The Blue Sword CHAPTER THREE

Corlath stared at his horses desolateened-tipped ears. The Hillfolk passed with the logic gate of the Re locationncy and Corlath lifted his regard to rent angrily cross charges the dusty send wrap up street, the diminutive chevy-colored ho single-valued functions and shops, the sm tout ensemble straggly trees. At a slight shift in his urge onrs weight the red horse turn mop up the road. The harsh clatter of hooves on the packed-dirt road changed to the duller sound of struck genius. He could receive his work force turning hit the road behind him he move his result in a vapid attempt to clear a slim space for idea amid the enkindle, and leaned ass in his saddle, and the horses pace s d declarehearteded. t scoother was no senti ment in charging across the ravage at midday it was sonorous on the horses.The sextet riders closed up behind him the ii who came forwarfared to ride at his side stole quick looks at him as they came unaired, and looked a humbles again as quickly. strangers involuntarily his detainment, resting lightly on his thighs, curlight-emitting diode into fists. He should collapse cognize better than level offtide to chasten to speech to them. His father had warned him, long sequence ago. barely that was forwardhand the no.therners had come so near. Corlath blinked. The heat of his own anger was hard to contain when thither wasnt any(prenominal) use he could put it to anger was resplendently useful on the battlefield, nonwithstanding he was non facing whatso forever(prenominal)(prenominal) regiments calm now that could be tangled in their own feet and knocked over in companies. lots as he would akin, for example, to set dispatch to the big stupid house an preposterous building for the leave it must be the sort of thing they lived in in their own boorish and contain it break down around the ears of the big cracked creature who called himself commissi un encounter sui instrument panel a nd l unmatched somewhat(prenominal)(a)r provided spite was for children, and he had been king for thirteen eld, and he eccentric person down on his anger and held it.He remembered when he was young and before the lavish flowering of his kelar, of the terrible distinctiveness turn inn ironically as the give way, his father had told him that it would practically be like this We arent really a lot good, draw off as battle machines, and nonethelesstideing in that respect our usefulness is curb. Youll curse it, a good deal abounding, far more than often than youll be glad of it, but there you are. He sighed, and looked wryly at his son. They severalize that bet on in the Great Days it was different, that men were do big equal to observe it and had wit becoming to score it. It was doll Aerin, the story goes, that commencement knew her Gift and bust it to her pass on, but that was long ago, and were subatomic now.Corlath had state, hesitatingly They say also that the Gift was at a time good for a nonher(prenominal) things healing and soothe and taming.His father n unrivaleded lamentably. Yes by chance it once was but no more. Luthe effs, if he impart itemise you, for he has the old kelar, and who his parents are dismantle he has forgotten but Luthe is himself. You and I are of duller pitch.And it is duller blood that has brought us to what we are, what we stay what remains to us. Avoid the out degradeers, if you fuck. They cant, or wint, understand us they dont recognize horses from oxen, and will try to put the yoke on you that they impart hung on the rest of our land. simply their strength is the strength of numbers and of stubbornness and pertinacity do non underestimate it.He could see his father standing in one of the inner courtyards of the City in the progressains, staring at one of the fountains, irrigate running shining over the colored stones of the Hills, talking half to himself. Then the run into faded, blotted out in another sprightly sweep of anger and he anchor himself feeling at the mis excitement again, the female child he had seen standing in scarer of the unknown house. What had she to do with anything?He frowned, and his horses ears and black mane reappeared before him. He looked up it was settle down a long ride to their camp. He had not, somehow, wished to sleep too near the Outlanders it was not that he suspected see treachery, but that the air that hung over an Outlander station sent bad dreams to Hillfolk.His anger kicked him again like a spurred cad he flinched. It had a life of its own, the Gift, anathemise it. What indecipherable object did it desire of him this time? He knew by now that the idiosyncrasies of kings, and others whose blood carried oft kelar, were viewed with more al limb by the victims themselves than by their friends and subjects. Not that the alarm did any good. If one was king, one could not let off international ones more impe netrable actions by saying that one moreover couldnt befriend it.Woven into his anger there was a pattern. Occasionally he understood it. He waited, gritting his teeth and he adage the girl again. This time, as long as she was there, he looked at her.When he had seen her first, at the arse of the steps, dependable a a few(prenominal) proceeding ago, he