Part 12 (1/2)
”Not at the cost of your life,” Taran said. ”Hevydd the Smith will ride with you to the border. Lla.s.sar Son of Drudwas will help the rest of us find our way.”
”Won't do,” muttered the dwarf. ”Take too long without Fair Folk skill. Tie me to the saddle,” he commanded.
He strove to raise himself from the ground, but fell back and lay motionless. His breathing grew rasping and violent.
Taran cried out in alarm, ”He's dying. Hurry, Fflewddur. Help me put him on Llyan. She is the swiftest mount. Ride back with him. There may still be time.”
”Leave me here,” Doli gasped. ”You can't spare Fflewddur. His sword is worth ten. Or six, at least. Go quickly.”
”That I will not do,” replied Taran.
”Fool!” choked the dwarf. ”Heed me!” he commanded. ”It must be done. Are you a war leader or an a.s.sistant Pig-Keeper?”
Taran knelt by the dwarf, whose eyes were half-closed, and gently put a hand on Doli's shoulder. ”Need you ask, old friend? I'm an a.s.sistant Pig-Keeper.”
Taran rose to meet the bard, who had hastened up with Llyan, but when he turned back to the dwarf, the ground was empty. Doli had vanished.
”Where has he gone?” shouted Fflewddur.
An irritable voice came from somewhere near a boulder. ”Here! Where else do you think?”
”Doli!” cried Taran. ”You were close to your death, and now...”
”I've turned invisible, as any clodpole with half an ounce of sense can plainly see,” snorted Doli. ”Should have thought of it before. Last time in Annuvin, I was invisible most of the way. Never realized how it protected me.”
”Can it serve you now?” asked Taran, still a little bewildered. ”Dare you keep on?”
”Of course,” the dwarf retorted. ”I'm better already. But I'll have to stay invisible. As long as I can stand it, that is! Invisible! Hornets and wasps in my ears!”
”Good old Doli!” Taran cried, seeking vainly to pump the dwarf's unseen hand.
”Not that again!” snapped the dwarf. ”I'd not do this willingly-oh, my ears-for any mortal in Prydain-oh, my head-but you! And don't shout! My ears won't stand it!”
Doli's staff, which had dropped to the ground, seemed to rise of itself, as the invisible dwarf picked it up. From the motion of the staff Taran could see that Doli had once more begun trudging ahead.
Guiding themselves by the length of wood, the companions followed. Yet even without sight of the staff they could have found their way, led by the sound of loud and furious grumbling.
Fflewddur was first to sight the gwythaints. In the distance, above a shallow ravine three black-winged shapes soared and circled. ”What have they found?” the bard cried. ”Whatever it is, I hope we're not the ones to be found next!”
Taran sounded his horn and signaled the war band to find whatever protection they could among the huge boulders. Eilonwy, disregarding Taran's orders, scrambled to the top of a high, jutting stone and shaded her eyes.
”I can't tell for sure,” Eilonwy said, ”but it looks to me as though they've cornered something. Poor creature. It will not last long against them.”
Gurgi crouched fearfully against a rock and tried to make himself as flat as a fish. ”Nor will Gurgi, if they see him,” he wailed. ”They will seize his poor tender head with gas.h.i.+ngs and slas.h.i.+ngs!”
”Pa.s.s on! Pa.s.s on!” Glew shouted, his little face puckered in fright. ”They're busy with their prey. Don't stop here like fools. Get as far away as we can. Oh, if I were a giant again, you'd not find me lingering!”
The gwythaints narrowed their circle and had begun to swoop downward, seeking their kill. But suddenly what appeared to be a black cloud, with a dark shape leading it, streaked down from the eastern quarter of the sky. Before the surprised companions could follow its swift movement overhead, the cloud shattered as if at its leader's command into winged fragments that drove straight upon the huge birds. Even at this distance Taran could hear the furious screams of the gwythaints as they veered aloft to face these strange a.s.sailants.
Fflewddur had leaped up beside Eilonwy and, as Taran and Doli clambered to a vantage point, the bard shouted excitedly: ”Crows! Great Belin, I've never seen so many!”
Like great black hornets, the crows swarmed over their enemy; it was not a single combat of bird against bird, but a battle in which whole troops of crows grappled and clung to the gwythaints' las.h.i.+ng wings, heedless of sharp beaks and talons, forcing the creatures earthward. When, by sheer strength, the gwythaints shook off their attackers, a new troop would form and renew the charge. The gwythaints sought to break free of their burden by plunging downward, sc.r.a.ping as closely as they dared against the sharp stones. But as they did, the crows pecked furiously at them and the gwythaints spun and fluttered dizzily, losing their course and falling once again victim to the relentless onslaught.
In a last burst of power, the gwythaints beat their way aloft; they turned and sped desperately northward, with the crows in hot pursuit. They vanished over the horizon, all save a solitary crow that flew swiftly toward the companions.
