The Burning Bridge Part 6

"Well," said the Baron, "I just thought that since you and he were once..." Something in Lady Pauline's expression stopped him from going further. "...You know?" he finished weakly.

"I'm afraid I don't, my lord," she said. "What is it that I should know?"

"Well, it's just that people have always said...you know...that you and Halt were once..." He realized he was floundering and he stopped once more. Lady Pauline was smiling expectantly at him. But the smile didn't reach her eyes. They were like ice. The Baron looked around for help and noticed Sir Rodney. He appealed to him for confirmation.

"Rodney, you've heard what people say, haven't you?"

But the Battlemaster was an experienced campaigner and he knew when a tactical retreat was the wisest course.

"I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about, my lord," he said. "I never listen to idle gossip," he added, a little smugly. Arald shot him a baleful look. Just you wait, it said. Rodney saw it, read the message there and shrugged. He'd take the Baron's anger over Lady Pauline's any day of the week.

"A wise policy, Sir Rodney," Lady Pauline told him. Then, turning back to the Baron, she continued, "But perhaps I do have a suggestion that might ease the problem with Halt."

The Baron seized the lifeline eagerly. "That's splendid, my lady! Splendid! And in point of fact, that's all I meant when I said that you might talk to him. After all, you are a very wise woman. Very wise."

Lady Pauline hid a smile with some difficulty. For a moment, she played with the idea of teasing him further-pretending to equate wisdom with advancing years. But she felt he had suffered enough.

"You're too kind, my lord. Altogether too kind."

The Baron breathed a sigh of relief that the conversation had veered away from dangerous ground. He had handled it very adroitly, he thought. Women were always susceptible to flattery, after all.

"So what is this excellent idea of yours?" he said, piling it on a little more. Lady Pauline hesitated just long enough to let him know she could see right through him, then continued.

"Well, sir, since Halt is missing his apprentice, I thought we might look at replacing young Will for a week or two."

"Replace him?" Arald said, puzzled. "We can hardly give Halt a new apprentice for two weeks, my lady."

"No, my lord," she agreed. "But I thought I might lend him one of mine."

It was Rodney who was first to see where she was heading.

"Young Alyss," he said, "the tall blond one?"

Lady Pauline inclined her head in his direction and smiled. Sir Rodney found himself wondering about the rumored relations.h.i.+p between Pauline and Halt. She was tall, elegant and graceful. And even now that her blond hair was streaked with gray, she was still an exceptional beauty.

"Exactly," she said. "I mentioned I'm planning to send Alyss on her first independent mission. I thought we might ask Halt to escort her. I'm sure his presence would be good for her confidence."

Baron Arald was tugging thoughtfully at his short beard.

"She's a rather solemn la.s.s, isn't she?" he asked, but Lady Pauline shook her head.

"On the contrary, my lord, she has a delightfully dry sense of wit. And a beautiful smile. We've been encouraging her to make greater use of it."

"And you think a week or so in her company might snap Halt out of this black mood he's in?"

"Well, if he's looking after her, it'll take his mind off his own troubles," Lady Pauline replied. "In addition, Alyss is young and free-spirited-and quite beautiful. I think her company might be enough to cheer up any man. Even grim old Halt," she added, smiling.

The Baron smiled too. "She sounds just like her teacher," he said.

And this time, it was no idle flattery.

9.

THERE WERE NO ANSWERS TO BE FOUND IN PORDELLATH. The three companions went through the village and found the same signs of sudden departure that they had seen at the border post. There was evidence of some hasty packing, but in the majority of houses, most of the occupants' possessions were still in place. Everything spoke of a population that had departed in a hurry, taking what they could carry on their backs and little more. Tools, utensils, clothes, furniture and other personal goods had been left behind. But they could find no clue as to where the people of Pordellath had gone. Or why they had departed.

As full night closed in, Gilan finally called an end to their search. They returned to the Riadhah's house, where they unsaddled the horses and rubbed them down in the shelter of a small porch at the front of the building.

They spent an uneasy night in the house. At least Will did, and he a.s.sumed Horace was as uncomfortable as he was. Gilan, for his part, seemed relatively unperturbed, rolling himself into his cloak and falling instantly asleep when Will relieved him after the first watch. But Gilan's manner was more subdued than normal and Will guessed that the Ranger was more concerned by this baffling turn of events than he was letting on.

