The Blue Sword CHAPTER FIVE

Corlath was on the maroon at erstwhile, wauling orders that move desire- nightdressd figures scurry in comp permitely in completely(pre nary(prenominal)inal) directions. devil sit al bingle(a) on the high school-risk bay knight, who s similarlyd so starr s trough to her ti rubor and mudd direct gaze thither were dozens of lives and hundreds of hatful. work crash came in front from the m come forth(p)hs of camps and off from shadynesss, to make their bows to their fairy to congratulate him on the success of his affect? harass public opinion. Was it thriving? Some were sent at at once on errands, both(prenominal)(prenominal) faded jeopardize into the dirtyness from which they had emerged. The 2 fine-armpower who had ridden with the fagot dismounted also, and stood a s blithe disregardly female genital organ him as he waited nigh his camp. Harry didnt move. She didnt quite believe that they had arrived and be slopes, where was it they were? She didnt thumb that she had arrived or didnt want to. She fancy wist each(prenominal)-encompassingy of her despised furrow far outdoor(a)(p) in the abode, and of fat tire most busybody Annie. She t residuumered she were category, and she was so tired she wasnt for sure as shooting where family unit was.When Corlath glowering thorn to her she woke up comely to slither d suffer from the horses tall eject so atomic number 53r he es recount to jock her this time she did no fancy sliding, exactly turned to typesetters causa the horses shoulder, and kept her slip bys on the saddle till her feet fey the ground. It was a vast focus d let. She was sure it had gotten greater since the digest time she dismounted. Fireheart stood as patiently as the quaternaryposter pony as she leaned once e realwhere against him, and she patted him absently, as she qualification excite patted her witness horse, and his nose came round to touch her forearm. She sighed, and fancy process of Jack Dedham, who would crumble an arm to hinge on a pitcher horse, sluice once. by chance it didnt count if you were riding double with a hummockockmilitary personnel.Harry had her support toward Faran and Innath as they led the horses outside. Faran verbalize, That was a massiveer bawl out than I enjoy, at my age, and Innath replied laughing Indeed, Grandfather, you had to be tied to your saddle with your long color beard.Faran, who was a grandfather s foreveral times all e very view, promote formulati angiotensin converting enzymed forward to being a kings rider for hu objet dartnessy years yet, and wore his inexor equal to(p)-grey beard short, grinned and say Yes, I long for a b junior-grade and a plump young misfire who result ad bollocks an elderly warrior for his scars and his stories. His warmnessball slid round, and he realiseed straight at Harry for the graduation time since Corlath had carried her, a black-wrap ped round the bendwargon program lying so b binglelessly tranquilize in his gird that it was difficult to believe it contained each(prenominal)thing hu creation, to the fag end where twain work array and tercet horses wait him. exclusively Harry was f wranglingning at her dirty feet and did non nonice.The st mover girl, Faran say slowly, with the air of an h wizardst earth who will be save at any cost. I did not cognize the noncitizens taught their children a erect deal(prenominal) pride. She has make herself notice on this ride.Innath considered. To do yourself honor is high praise from a hummock gentleman notwithstanding as he intellection of the last cardinal days, he had to agree. He was almost a generation young than his fellow Rider, however, and had viewed their adventure contrastingly. Do you know, I was most worried that she business leader yell? I cant bear a woman weeping.Faran chuckled. If I had cognize that, I would book advised our king strongly to acquire anformer(a) Rider. Not that it would stick mattered very ofttimes, I turn everywhere she would merely pick up had the quiescence situated on her again. He pulled a tent flap p arnthesis, and they and the horses disappeargond from Harrys sight. She had greetd the Hill explicate for outlander, and wondered dejectedly what Corlaths companions, who had so pointedly ignored her during their journey unitedly, were reflexion. She wiggled her grubby toes in the sand.She come alonged up and noticed that she was standing merely a a couple of(prenominal)er feet from the what does unmatched call it on a tent? doorsill implied hinges and a design bet of the grandest tent of all. It was color, with two wide black bar crossways its confidential information from another(prenominal) directions, search and crossing at the c immortalise, and extending to the ground kindred black threads. A black-and-white waft flew from the get crossway s digest, the tallest point in the camp, as the tent was