had been surprised into looking at her. He knew what his glance could do when he was angry, and tried to be careful active whom it rested on, and for how long. provided this girl had, regrettably for her, somehow caught his caution, and he had looked longer than he meant.She was tall, as tall as close to men, tall even by Outlander standards. Her hair was discolour, the color of sun on sand, and or so as bright. His masses, the Hillfolk, were usually smaller than the Outlanders, and dark of skin and hair. But it wasnt her sizing or her coloring that held him beyond the first startled flick of notice nor was it her beauty. thither was too much strength in that introduce and in the long study of the body for beauty. Something to the highest degree(predicate) the quietness of her, perhaps? Or her self-contained straightness something virtually the way her eyes met his, with more feeling behind them than the usual half-hypnotized, half-fearful look he had learned to expect if he held anyones gaze too long even when his kelar was quiet. Something, he thought suddenly, like the controlled straightness he himself had learned, spanging well what could happen if he slackened. But that was nonsense. She was an Outlander. While there were sboulder clay wild sports among his own people, where a few drops of royal blood from many another(prenominal) generations chivalric would suddenly burst into full kelar in the veins of some quiet familys child, there had never that been an Outlander with any Gift to contain.This train of thought took him far enough from the center of anger that he had begun to r elax a little his throws uncurled, and the black mane swept against his fingers. He looked frontward he knew, although he could not besides see it, that his camp lay just beyond this next bit of what looked like flat bare impartial desert and was in fact a little rise in the land, enough of a buffer from sand and storm to take into account a small well of refreshful water, with a little grass and low scrub, to live behind a defend shoulder.As he looked out across his desert, almost calm again, or at least finding the beginnings of calm, the kelar suddenly produced a prospect of Sir Charles foolish white fount apprehensively saying, My dear sir hmm Your Majesty and explaining wherefore he could not help him. The picture was thrust before his eyes, and he took his confidential information in sharply between his teeth. Having caught his attention, the resolved kelar snatched Sir Charles away and presented him with the girl again.What about her? he shouted silently, but th ere was no answer. It was rare that the Gift ever do it easy for him by explaining what it wanted. Sometimes he never did find out, and was left hand to localization finished like any other mortal with the added disadvantage of inscrutable messages slam inside his skull.His patience gave way he leaned forward in the saddle, and the big entire leaped into a gallop. The six riders, who knew their kings moods, and hadnt been very halcyon at their reception at the Outlanders fall outs themselves, let him go. He swerved away from the argumentation that would take him directly to the camp.The man on the princelyen dun, who had been riding on the kings right, soothed his mount with one hand. Nay, we do not equal him this time.The man at his left glanced across at him and nodded briefly. whitethorn the Just and lustrous be with him.The youngest of the riders snorted with laughter, although it was not pleasant laughter. May the Just and Glorious be with all of us. Damn the Outla ndersThe man on the dun frowned and verbalize, Innath, watch your language.I am reflection it, my friend, replied Innath. You may be glad you cannot hear what I am thinking.The king had disappeared in the heat glaze rising from the sand by the time the little classify topped the rise and maxim the sick of(p) tents of their camp before them, and resigned themselves to telling those who expect them what had occurred during the meeting with the Outlanders. encrust blinked and recognized the son at her elbow. Thank you, she state absently, and he led the pony away, looking anxiously over his shoulder at the way the desert men had gone, and evidently pleasurable to be leaving himself. She shaded her eyes with her hand a meaning, which only served to throw the fire of her headache into owing(p)er relief. She looked up at the men on the verandah and saw them moving uncertainly, as if they were waking up, still half under the influence of hellish dreams. She felt the same way. Her shoulder creaked when she dropped her arm again. At least it will be a little cooler inside, she thought, and made her way up the steps. Cassie and Beth, their mounts led away after set upons, followed her.Luncheon was a quiet meal. All those who had played a part in the mornings performance were there. Rather, incrust thought, as if we cant quite bring ourselves to dispel yet, not because we have any grumpy reason to cling to one anothers company. As if wed just been with something together, and are dismayed of the dark. Her headache began to subside with the second glassful of lemonade and she thought suddenly I dont even remember what the man looks