As he stood his watch, Will was amazed at how much noise a house could make. Doors creaked, floors groaned, the ceiling seemed to sigh with every breath of wind outside. And the village itself seemed full of loose items that would bang and clatter as well, bringing Will to a nervous, wide-eyed attention as he sat by the unglazed window in the front room of the house, the wooden shutters hooked back to keep them secure.

The moon seemed keen to join in on the subterfuge as well, soaring high above the village and casting deep pools of shadow between the houses of the village. Shadows that seemed to move slightly when you caught sight of them out of the corner of your eye, then stopped as soon as you stared directly at them.

More movement came as clouds flew across the face of the moon, alternately causing the main square to be illuminated, then plunged into sudden darkness.

Just after midnight, as Gilan had predicted, a steady rain set in and the other noises were joined by the gurgle of running water and the plash-plash-plash of drops falling off eaves and into puddles below.

Will woke Horace to take over the watch at around two in the morning. He piled up a stack of cus.h.i.+ons and bedcovers on the floor of the main room, wrapped his cloak around him and lay down.

Then he lay awake for another hour and a half, listening to the creaks, the groans, the gurgles and the splashes, wondering whether Horace had dropped off to sleep and whether, even now, some unseen horror was creeping up on the house, bloodthirsty and unstoppable.

He was still worrying about it when he finally fell asleep, without noticing that he had done so.

They were on the road early the following morning. The rain had stopped just before dawn and Gilan was keen to press on to Gwyntaleth, the first large town on their route, and find some answers to the puzzles that they had found so far in Celtica. They had a quick, cold breakfast of hard bread and dried fruit, washed down with icy water from the village well, then saddled up and rode out.

They wound down the stony path from the village, taking their time on the uneven surface. But when they hit the main road once more, they urged their horses into a canter. They held the canter for twenty minutes, then rested the horses by riding at a walk for the next twenty. They maintained that alternating pattern through the morning, and the miles went by steadily.

They ate a quick meal in the middle of the day, then rode on. This was the princ.i.p.al mining area of Celtica and they pa.s.sed at least a dozen coal or iron mines: large black holes cut into the sides of hills and mountains, surrounded by timber shoring and stone buildings. Nowhere, however, did they see any sign of life. It was as if the inhabitants of Celtica had simply vanished from the face of the earth.

"They may have deserted their border post, and even their villages," Gilan muttered once, almost to himself. "But I've never yet met a Celt who would desert a mine while there was an ounce of metal still to be torn from it."

Eventually, in midafternoon, they came over a crest and there, in a valley dropping away from them, were the neat rows of stone roofs that formed Gwyntaleth towns.h.i.+p. A small spire in the center of the town marked a temple-the Celts had their own unique religion, which had to do with the G.o.ds of fire and iron. A larger tower formed the main defensive position for the town.

They were too far away to make out whether there might be any movement of people in the streets. But, as before, there was no sign of smoke from the chimneys and, even more significantly, according to Gilan, no noise.

"Noise?" Horace asked. "What kind of noise?"

"Banging, hammering, clanking," Gilan answered him briefly. "Remember, the Celts don't just mine iron ore. They work the iron as well. With the breeze blowing from the southwest as it is, we should be able to hear the forges at work, even from this distance."

"Well, let's go see then," Will said, and began to urge Tug forward. Gilan, however, put up a hand to restrain him.

"I think perhaps I might go on ahead alone," he said slowly, his eyes never leaving the town in the valley below them. Will looked at him, puzzled.

"Alone?" he asked, and Gilan nodded.

"You noted yesterday that we were making ourselves pretty obvious when we rode into Pordellath, and you were right. Perhaps it's time we became a little more circ.u.mspect. Something is going on and I'd like to know what it is."

Will had to agree that it made good sense for Gilan to go on alone. After all, he was possibly the best unseen mover in the Ranger Corps, and Rangers were the best unseen movers in the kingdom.

Gilan motioned for them to fall back from the crest they were standing on, and down the other side to a spot where a small gully formed a sheltered campsite, out of the wind.

"Set up a camp here," he told them. "No fires. We'll have to stay with cold rations until we know what's going on. I should be back some time after dark."

And with that, he wheeled Blaze and trotted him back over the crest and down the road toward Gwyntaleth.