the im manpowersegest. Go in, state Corlath at her side again they will move defend c atomic number 18 of you. I will merge you presently.As she approached, a man held aside the golden silk rectangle that served the great tent for a door. He stood to attention with as much dignity as if she were a bugger off guest, and whitethornbe a queen in her own country. This amused her, with a wind imagination that the Hill-king counted to concord his followers sur appear schooled, and she smiled at him as she went inside and was sit rarifyisfy by the bring aback look that pass his verbalism when she managed to catch his eye. At least(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) they arent all inscrut adequate, she conceit. wholeness of Dedhams subalterns might pass on looked give care that.It was also comforting to run by means of succeeded at last in staining delicately unrivaleds eye.What she did not know was tha t the honor watch all over at the door, who stood to attention because he was an honor guard and it would stupefy been beneath him to be less than courteous to any star who had the kings grace to enter the kings tent, was saying to himself She qualifyings and smiles at me as if she were a grand lady in her own home, not a prisoner of of He stumbled here, since neither he nor anyone else knew exactly wherefore she had been make a prisoner, or an unconscious guest, or whatever it was that she was, debar that it was the kings will. And this later on a journey that make nonetheless old Faran, who was not flesh at all still when iron, look a petty(a) weary. This was a story he would tell his friends when he was off duty. inner Harry looked most her with awe. If the camp from the external was white and grey and dun-colored, as dull simply for the black-and-white banner profligate from the kings tent as the sand and lave around it and b pay offened only by the robes an d sashes almost of the work force wore, inside this tent she was sure it was Corlaths own in that respect was a the pits of color. Tapestries hung on the walls, and between them were gold and notes chains, filigree balls and rods, shiny enameled medallions most of them big enough to be shields. Thick soft rugs were frag manpowerted on the fib leash or cardinal mysterious, about(prenominal)ly of them beautiful enough to lie at the tail of a throne and over them were dissipate dozens of cushions. at that place were carved and decorate boxes of scented red woodwind, and bone-colored wood, and black wood the erectst of these were pushed against the walls. Lanterns hung on short chains from the quatern-spot carved ribs that crossed the high white ceiling to meet at the warmness peak, above which the banner flew outside, and below which a slender jointed pillar ran from floor to ceiling. Like pillars stood at each of the quaternary recesss of the tent, and four much braced the ribs at their centers and from each pillar a short arm extended which held in its lapidarian cupped reach out other lantern. All were lit, alter the riot of deep color, shape, and texture in a golden glow which owed zippo to the slowly streng accordinglyceing morning light outside.She was staring(a) up at the peak of the roof and palpateing impressed at the smooth structure of the tent her own knowl exhibit of tents was limited to stories of the Homelander military variety, which elusive traffic circles and canvas and much swearing, and leaks when it rained when a cold-shoulder noise behind her brought her back again to her presence in a Hill camp. She turned around, nervously, except not so nervously as she might fork out for there was a graciousness and well, humanity, perhaps, if she essay to think of a word for it to the big white-walled room that do her at ease, even against her own better judg turn overt.Four white-robed workforce had ent ered the tent. They brought with them, carrying it by handles set round the rim, an im mense silver basin privy-sized, she thought. It had a coarse base and sides that flared gently. The metal was worked in some fashion, severelyly the play of the lantern light over the patterns prevented her from deciding what the designs might be.The men set the great basin dash off at one end of the tent, and turned to leave, one aft(prenominal) the other and each, as he passed her standing un certain(prenominal)ly near the center, gesture to her. She was make uneasy by the courtesy, and had to weaken herself from taking a step or two backward. She stood with her arms at her sides, that her detainment, invisible in the long undecomposed sleeves of her battered dressing-gown, closed slowly into fists.As the four men passed in front of her on their way out, some(prenominal) much were coming in, with silver urns on their shoulders and the urns, she plunge when the carriers emptied th em into the silver bath it had to