The Gates Of Winter Part 9

"But you are, Durge. And I'm glad, because I need your help."

"As you wish, my lady." He eyed her fur-lined cape. "We are going out, then?"

"We are."

"Then allow me to fetch my cloak." He retrieved the garment, which was warming on a chair by the fire-that was Durge, always at the ready-and threw it about his thick shoulders.

"Don't you even want to know where we're going, Durge?"

"I imagine I'll find out when we get there, my lady."

Grace winced. She didn't deserve this kind of loyalty, but all the same she was grateful.

"We'll need our horses," she said.

They rode away from the castle just as the sun crested the horizon. The cold air pinched the soft flesh inside Grace's nostrils and made her jaw ache, but she was warm inside her heavy gown and cloak, and it felt good to be free from the castle's stone walls.

Beneath her, Shandis cantered lightly over the frozen ground. Last summer, Grace had left the honey-colored mare in Castle Spardis, and she had believed she would never see the horse again. However, a few days after their return to Calavere, she was thrilled to discover Shandis was in fact housed in King Boreas's stable. Aryn and Durge had brought the mare with them when they journeyed from Spardis to Ar-tolor last Krondath, and Ivalaine had returned Shandis-along with Durge's gigantic charger, Blackalock-when she visited just before Midwinter. Durge rode Blackalock now, following Grace as she led the way north, away from the castle.

After an hour, they crossed the old Tarrasian bridge over the River Darkwine. Chunks of ice floated on the water below. Once on the other side, they were no longer in Calavan. Gloaming Wood was closer now. Grace could make out the wispy branches of bare trees; she leaned against Shandis's neck and urged the young horse into a full gallop. She knew Durge would warn her it was reckless to ride so fast over the snow, but first he would have to catch her.

Icy wind numbed her cheeks as the snowy landscape rushed past. Grace risked a glance over her shoulder; she was right-Blackalock pounded furiously after Shandis, and Durge wore a glower of disapproval. That was good. Durge needed something to worry about, and this way he wouldn't stop to think about where they were headed.

Many stories were told in the castle of Gloaming Wood. For as long as anyone could remember, the patch of primeval forest had been a place of shadow and rumor. Folk spoke of lights that shone among the trees late at night-lights that would draw a man into the wood, only to disappear once he was deep among the trees, leaving him lost and alone. Some whispered of hearing queer music or eerie laughter when they pa.s.sed near the eaves of the wood, and it was said a man could not come within a hundred paces of the forest with an axe in his hand. A terrible fear would come upon him, leaving him shaking and p.i.s.sing.

When Grace first heard such stories, she had dismissed them as fabrications of the castle's common folk. Then she had met Trifkin Mossberry and his peculiar troupe of actors, and she had been forced to adjust her thinking. The Little People were not products of a fantastical imagination, at least not on this world. Elfs and dwarfs and greenmen-all of them were real. And at least some of them dwelled in the shadows of Gloaming Wood.

By the time Durge caught up with her, they had reached the edge of the forest. Grace brought Shandis to a halt and waited for Durge to dismount and offer his hand to her. In these heavy clothes, she would never make it to the ground by herself without falling facefirst in the snow.

"Thank you, my lord," she said with what she hoped was a winning smile as Durge helped her down. "You're every bit as strong as you are courteous."

The knight scowled at her, his mustaches twitching. "Do not try to distract me with idle flatteries, my lady. I can see quite well where you've led us, and I must say I am not pleased. This is a queer and perilous place, and while it is not for a knight to question his mistress, I must wonder all the same why you've brought us here."

She gripped his hand. "I've come to ask the Little People for help."

"My lady, you must do no such a thing!" The knight pulled his hand from hers, his brown eyes wide. "The Little People might have aided us in the past, but it was done of their own will and for their own purposes. Surely this is a dangerous scheme. We should return to the castle at once."

She was not surprised by his outburst. Durge was a man of logic; he did not like meddling with magic. Grace understood how he felt, for she was a scientist herself. However, if she was going to face the Pale King and his army, she needed help from any source-illogical as it might seem. She moved toward the line of trees. Though they were bare, she could see no more than a dozen paces into the wood.

"It can't be so dangerous, Durge," she said. "Otherwise, you never would have ridden through the wood that day over a year ago, and you never would have found me, lying there in the snow."

Durge let out a foggy sigh. "That I came upon you here is something for which I will ever be grateful, my lady. Still, it is my duty to question this deed. Even that day I found you, I was riding only through the eaves of Gloaming Wood, following a game track no more than a hundred paces in. I could still glimpse the plains through the trees. If we would find whom you seek, we would be forced to venture deep into the forest, and surely it is impossible for mortals to go there."