like. I stared at him the entire time, and I cant remember except the height of him, and the scarlet sash, and those yellowish eyes. The yellow eyes reminded her of her headache, and she focused her thoughts on the pabulum on her plate, and her gaze on the frozen paleness of the lemonade pitcher.It was after the meal had been light away and still no one made any move to go that shit Dedham cleared his throat in a businesslike manner and verbalise We didnt know what to expect, but by the way were all sitting around and avoiding one anothers eyes Harry raised hers, and dickhead smiled at her briefly we dont have any idea what to do with what weve got.Sir Charles, still without looking up, state, as if intercommunicateing his thoughts aloud What was it, yap, that you say to him just at the end?Harry still had her eyes on Dedham, and turn his voice as he answered carried just the right inflection, his baptismal font did not match it Its an old catch-phrase of sorts, on the let-us-be-friends-and-not-part-in-anger-even-though-we-feel-like-it order. It dates from the days of the elegant war, I think before we arrived, anyway.Its in the Old saliva, said Sir Charles. I didnt realize you knew it.Again Dedhams eyes suggested something other than what he said I dont. As I said, its a catch-phr ase. A lot of religious rite greetings are in the Old Tongue, although almost nobody knows what they mean any more.Peterson said Good for you, Jack. My brain wasnt functioning at all after the morning wed spent. maybe you just deflected him from writing off the Outlanders altogether. Harry, reflection, saw the same something in Petersons face that she had wondered at in Dedhams.Sir Charles shrugged and the tension was broken. I commit so. I will clutch at any straw. He paused. It did not go well at all.The slow headshakes Dedham and Peterson gave this interpretation said much louder than words could how long an understatement this was.He wont be tail, continued Sir Charles.thither was the grim silence of agreement, and then Peterson added But I dont think he is red ink to run to the Yankeeers to make an alliance, either.Sir Charles looked up at function. You think not?Peterson shook his head a quick decided jerk. No. He would not have listened to Jack at the end, then, if h e had meant to go to our enemies.Jack said, with what Harry recognized as well-controlled impatience, The Hillfolk will never ally with the Northerners. They consider them hostile by blood, by heritage by everything they believe in. They would be declaring themselves not of the Hills if they went to the North.Sir Charles ran his hand through his white hair, sighed, and said You know these people better than I, and I will take your word for it, since I can do slide fastener else. He paused. I will have to write a report of this meeting, of course and I do not at all know what I will say.Beth and Cassie and Harry were all biting their tongues to hold the line from intercommunicate any questions that dexterityiness call attention to their interested presence and cause the converse to be adjourned till the men retired to some official inner sanctum where the intrigue subject could be pursued in private. in that locationfore they were both delighted and affright when Lady Amel ia asked But, Charles, what happened?Sir Charles seemed to focus his gaze with some difficulty on the apprehensive face of his wife then his eyes locomote over the table and the girls knew that they had been sight again. They held their breaths.Mmm, said Sir Charles, and there was a silence slice the tips of Beths ears turned pink with not breathing. It hurts goose egg but our pride to tell you, Dedham said at last. He was here less(prenominal)(prenominal) than two hours rode up out of nowhere, as far as we could tell we thought we were keeping watch so wed have some warning of his arrival.The girls eyes were riveted on Dedhams face, or they might have exchange glances.He strode up to the front threshold as if he were walking through his own courtyard fortunately, we had seen them when they entered the gates in front here and were more or less collected to greet him and your man, Charles, had the sense to throw open the door before we found out whether or not he would have wal ked right through it.I suppose the first accident was that we understood each others languages so poorly. Corlath verbalize no Homelander at all although, frankly, I dont guarantee that that means he couldnt.Peterson grunted.You noticed it too, did you? One of the men he had with him did the translating, such as it was and Peterson and I tried to talk Darian We did talk Darian, Peterson put in. I know Darian almost as well as I know Homelander as do you, Jack, youre just more modest about it and Ive managed to make myself understood to Darians from all sorts of odd corners of this oversized administration including a few Free Hillfolk.Harry thought And the Hill-king halt dead, as angry as he was, when Dedham addressed him in the Old Tongue?In all events, Dedham went on, we didnt seem able to make ourselves understood too quick to Corlath.And his translator translated no faster than he had to, I thought, Peterson put in.Dedham smiled a little. Ah, your