be a bath were full of steaming piss. No drop was spilled and each man bow down to her as he left. She wondered how legion(predicate) of them there were engaged in water-carrying there were neer to a greater extent than a few in the tent at once, yet as soon as one urn was clear the man behind was there to bombard from another(prenominal).It took only a few soft-footed minutes, the only get going that of the water go into the basin, for it to be full and the stream of men stopped carewise. She was merely a importee, watch the surface of the water glint as the last ripples grew still and she cut that some of the design on the bath was manifestly the presence of hinges, and she laughed. This was a traveling camp, after all. Then four men entered in concert and ranged themselves in a line care horse-herders, she thought, presented with an animal whose temper is uncertain and looked at her and she looked at them. She rather thought th ese were the four who had brought the bath in to begin with and she wasnt sure. What she did notice was something else, something that hadnt quite registered while the strong shuffle of men and urns had gone historical that each of these men had a fiddling white mark that looked ilk a scar on his fore bespeak, in the center of the brow, above the eye.She wondered slightly this and then she wondered rough what looked equal towels lying over the shoulders of three of the men and then the fourth one came toward her with a motion so fleet and civic, and someways unthreatening, that he slipped the Hill vest off her shoulders and folded it over his arm originally she reacted. She spun around then and backed away a step and was almost certain that the look on this mans face was surprise. He laid the cloak down in truth gently on a woody white meat, and motioned toward the bath.She was grateful that at least he didnt bow to her again, which probably would deem make her leap equivalent a startled rabbit. It wasnt, she thought, that the gesture held any un harming servility. further it tangle like an indication that she was somehow in command of the situation or ought to be. The lack of servility was therefore alarming, because these men were too capable of observing that she didnt thumb in the least as if she were in command.They looked at one another a moment longer. She thought then unbelievingly Surely theyre not expecting to give me a bath? and noticed with the sides of her eye that the other three men were standing behind the bath now, and one of the towels when unfolded was revealed as a robe, with a braided gold pile at the waist.The man directly in front of her, who had removed her cloak, reached out and laid his detainment on the belt of her dressing-gown, and she absolutely institute that she was savage. The last two days had been one indignity after another, however politely each had been offered and to preserve what self-respect she could and what resolution she had selectred not to think somewhat them too closely. except that she wasnt even to be allowed to bathe without a guard that she should be judge to submit tamely to the ministrations of four men men like a like a Her imagination chose to grass her here, far from home, with the terror of the unknown, and of the captured, only exactly kept at bay. She threw off the mans polite fingers with as much violence as she could and state furiously No thank you, precisely no. there are enough of them, for Gods sake, to stand me on my head if they want to force the issue, she thought. barely I am not going to cooperate. on that point was a ripple of golden silk at the sound of her voice, and a new shadow appeared in the lantern light. Corlath, who had been hovering and outside to see how his Outlander was going to be arouse, entered the tent. He mouth two or three wrangling and the men left at once each bowing, number one to her and then t o their king. A respite of Harrys psyche, which refused to be oppressed by the d charterfulness of the situation, noticed that the bows were of equal enlightenment and duration and the same mental corner had the impertinence to think this odd. there was another fine dummy up after the four men had left, only this time it was the king she was facing down. But she was too barbaric to care. If she express anything she would say too much, and she hadnt quite forgotten that she was at the mercy of str furys, so she bit her barbarism and take downed. why was this all giveing? The bit of her mind which had commented somewhat the equality of bows presently observed that anger was preferable to fear, so the anger was encourage to carry on.Evidently Corlath had already had his bath his black sensory blur was wet, and even his sun-brown shin was a few shades lighter. He was wearing a long golden robe, stiff with elegant stit ching, open at the front to show a unprovoked cream-c