Will and Horace took half an hour or so to set up the campsite. There was little to do. They attached their tarpaulin to some scrubby bushes growing out of the stone wall of the gully, weighing down the other end with rocks. At least there were plenty of them. This gave them a triangular shelter in case the rain set in again. Then they prepared a fireplace in front of the shelter. Gilan had said no fires, but if he arrived back in the middle of the night and changed those orders, they might as well be ready.

It took a considerably longer time to stack a supply of firewood. The only real source was the scrubby heather that covered the hillsides. The roots and branches of the bush were tough but highly flammable. The two boys hacked out a reasonable supply, Horace using the small hatchet he carried in his pack and Will his saxe knife. Eventually, with all their housekeeping taken care of, they sat on either side of the empty fireplace, backs leaned against rocks. Will spent a few minutes running his sharpening stone over the saxe knife, restoring its razor-sharp edge.

"I really prefer camping in forest areas," Horace said, s.h.i.+fting his back for the tenth time against the unyielding rock behind him.

Will grunted in reply. But Horace was bored and kept on talking, more for the sake of having something to do than because he really wanted to.

"After all, in a forest, you have lots of firewood, ready to hand. It just falls out of the trees for you."

"Not while you wait," Will disagreed. He too was talking more for the sake of it than anything else.

"No. Not while you wait. Usually it's already happened before you arrive," Horace said. "Plus in a forest, you've usually got pine needles or leaves on the ground. And that makes for a softer sleeping place. And there are logs and trees to sit on and lean against. And they have a lot fewer sharp edges than rock."

Again, he wriggled his back to a temporarily more comfortable spot. He glanced up at Will, rather hoping that the apprentice Ranger might disagree with him. Then they could argue to pa.s.s the time. Will, however, merely grunted again. He inspected the edge of his saxe knife, slid the knife into its scabbard and lay back. Uncomfortable, he sat up again, undid the knife belt and draped it over his pack, along with his bow and quiver. Then he lay back, his head on a flat piece of stone. He closed his eyes. The sleepless night he had spent had left him drained and flat.

Horace sighed to himself, then took out his sword and began honing its edge-quite unnecessarily, as it was already razor-sharp. But it was something to do. He rasped away, glancing occasionally at Will to see if his friend was asleep. For a moment, he thought he was, but then the smaller boy suddenly squirmed around, sat up and reached for his cloak. Bundling it up, he put it on the flat stone he was using as a headrest, then lay back again.

"You're right about forests," he said crankily. "Much more comfortable places to camp."

Horace said nothing. He decided his sword was sharp enough and slid it back into its oiled leather scabbard, leaning the sheathed weapon against the rock face beside him.

He watched Will again, as he tried to find a comfortable spot. No matter how he twisted and squirmed, there was always a pebble or a piece of rock poking into his back or side. Five or ten minutes pa.s.sed, then Horace finally said: "Want to practice? It'll pa.s.s the time."

Will opened his eyes and considered the idea. Reluctantly, he admitted to himself that he was never going to get to sleep on this hard, stony ground.

"Why not?" He rummaged in his pack for his practice weapons, then joined Horace on the far side of the tent, where he was sc.r.a.ping a practice circle in the sandy gully floor. The two boys took up their positions, then, at a nod from Horace, they began.

Will was improving, but Horace was definitely the master at this exercise. Will couldn't help admiring the speed and balance he showed as he wielded the long stick in a dazzling series of backhands, forehands, side cuts and overheads. Furthermore, when he knew he had beaten Will's defensive posture, he would, at the last moment, hold back from whacking him. Instead, he would lightly touch the spot where his blow would have fallen, to demonstrate the point.

He didn't do it with any sense of superiority either. Weapons practice, even with wooden weapons, was a serious part of Horace's life nowadays. It wasn't something to crow about when you were better than your opponent. Horace had learned only too well in dozens of practice bouts at the Battleschool that it never paid to underestimate an opponent.

Instead, he used his superior ability to help Will, showing him how to antic.i.p.ate strokes, teaching him the basic combinations that all swordsmen used and the best way to defeat them.

As Will ruefully acknowledged, knowing how to do it was one thing. Actually doing it was an entirely different matter. He realized how much his former enemy had matured and wondered if the same changes were evident in himself. He didn't think so. He didn't feel any different. And whenever he saw himself in a mirror, he didn't seem to look any different either.

"Your left hand is dropping too far," Horace pointed out as they paused between bouts.

"I know," Will said. "I'm expecting a side cut and I want to be ready for it."

Horace shook his head. "That's all very well, but if you drop it too far, it's easy for me to feint a side cut, then swing up into an overhand. See?"