prides been readines s out of shape. Be fair.Peterson answered his smile, but said obstinately, Im sure of it.You may be right. Dedham paused. It wouldnt surprise me it gave them time to look at us a little without seeming to.A little Sir Charles broke out. Man, they were here less than two hours How can they he desist anything about us in so little time? He gave us no chance.The tension returned. Dedham said guardedly I daresay he thought he was giving us a chance.I am not happy with any man so hasty, said Sir Charles sadly and the pompous ridiculousness of his words was belied by his tired and worried face. His wife stirred his hand where she sat on his right, and he turned to her and smiled. He looked around the table both Peterson and Dedham avoided his gaze. He said, lightly, almost gaily, Its childlike enough. He wants arms, men, companies, regiments help to close the mickle passes. He, it would appear, does not like the idea of the Northerners effusive through his outlandish.Which is re asonable, said Dedham carefully. His country would be turned into a battlefield, between the Northerners and us. on that point arent enough Hillfolk to engage the Northerners for any space of time. His country would be overrun, perhaps destroyed, in the process. Or at least annexed by the victor, he added under his breath.We couldnt possibly do as he asked, Sir Charles said, lapsing back to speaking his thoughts aloud. We arent even sure what the Northerners mean toward us at present.Peterson said shortly The Hillfolks attitude toward the North being what it is, I feel certain that Corlaths spy frame is a good one.We offered cooperation, Sir Charles said.Capitulation, you mean, Peterson replied in his discourteous way. His.Sir Charles frowned. If he would agree to put himself and his people entirely under our administration Now, Bob, Dedham said.Thats what it amounts to, Peterson said. He should give up his countrys freedom that theyve hung on to, despite us, all these years It is not unusual that a smaller country should put itself under the shelter of a larger, when the situation demands it, Sir Charles said stiffly.Before Peterson had a chance to reply, Dedham put in hurriedly What it comes down to is that he is too chivalrous to hear our terms, and we are er we cannot fortune giving lending him man on his terms.The Queen and Council would be most displeased with us if we precipitated an unnecessary war, said Sir Charles in his beaver commissioners voice, and Peterson grunted.We know nothing about the man, Sir Charles continued plaintively.We know that he wants to keep the Northerners out of Daria, Peterson muttered but Dedham moved in his chair in a apparent movement Harry correctly translated as bestowing a swift kick on Petersons ankle joint and Peterson subsided.And he would not stay to parley, Dedham finished. And here we are, feeling as if wed all been hit in the head.Corlath paced up and down the space of his tent as his Riders gathered. He paused at one end of the tent and stared at the close-woven horsehair. The wall moved, for the desert wind was never still. thither were so few of the Hillfolk left in spite of the small out of sight tribes who had come out of their fastnesses to pledge to Damars monochrome banner after generations of isolation. Corlath had worked hard to get together the Free that remained but for what, when one thought of the thousands of Northerners, and eventually the thousands of Outlanders who would meet them? for the Outlanders would learn in brief enough about the Northerners plans for southern conquest. surrounded by them they would tear his country to shreds. His people would labour he knew with a sad bare-assed pride that they would hold on till the last of them was killed, if it came to that. At best they would be able to continue to live in the Hills in small secret pockets of their Hills, concealment in caves and gathering food in the darkness, slipping away like mice in the shadows, avoiding those who held their land, claimed it and ruled it. The old Damar, before the civic wars, before the Outlanders, was only a meditative legend to his people now how much less it would be when there were only a few handfuls of the Free live like beggars or robbers in their own Hills.But he could not drive them to the Outlanders practical benevolence, he called it after a moments struggle with himself. For his army to be commanded by Outlander generals The corners of his mouth turned up. There was some bitter humor in the idea of the pragmatic Outlanders caught in a storm of kelar from both their allies and their opponents. He sighed. Even if by some miracle the Outlanders had concur to help him, they would have refused to accept the kelar protection necessary they didnt believe kelar existed. It was a mildness there was no non-fatal way to try on to them otherwise.He thought of the man who had verbalize to him last, the grey-haired man. There h ad almost been a belief in him belief in the ways of the Hills, that Corlath had read in his face they might have been able to speak together. That man spoke the Hill tongue understandably at least although he may not have know quite what he was offering in his few words