"No, I don't think so." She touched the papery bark of a tree. "I think I've been in there once before."

Durge gave her an odd look, and she thought of the time when she and Travis had gone looking for Trifkin Mossberry in Calavere. They had entered the little man's chamber only to find themselves, not in the castle, but in an impossible forest. Even then, with Trifkin Mossberry to protect them, she and Travis had not dared to linger. Durge was right; this forest was perilous for mortals. However, the Little People were trying to tell her something, and Grace was going to find out what it was.

"I'm going in," she said, gathering her courage. "You can wait here with the horses."

Durge gave her a sharp look out of the corner of his eye. "I should think not, my lady."

Grace knew better than to argue. She took Durge's hand, and together they stepped into the wood.

As the trees closed around them, so did a quietness. There were no birds flitting among the bare branches overhead, no small animals scurrying through the underbrush. The only sound was the crunch of snow beneath their feet.

While it was dawn in the world outside, here it was as if the sun had not yet risen. The air was a misty gray, and the trees crowded together, so at first it was difficult to pick a route among them. However, they soon came to a path, most likely worn by deer and boar. As best Grace could tell, the path headed toward the heart of the wood, and they started down it.

"I do not like this," Durge rumbled. "It seems too easy to come upon a path so quickly."

"Maybe this is our lucky day," Grace said. She was going to say something more, but their voices, low as they kept them, rang out unnervingly on the still air.

Durge shook his head. "Mark my words, this path is surely cursed. It will lead us down into a ravine, or over a cliff, or to some other unseemly demise."

Despite her trepidation, Grace almost laughed. She knew it wasn't his intent, but somehow Durge's gloomy admonitions always seemed to cheer her up. She tightened her grip on his hand, and as they walked she tried not to think of fairy tales in which children met with bad ends in dark forests.

Soon Grace lost track of time. She expected the air to lighten as the sun rose higher into the sky, but if anything the light grew grayer yet. The trees all looked the same to her-tall and slender, with pale bark-and the path wove left and right but on the whole kept leading them deeper into the wood. Despite her heavy garments and the exertion, the cold began to creep into her joints, and ice collected on Durge's mustaches.

At last Grace realized they would have to turn back. She was s.h.i.+vering so violently she could hardly walk in a straight line, and, while Durge was making a valiant effort, he could not keep his teeth from chattering. They had not seen so much as a squirrel, let alone a dwarf or greenman. If the Little People truly dwelled here, then they did not wish to be found. Grace started to tell Durge it was no use, that they had to turn back.

A high, trilling note rang out on the air. The sound echoed away among the trees.

"What was that?" Grace whispered. It had not been the music of bells.

"That was the call of a trumpet," Durge said.

The sound came again, and it was closer this time-a note so high and pure and wild it caused Grace's heart to beat in a swift, unfamiliar cadence.

"It sounds to me like a hunting call," Durge said, gazing around. The path had widened into a small clearing.

Grace hugged her arms around herself. "The king's huntsman wouldn't come so far into the forest, would he?"

"He might, if he were on the trail of a fat roe," Durge said, though he sounded doubtful.

Grace hoped it was indeed the king's huntsman, and that he had blankets with him, and a flask of spiced wine.

The trumpet sounded again, so close the sound set Grace's ears ringing. At the same moment, a bank of evergreen bushes on one side of the clearing shuddered and burst apart, and something large and sleek and white bounded through. It paused, standing no more than five paces away, and Grace found herself gazing into dark, liquid eyes.

It was a stag. The beast was tall and muscled, its coat a silvery white that blended with the trees. It held its neck arched and proud, and its head was crowned by an enormous pair of antlers whose points were too numerous for Grace to count quickly. The stag let out a snort, then sprang away to their left, vanis.h.i.+ng among the trees.

"May steel break and stone splinter," Durge swore. "I've never seen so magnificent a beast." He reached over his shoulder to grip the hilt of the greatsword strapped to his back and took a step forward.

Grace grabbed his arm. "No, Durge. Don't go after it."

He frowned at her. "Why not, my lady? It would make a fine prize to offer the king."

She struggled for words. She didn't know why it was wrong to hunt this animal-only that it was too proud, too fabulous to be pursued by mortals such as they. However, before she could speak, another trumpet call rang out, followed by the pounding of hooves. Grace and Durge turned to see a horse leap over the bushes from which the stag had burst moments ago.