He showed Will the action he was describing, beginning the sword in a wide sideways sweep, then, with a powerful wrist movement, taking it up into a high-swinging downward stroke. He stopped the wooden blade a few inches from Will's head and the Ranger apprentice saw that his counterstroke would have been far too late.

"Sometimes I think I'll never learn these things," he said. Horace patted him encouragingly on the shoulder.

"Are you kidding?" he asked. "You're improving every day. And besides, I could never shoot or use those throwing knives the way you do."

Even while they had been on the road, Gilan had insisted that Will practice his Ranger skills as often as was practical. Horace had been impressed, to say the least, when he had seen how adept the smaller boy had become. Several times, he had shuddered when he thought what might happen if he had to face an archer such as Will. His accuracy with the bow was uncanny, as far as Horace was concerned. He knew that Will could place arrows into every gap in his armor if he chose. Even into the narrow visor slit of a full-face jousting helmet.

What he didn't appreciate was that Will's accuracy was nothing more than average as far as Ranger standards were concerned.

"Let's try it again," Will suggested wearily. But another voice interrupted them.

"Let's not, little boys. Let's put down our nasty sharp sticks and stand very still, shall us?"

The two apprentices whirled around at the words. There, at the mouth of the small U-shaped gully where they had built their camp, stood two ragged-looking figures. Both were heavily bearded and unkempt and both were dressed in a strange mixture of clothing-some of it tattered and threadbare, while some items were new and obviously very costly. The taller of the two wore a richly brocaded satin vest, but it was thick with dirt. The other sported a scarlet hat with a bedraggled feather in it. He also carried an iron-spiked wooden club, holding it in a hand that was swathed in a dirty bandage. His companion had a long sword, jagged and nicked along the edges. He flourished it now at the two boys.

"Come on now, you boys. Sharp sticks're dangerorius for the likes of you," he said, and let go a hoa.r.s.e, guttural laugh.

Will's hand dropped automatically to reach for the saxe knife, encountering nothing. With a sinking feeling, he realized that his knife belt, bow and quiver were all neatly piled on the far side of the fireplace, where he had been sitting. The two intruders would stop him before he could reach them. He cursed himself for his carelessness. Halt would be furious, he thought. Then, looking at the sword and club, he realized that Halt's annoyance might be the least of his worries.

10.

THE GIRL WAS SMILING AT HIM AGAIN. HALT SENSED IT. IT was as if he could actually feel the smile radiating at him. He knew if he were to glance sideways at her, where she was riding just a few paces away from him, he would see it once more.

But he couldn't help himself. He looked and there it was. Wide, friendly and infectious. In spite of himself, it made him want to smile back in return and that would never do. Halt hadn't spent years cultivating a grim, unapproachable manner just to have it dispelled by this girl and her smile.

He glared at her instead. Alyss's smile widened.

"Why, Halt," she said cheerfully, "what a grim face that is to ride alongside."

They had left Castle Redmont the previous day for the short ride to Cobram Castle. He had agreed readily when Lady Pauline had asked him to escort Alyss on her first a.s.signment-in point of fact, he would have agreed to most things suggested by the head of the Diplomatic Corps. Of course, as a Diplomatic Courier, Alyss rated an official guard of two mounted men-at-arms, and they rode a few yards to the rear. But Pauline had suggested that Alyss might need advice or counsel in dealing with Sir Montague. Halt had agreed to provide it if necessary.

What Lady Pauline hadn't mentioned was Alyss's innate friendliness and the fact that she was so eminently likable. And cheerful, he thought, and that reminded him of someone else. He had been missing Will's lively presence over the past week or so, he admitted. After years of living by himself, attending to the secret and sometimes frightening business of the kingdom, he had enjoyed the light and laughter that Will brought to his life. Now Will was far away, on his way to the Celtic court, and Halt himself had sent him there. He realized that the boy's absence left a void in his life. Reluctantly, he told himself that he must be growing old-and sentimental.

Now here was this girl, barely sixteen but already poised and sure of herself, chiding him gently for his black mood and grim countenance and fixing him with that d.a.m.ned smile.

"And such a silent face as well," she mused to herself. He realized that he had been ill-mannered and she didn't deserve that.

"My apologies, Lady Alyss," he said curtly. Traveling on official business, Alyss was ent.i.tled to be addressed as "Lady Alyss." She frowned at his formality.