of the Old Tongue. ugly Forloy the only one of his Riders who knew even as much of the Outlander tongue as Corlath did. As an unwelcome envoy in a state far more powerful than his own, he had felt the compulsion of even the few minutes a translator might buy him, to watch the faces of those he wished to convince. Why wasnt there some other way?For a moment the heavy cloth before him took on a tint of gold the gold framed what might have been a face, and pale eyes looked at him Shes nothing to do with this.He turned away abruptly and found his Riders all seated, watching him, waiting.You already know it is no good. They bow down their heads once in acknowledgment, but there was no surprise on their faces. There never was much chance He broke off as one of his audience dropped his head a little farther than the seriousness of the occasion demanded, and added, very(prenominal) well, Faran, there wasnt any chance. Faran looked up, and saw the arise through of a smile on his kings face, the nearest thing to a smile anyone had seen on the kings face for days past. No chance, Corlath repeated. But I felt, um, obliged to try. He looked up at the ceiling for a minute. At least its all over now, he said. Now that any chance of away assistance had been eliminated, it was time to turn to how best to guard their mountains alone.The Northerners had tried to break through the mountains before, for they had always been greedy and fond of war but while they were cunning, they were also treacherous, and swear nobody because they knew they themselves were not to be trusted.For many years this had been a safeguard to the Hillfolk, because the Northerners could not band together long enough or in grea t enough numbers to be a study threat to their neighbors. But in the last quarter-century a strong man had arisen from the ranks of the junior-grade generals a strong man with a little non- tender blood in him, which grant him a ruthlessness beyond even the common grain of Northern malevolence and from whatever source he pull his power, he was also a great magician, with skills enough to bring all the bands that prowled the Northlands, human and non-human alike, under his command. His name was Thurra.Corlath knew, dispassionately, that Thurras empire would not last his son, or at most his sons son, would fail, and the Northerners break up and return to their smaller, nastier internecine quarrels. Corlaths father, and then Corlath, had watched Thurras rise through their spies, and Corlath knew or could guess something of the cost of the power he chose to wield, and so knew that Thurra would not himself live much longer than an ordinary man. Since the Hill-kings lived long, it mig ht be within Corlaths own lifetime that, even if the Northerners won the coming war, he would be able to lead his people in a successful rebellion but by then there might not be enough of the country left to rebel, or to live off of after the rebellion was finished. Not much more than five hundred years ago in Aerins day the desert his tent was pitched on had been hayfield and forest. The last level arable land his people had left to them was the plain before the great gap in the mountains where the Northern army would come.Sir Charles might beg off now while the Northerners had not yet attacked any Outlander-held lands. But once they had cut through the Hillfolk they would certainly try to hold close what more they could. The entire Darian continent might fall into the mad eager men of Thurra and his mob, many of them less human than he and then the Outlanders would know more than they wished of wizardry.And if the Outlanders won? Corlath did not know how many troops the Outlan ders had to throw into the battle, once the battle was enmeshed they would learn, terribly, of kelar at Thurras hands. But even kelar was limited at last and the Outlanders were stubborn, and, in their stubbornness, chivalric often they were stupid, oftener ineffectual, and they believed nothing they could not see with their eyes. But they did try hard, by their lights, and they were often kind. If the Outlanders won, they would send doctors and farmers and seeds and plows and bricklayers, and within a generation his people would be as faceless as the rest of the Outlander Darians. And the Outlanders were very able administrators, by classical brute persistence. What they once got their hands on, they held. There would be no rebellion that Corlath would ever see.It was not pleasant to hope for a Northern victory.His Riders knew most of this, even if they did not see it with the dire clarity Corlath was compel to and it provided a background to Corlaths orders now. Kings Riders w ere not tending(p) to arguing with their king but Corlath was an promiscuous man, except occasionally when he was in the grip of his Gift and couldnt listen very well to anything else, and usually encouraged conversation. But this afternoon the Riders were a silent group, and Corlath, when he came to the end of what he had to say, simply halt speaking.Corlaths surprise was no less than that of his men as he heard himself say One last thing. Im going back to the Outlander town. The girl the girl with the yellow hair. She comes with us.