okay, everybody to their horses."

No one stopped to ask for clarification, to put questions, or to lodge objections, which was to be expected consider- ing how close the sounds on the road had grown. I went to my horse with the others, just as silent as they, but hardly with the same intention; Rikkan Addis had excluded me once, but if he thought he was going to do it again, he was crazy. Su could look after Dranna, who was pale and seemed to be very frightened; the other one of "the girls"

didn't need to be looked after.

Although the horses had spent our rest time saddled, they'd also eaten and slept and now seemed ready to get on with the journey. We discovered, however, that they were a little too ready; they began dancing as soon as we were in our saddles, eager to be off and thinking we were the same- Most of us were able to hold them reasonably still but Dranna, distracted by nervousness, was a shade too slow with reins and knees. "Until then we'd been very glad to have strong, high-spirited mounts under us; as soon as the shouts came, telling us we hadn't been iucky enough to have the movement of a white horse in the middle of greenery go unnoticed, the gladness began evaporating.

"We don't want to be caught in here," Rikkan Addis -said quickly when it was certain we'd been discovered, his sword back in his hand. "Everybody out before we're surrounded, and don't forget what you're supposed to do."

With that he let his roan surge forward, and once we had charged through the screen of bushes, he and the other two men wheeled left to ride at the mounted force coming at us from the road, while Su and Dranna took off right at fall speed, angling for another pan of the road. If bad luck had gotten us noticed in the bushes, good hick had seen to it that most of the riders had already gone past our position when it had happened. Su and Dranna had a clear road, and they lost no time taking it.

224.

1 turned to look at the natives who had discovered us, and foundlhem considerably different from the ones we'd spoken to the night before. There seemed to be about a dozen of them or more, and each one was twice the size of the small, nervous man, welt-fed and well-fleshed, some bearded, all wearing brown and gray uniforms, brown boots, and swordbelts. They shouted in surprise when they found themselves being attacked, two of them going down with their swords only half drawn, the snarls on their faces showing their affront. They'd probably thought we were some of the small, helpless people, easy targets for riding over even without weapons, but they were quickly learning better. Even so there were only three men coming at them, which made them very eager to wet their blades.

Fd had enough time to consider what I would do, and the first requirement was to find something to fight with.

A nearby tree provided that in the form of a dead branch, long enough and heavy enough to do what I needed it to, and it didn't take long breaking it free. I turned with it in my hand to discover that two of the big natives had worked their way behind Kadrim and Zail, and weren't far from putting their blades in their backs. My gray needed very little urging to get me over there at top speed, and then 1 was swinging away, getting one of them in the head and the other in the shoulder. The first went down without a sound, either unconscious or dead, but the second yelled, his sword gone and his shoulder probably broken, and then he was down, too, a crack in the face quieting him immedi- ately. The heavy branch in my hand had vibrated every time I'd struck, and the feeling of exhilaration was incredi- ble. So much for helplessness, and so much for running.

By that time everyone knew i was there, my three quest companions as well as me natives. Rikkan Addis had begun cursing furiously as h?. fought, and for some reason Zail and Kadrim seemed Justus angry- It hadn't occurred to me that those two would think I was trying to steal their thunder, but I didn't have the time to worry about it. After gaping at me incredulously for a moment, some of the natives stopped trying to reach the men and were yanking their horses around, heading toward me.

The next few minutes were more than brisk, but that's

225.

not to say they weren't enjoyable. The first two to reach me made the acquaintance of my branch, and although they didn't go down i was sure I could hear the sound of bones breaking. My gray danced and snapped at the smaller horses being ridden by the natives, frightening the poor beasts into backing off with squeals, and I kept my branch hard on the move, making the riders shy about coming too close to it. All in all it was a lot of fun, but it did seem to be nearing the time we should have been getting out of there. I glanced over toward my three companions, seeing that they were engaged and still outnumbered but easily holding their own, and then-

"Got her!" a voice came from directly behind me, just before two oversized arms closed around me. My gray half-reared at the feel of the extra weight on his back, but it was too late to unseat the native who had jumped onto my horse behind me. My right arm was pulled down and held close to my body like the left, and then other hands were on the branch and forcing it out of my grip. i struggled furiously, kicking and trying to pull loose, but die one behind me wasn't alone, and suddenly there was a strip of leather being tied tight around my wrists. I shrieked with rage and tried to keep it from happening, but it was already too late and then I was being lifted and pulled from my saddle onto the mount of one of the natives, my struggling either endured or ignored- I hadn't expected them to do that, not in the middle of a fight, and then it became much, much worse.

The one holding me turned his horse and, surrounded by at least four of his friends, began riding at top speed directly toward the city we'd skirted so carefully the night before.

CHAPTER 8.

We rode slowly past small but solid-looking houses as we entered the city, and most of the people on the streets turned to stare at my grinning, joking escort, their expres- sions a mixture I didn't care to a.n.a.lyze too closely. Some ^ of the people walking wore uniforms like those of the men who had captured me. mostly brown trimmed with gray, plus gray insignia of some sort, but others wore outfits that were more one-piece suits than uniforms, the gray showing up in them to a greater extent and not just as trim. The men in suits were deferred to by the small, quiet people, the ones who were barefoot and wearing no more than ,*

strips of brown cloth. The houses and buildings behind them all were neat and looked well-kept, but they were as dull and drab as the brown-haired, brown-eyed people themselves.

For the hundredth time I tried moving my wrists in the leather holding mem together, but there was as t.i.ttle give in the strip as there was hope inside of me. I'd completely forgotten what those people had said about me being prom- ^ ised to their G.o.d-king, and I'd finally gotten depressed enough to admit that joining the fight and giving them the chance to capture me was probably the stupidest thing I'd ever done in my entire life. For someone who'd set out to prove she wasn't helpless, I'd certainly done a bang-up job. -?<,>

The man I rode in front of tightened his arm around my '^

226 ^,;.

227.