The horse was every bit as beautiful as the stag, though in an entirely different way. It was short of stature-no larger than a pony-its legs delicate, its coat pure jet. A silver star marked its forehead.

Riding the horse, without benefit of either saddle or bridle, was a boy. He appeared to be ten or eleven years old, and he was lean and lanky, with a shock of red hair that stuck up from his head. A bow was slung on his back, along with a quiver of arrows fletched with green feathers. Despite the cold, he wore only a pair of leather breeches, leaving his chest and feet bare. His skin was brown as maddok maddok.

In the boy's hand was a small silver trumpet. He blew it again, then called out in a piping voice, "This way! The king has come this way!" He touched his horse's neck, and the beast spun around, ready to lunge into a gallop.

Grace and Durge stood in its path. Before they could leap out of the way, the horse skittered to a halt. Its rider glared down with malachite eyes, and only then did Grace see the stubby horns that protruded from his brow. This was no boy.

"What is this?" the rider said, a sneer crossing his freckled face. "Mortals? A kind of quarry, to be sure, but none so n.o.ble as that we hunt. How did you get here?"

Grace was so startled she could only answer with the simple truth. "We came by the path."

"The path?" the rider snapped. "And who gave you permission to tread upon it?"

Durge cleared his throat. "The path is here for all. We need no permission to follow it."

Ire flashed in the rider's eyes. "You are wrong, mortal. The path belongs to us, as does everything in this wood. You are trespa.s.sing here."

"Then we'll leave at once," Grace said. Like a candle burned to a stump, the desire to talk to the Little People had sputtered and died within her. In spite of his boyish appearance, there was a predatory air about the rider. His eyebrows slanted over his green eyes, lending his face a cruel aspect. "Let's go," she said, tugging Durge's arm.

"Not so quickly," the rider said, guiding his horse in a quick circle around them. Other figures stole into the glade. Some slunk on four legs while some pranced on two; some slithered on their bellies, and others flitted on wings as delicately woven as a spider's web. Grace had glimpsed such creatures on Sindar's s.h.i.+p, but only fleetingly, out of the corner of her eye. Here they gathered in plain view.

It was hard to be sure how many of them there were, given the way they kept weaving in and out among the trees. There were greenmen with round bellies and beards of oak leaves, prancing goat-men with s.h.a.ggy legs and curving horns, and swan-necked women who wore gowns of white feathers-or were the feathers part of them? Tiny beings with b.u.t.terfly wings and ugly, long-nosed faces darted about on the air, and golems made of sticks bound together by vines stared at Grace and Durge with hard pebble eyes.

"Stay close to me, my lady," Durge rumbled as he reached up to grip the hilt of his greatsword.

The strange beings formed a circle around the two mortals. Like the boy on the horse, the goat-men and swan-women carried bows with arrows ready, and the b.u.t.terfly creatures carried tiny bows as well, fitted with darts no larger than toothpicks. The greenmen carried wooden cudgels, and the other beings bore stone-pointed spears or wielded long thorns like knives.

"Tell me quickly," said the one on the horse. "Which way did the king go?"

Grace shook her head. "But he didn't go anywhere. King Boreas is in the castle."

Even in anger, the rider's boyish face was beautiful. "Not him, you dolt. I couldn't care less for the comings and goings of some foolish mortal who dares call himself a king. I speak of the true king-the forest king. Which way did he go? Tell me, and perhaps we will spare your wretched, finite lives."

Like a ray of light, understanding pierced the fog in Grace's brain. "The stag. That's who you're hunting."

The boy's eyes sparked with green fire. "We are always hunting him. Every year we slay him and spill his blood upon the ground. And every year he comes again, so we may begin the hunt anew. Now speak up, or it's your blood that we'll spill. Which way did he go?"

"That way," Grace said, pointing to a gap in the trees directly opposite the place where the stag had vanished. Durge turned to stare at her, but she gave her head a slight shake. She didn't know why she had done it; only that the stag had been so majestic, so beautiful.

The rider grinned and lifted the silver trumpet, blowing a ringing note. "This way!" he said, motioning to the others, and urged his horse in the direction Grace had pointed. Grace dared to breathe a sigh.

Two greenmen bounded into the clearing, coming from the direction the stag had gone. The rider whirled his horse around, a frown on his elfin face. He leaned over in the saddle, and one of the greenmen jumped up to whisper something in his ear. The boy sat up at once, his face a mask of fury.

"You lied to me, mortal. The king did not go the way you pointed."

Grace shook her head, searching for words. Durge pressed close against her.

