Aye. I could not leave the Gate before, for fear of Morgaine. Now I cannot stay here, for fear of her now I know what I needed to know; and you will aid me, Nhi Vanye i Chya. I am going to Morgaine."
Not with my guidance."
I have run out of allies, cousin. I shall go to her. It is possible that she is dead; and then we shall see-we two-what e shall do then. But she does not die easily, the witch of Aenor-Pywn. And if she lives, well, I shall take my chances with her all the same."
Vanye nodded slowly, a tautness in his stomach.
`You want your chance at Fwar," Roh said. "Be patient."
"Weapons."
"You will have them. Your own; I gathered everything back that the Hiua had of yours. And I will splint that knee of yours. You cannot bear the ride we must make, otherwise. There are clothes there better than the Hiua rags you and I will have to wear to ride out of here."
He edged over to the bundle that Roh pointed out, gathered up his own boots, and what else he needed, and dressed: they were of a size, he and Roh. He avoided looking at Roh, holding what he did in his mind: Roh knew he meant to turn on him; Roh knew,by his own clear warning, and yet armed him. And there was no sense in it that pleased him, nothing.
Roh rested in the corner against the grass wall, staring at him from half-lidded eyes. "You do not believe me," Roh observed.
"No more than the devil."
"Believe this at least: that out of this camp you trust me and keep your pledge to me, or Mija Fwar will have both our skins. You can bring me down but I promise you it will not profit you."
The commotion did not die away. It rose up again within the hour, and Trin thrust his head inside the shelter and hung there against the doorway, hard-breathing. "Fwar says get ready now. No waiting until dark. There is talk now of coming up here. The marshlanders want him,slow-cooked; him they could have, for my opinion but if they once pass those guards, with the khalon this side-well If you want those horses brought through, we have a chance of doing it now, quick, while they talk down there; when it gets to more than talk, we have no hope of doing it."
"Get to it," Roh said.
Trin spat in Vanye's direction, and left. Vanye sat still, his breathing choked with anger.
"How long will we need them?" he asked then.
"You may have to endure worse than that." Roh threw a bundle of cloth at him; he caught it, but did nothing more, blind with anger. "I mean it, cousin; armed you may be, but you will do nothing. You gave me a pledge, and I assume you will keep it. Smother that Nhi temper of yours and keep your head down. Leave your avenging to me until the time comes act the part of an ilinto the letter. You still remember how, do you not?"
He was shaking, and expelled several short breaths. "I am not yours."
"Be so for a few days. Bitter days. But by that means you may survive them, .and so may I; and your surviving them does that not serve her!"
That argument shot home. "I will do it," he said, and started pulling on the Hiua garments over his own; Roh did likewise.
There were two more bundles. Roh gave one to him, and it was incredibly heavy. "Your armor," Roh said. "All your belongings, as I promised. Here is your sword." And he unwrapped that and tossed it over, belt and all. Vanye set down the other and buckled it only about his waist, for to fasten it at the shoulder spoiled the Hiua garments and galled his wounds. Roh looked less Hiua than he, he reckoned, for Roh's hair was twisted at the nape in the warrior's knot, in the fashion of a hall-lord of Andur, and Roh was cleanshaven. His own face, bruised as it was, had not known a razor in days; and his hair, shorn in his loss of honor, had grown shoulder-length and a little beyond: usually that was held from his face by helm or coif, but now it went where it would, and he let it, which hid some of his bruises. He considered the bearing of the Hiua, and assumed in his mind their gracelessness, their hangdog manner: there was a nakedness in the prospect of going outside the shelter that chilled the blood in him.
Roh gathered up his own weapons, chiefest of which was a fine Andurin bow; the shafts his quiver carried were mostly long, green-fletched Chya arrows. He had the bone-handled Honor-blade at his belt, and bore sword and axe as well, the latter for the saddle. Hall-lord,Vanye thought in vexation; he cannot seem anything else.
And when the horses came thundering to the front of the shelter, with the shouts of Men audible in the distance, there was Roh's tall black mare, conspicuous among the smaller Shiua mounts: no hope of concealment; the alarm was surely passed Chya wildness-Vanye cursed it aloud, and flung himself for the saddle of the bow-nosed sorrel allotted him, cursed again as the leg shot fire up the inside when he threw it over. He shook the hair from his eyes and looked up-saw a cluster of khalurriders bearing down on them from the center of the camp.
"Roh!" he shouted.
Roh saw it, wheeled the black mare about and plunged through the Hiua, drawing them face-about, nigh forty riders, Hiua and a scattering of renegade marshlanders.
"We will shake them from our heels," Roh cried. "There is no luck for them in this direction."-For they were headed for the sprawl and clutter of the human camp, where a thin row of demon-helms manned the barricade, barring the way of trouble coming out of it.
The guards saw them coming, hesitated in confusion. Roh drew rein, shouted an order to open the barricade, and Hiua sprang down to do it-Roh passed at the least opening, and Vanye stayed with him, raking his leg on the barrier: it was all too quick, the guards without orders, not resisting. More Hiua poured through, and they plunged for the midst of the human camp at a dead gallop, aimed for the mob gathered there.
Swords whipped out; the mob lost its nerve at the first shock and scattered from their charge, with only a few missiles flying. One man was hit and unhorsed, and they took him for what fate was not good to think. But they broke through by sheer impetus and shock, with the open plain before them and a scatter of futile stones pelting from behind. Vanye kept low; he had not blooded his sword, not on men's.
Roh laughed. "The khalwill ride into a broken hive."
He looked back then, and there was not a Man in sight; no more stones, no fight; the human folk had gone to cover, armed, and there was no sight of the Shiua riders behind them either. Either they would seek some exit that avoided the human camp, or they would make the mistake of trying to ride through, and either would take them time.
"When Hetharu knows we are gone," Roh said, "as he must by now-then there will be no shaking them from pursuing us."
"No," said Vanye, "I do not think there will be."
He looked again over his shoulder, past the dark mass of Hiua riders, and it dawned on him what should have before, that his flight with Roh would stir all the camp into action the whole army would mass and move.
He said nothing, seeing finally the trap into which he had fallen-he had wanted to live, and therefore he had blinded himself to things other than his own survival.
Mirrind,he thought over and over, grieving. Mirrind and all this land.
Chapter Ten
They pushed the horses to the limit, and it was dark before they stopped, a fireless camp, one that they would break before dawn. Vanye slid down from the saddle holding to the harness and found himself hardly able to walk; but he cared for his horse, and took his gear and limped over to Roh's side, head bowed as he passed through the midst of the men. He thought that if one of them should set hands on him he would turn and kill that man; but that was madness and he knew it. He endured one man shouldering his horse past deliberately, and kept his head down as Roh had said assumed an ilin'shumility like a garment.