”Kaw!” Taran shouted and held out his arms.
Jabbering at the top of his voice, the crow swooped down. His eyes glittered in triumph and he flapped his s.h.i.+ny wings more proudly than a rooster. He gabbled, croaked, squawked, and poured forth such a torrent of yammering that Gurgi clapped his hands over his ears.
From his perch on Taran's wrist, Kaw bobbed his head and clacked his beak, thoroughly delighted with himself and never for a moment ceasing his chatter.
Taran, trying vainly to interrupt the crow's raucous and boastful clamor, had despaired of learning any tidings from the roguish bird when Kaw flapped his wings and sought to fly off again.
”Achren!” kaw croaked. ”Achren! Queen!”
”You've seen her?” Taran caught his breath. He had given little thought to the once-powerful Queen since her flight from Caer Dallben. ”Where is she?”
The crow fluttered a little distance away, then returned, his beating wings urging Taran to follow him. ”Close! Close! Gwythaints!”
Eilonwy gasped. ”That's what we saw. The gwythaints have slain her!”
”Alive!” Kaw answered. ”Hurt!”
Taran ordered the Commot hors.e.m.e.n to await him, then leaped to the ground to follow after Kaw. Eilonwy, Doli, and Gurgi hastened to join him. Glew refused to budge, remarking that he had already skinned himself on enough rocks and had no intention of going out of his way for anyone.
Fflewddur, hesitated a moment. ”Yes, well, I suppose I shall go along, too, should you need help in carrying her. But it doesn't sit well with me. Achren was eager enough to go her own way, and I rather think we shouldn't meddle. Not that I fear her, not for a moment-ah, the truth of it is,” he hurriedly added, as the harp strings tensed, ”the woman makes me shudder. Since the day she threw me into her dungeon, I've noticed something unfriendly about her. She has no fondness for music, I can tell you. Nevertheless,” he cried, ”a Fflam to the rescue!”
Like a tattered bundle of black rags the still form of Queen Achren lay in the fissure of a ma.s.sive rock where she had, in her last hope, pressed to escape the gwythaints' vicious beaks and talons. Yet her refuge, Taran saw pityingly, had offered the Queen scant protection. Achren moaned faintly as the companions carefully lifted her from the crevice. Llyan, who had followed along with the bard, crouched silently nearby, and lashed her tail uneasily. Achren's face, drawn and deathly pale, had been badly slashed, and her arms bore many deep and bleeding wounds. Eilonwy held the woman and tried to revive her.
”Llyan shall carry her back with us,” Taran said. ”She will need more healing herbs than I have brought; more than her wounds, a fever has weakened her. She has gone long without food or drink.”
”Her shoes are in ribbons,” Eilonwy said. ”How far must she have wandered in this awful place? Poor Achren! I can't say I'm fond of her, but it makes my toes curl up just imagining what could have happened.”
Fflewddur, after helping move the unconscious Queen to more level ground, had stayed a few paces away. Gurgi, too, chose to keep some distance between Achren and himself. Nevertheless, at Taran's bidding they drew closer and the bard, with many soothing words, held Llyan steady while the other companions lifted Achren to the great cat's back.
”Hurry along,” called the voice of Doli. ”It's starting to snow.”
White flakes had begun drifting from the heavy sky; within little time a biting wind swirled around the companions and snow drove against them in an ever-thickening cloud. Needles of ice stung their faces, it grew more and more difficult to see, and as the storm gained in fury even Doli could no longer be sure of the path. The companions staggered blindly in a file, each clutching the other, with Taran gripping an end of Doli's staff. Kaw, almost entirely covered with snow, hunched up his wings and tried desperately to keep his perch on Taran's shoulder. Llyan, burdened with the motionless Queen, bent her great head against the gale and plodded onward; but the sure-footed cat often stumbled over hidden boulders and snow-filled pits. Once Gurgi yelled in terror and vanished as suddenly as if the earth had swallowed him. He had tumbled into a deep crevice and by the time the companions were able to haul him out, the hapless creature had nearly turned into a s.h.a.ggy icicle. He trembled so violently he could scarcely walk, and between them, Taran and Fflewddur bore him along.
The wind did not slacken, the snow fell in an impenetrable curtain; and the cold, already bitter, grew even more intense. Breathing was painful and with each labored gasp Taran felt the frigid draft like daggers in his lungs. Eilonwy half-sobbed with cold and exhaustion, and she clung to Taran, striving to keep her footing as Doli led them through drifts that now had risen more than knee-high.
”We can't go on,” the dwarf shouted above the wind. ”Find shelter. Make our way to the hors.e.m.e.n when the snow lets up.”
”But the warriors, how shall they fare?” Taran replied anxiously.