"You are a fool to protect the forest king," the rider said. He climbed down from his horse and advanced on them. "Don't you know it is his fate to fall to our arrows? You will pay for your deception."

"Hold right there!" Durge roared, and in a swift motion he drew his greatsword, holding it before him.

Laughter rose from the strange beings, a sound like falling water. The boy threw his head back as peals of mirth escaped him. Durge frowned, then his expression turned to shock. His sword writhed back and forth in his hands. With a cry he dropped the blade, and Grace saw it wasn't a sword at all, but rather a great silvery snake. It slithered away across the snow and vanished into the forest.

Durge stared at his empty hands, then clenched them into fists. "Stay back," he said, standing before Grace. "You cannot harm her."

"You're right about that, mortal, I can't." He gazed past Durge at Grace. "The light of the forest is in your eyes. It's faint, but even your mundane blood cannot sully it. You shall be spared." His gaze moved back to Durge. "But this beast is mortal through and through. Since we have been denied our true quarry for today, we will make sport of this one instead and hunt him like the animal he is."

"No!" Grace said, her voice rising in panic. "It wasn't his fault. It was I-I was the one who lied to you!"

It was no use. The hunters were already moving. The queer beings shoved Grace aside and swarmed around Durge. He swatted several of the things away, but they kept coming. A root tripped Grace-or was it the limb of some creature?-and she fell to her knees. She heard Durge let out a roar, but the sound was drowned out by laughter. She crawled until she found a tree, then used it to gain her feet.

There were too many of the beings for Durge to fend off. They had pinned his arms and legs, and though cords of effort stood out on his neck, he could not break away. The creatures tore at his clothes with twisted hands, leaving him standing naked in the cold. A pair of antlers was placed on his brow and fastened in place with ropes woven of vines.

"Durge!" Grace cried out.

He could not turn his head, but he met her gaze with wide eyes. "My lady, you must flee this place! Take the path back the way we came. Go now!"

No, she couldn't leave him. If she had told them the truth about the stag, this wouldn't be happening. She gathered what remained of her will and hurried to the boy.

"Let him go," she commanded.

"That I will," the boy said. "It would make for poor sport if he didn't have a head start."

He gave a flick of his hand, and the creatures moved away from Durge. The knight staggered and caught his balance. He was hairy in his nakedness, and with the antlers he looked not unlike one of the goat-men. A queer expression crossed his face-not pain exactly. Rather, it was the face one would make if something precious were being torn away.

"My lady," he said, but the words were oddly slurred.

A spasm pa.s.sed through him, and Durge hunched over. When he looked up again, his eyes were dull and wild, and his lips pulled back from his teeth. The rope that had tied the antlers to his head were gone. Instead, the things sprang from his brow, curving and growing longer even as Grace watched.

She stared at the boy. "What have you done to him?"

"Nothing so very great," the boy said with a smirk. "A man is but an animal at heart. All we've done is to help him remember that fact."

Durge let out a snarl, crouching and spinning around, the whites of his eyes showing. The fey beings laughed and raised their weapons.

A wave of terror crested in Grace. "Run, Durge!" she screamed. Could he even still understand her words? "Run!"

For a moment it seemed dim recognition shone in his eyes, then with a roar Durge sprang forward, running across the snow on bare feet, and vanished into the trees.

"You said you'd give him a head start," Grace said, turning toward the red-haired boy. "How long?"

The boy laughed. "I'd say he's already had more than long enough." He lifted the trumpet and blew a shrill note. "Let the hunt begin!"

Grace ducked as a hail of arrows hissed through the air. They stuck quivering into trees or sank deep into the ground. A tiny arrow shot from the bow of one of the b.u.t.terfly creatures caught in Grace's cloak. She plucked it out; the tip was sticky with green sap. A brief examination using the Touch confirmed her fear: The green substance was some kind of toxin.

The red-haired boy leaped onto his horse and urged it into the forest after Durge. The fey hunters bounded or flitted or scuttled after, fitting new arrows to their bows as they went. They seemed to have forgotten Grace in their glee for the hunt, and in moments all of them were gone. Grace reeled, gathering her wits, then she picked up the hem of her gown and dashed into the trees after the hunters.

There should have been a trail where the fey folk had trampled the ground, but instead she saw only Durge's footprints in the thin layer of snow. She followed them. The trumpet rang out again, and it already sounded alarmingly far off. Grace ran faster. Branches scratched at her face and tore her clothes. At some point she lost her cloak, but she didn't stop for it. Despite the cold she was sweating, and her breath came in ragged gasps.