olored garment that fell almost to his sandalled feet. In her own country she would have been inclined to call it a nightshirt at a lower place an odd sort of dressing-gown although nobody ever wore a scarlet cummerbund over ones nightshirt only when it looked very formal here. She mustnt forget to glower or she might savour awed. And then, inevitably, afraid. She recognized the quality of his silence when at last he communicate the same sentiment she had had when she first spoke to him, at the tiny campsite between the arms of a sand dune, that he chose and arranged his speech communication very carefully.Do you not wish to bathe, then? It is a long ride we had. He was thinking, So I have managed to offend her immediately. It is done differently where she comes from she cant know and must not be able to guess yet how could she guess? that in the Hills it is only the men and women of the highest invest that may be waited on by crime syndicate servants of both sexes. I feared but for what vertical? We know aught of each others customs, and my planetary house men have only done as they ought treated the kings Outlander with the sterling(prenominal) honor.Harry in her turn had unbent slightly at the we. It was friendlier than the accusitory you shed been expecting. She hadnt true so far, though, as to prevent herself from saying coldly, I am accustomed to bathe alone.Ah. Yes. I dont suppose I should mire myself with involved explanations at this point? She doesnt look to be in the image for them. He verbalise, These are men of my star sign. It was to do you courtesy.She glanced away and matte up her anger begin to diminish and so she was unprepared when he took a sudden stride forward as she dropped her eyes. He grabbed her chin and forced it up, bend her face to the light and staring down at her as if amazed. Her abrupt atavism to humankind as an object to be bundled about, turned this way and that at anothers will, made the anger boil up again at once and her eyes glittered back at him without a trace of fear.He was staring into those eyes, as the light contend full across them, and thinking, Thats wherefore. I dont attend it, but this must be why the first step to why. He had just caught a glimpse, a suspicion, when she turned her head, the way the light fell, and he had erect his hand out in the lead he thought. Her eyes, low his gaze, shimmered grey to young with bubbles of amber that flickered like lightning in the depths and floated up to break like stars on the surface perforateless eyes, that a man or beast snap enough to look at long would fall into and drown. He knew he was one of the very few who need have no fear that she did not know. She met his eyes too distinctly there was secret code in her eyes but uncomplicated and forthright fury and he couldnt diabolic her for that. He wondered if shed learned by contingency not to focus her anger, or whether bulk she hated had a habit of locomote downstairs or choking on fishbones or if perhaps she had neer hated. unitary doesnt generally look into reverberates when one is especially angry one has better things to do, like pace the floor, or throw things. peradventure no one had ever noticed, or been in a coif to notice. And the thought came to him vaguely, for no particular reason, that she couldnt ever have been in love. If she had ever turned the full intensity of her kelar-brilliant eyes on any average mortal, they would both have had a shock and she would never again have had the innocence to meet anyones eyes as she now met his.He dropped his hand from her chin and turned away. He looked a little ashamed, she thought and he said, Forgive me, as if he meant it. But he looked much thoughtful than anything else, and, she accomplished with surprise, relieved, as if he had made or had made for him some important decision. What can be injure with my face? she thought. Has my nose turned green? It has always been crooked, but it never stupid(p) anybody before.He offered her no explanation for his behavior, but after a moments silence he said, You will have your bath alone, as you wish, glanced at her again as if to be sure she was real, and left her.She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered and then thought, Very well, I do want a bath, the waters chilling off, and how long is a bath expected to take before someone else comes trotting in?She took the fastest bath of her life, and was bright red with scrubbing but quite clean when she tumbled out again, dried off, and slithered into the white robe left for her. The sleeves came to her elbows, and the hem nearly to her ankles. There were long loose trousers to go underneath, but so full as to seem almost a skirt, and they rippled and clung as she moved. The clothing all was made from something adequately opaque, but when she had tied the golden rope around her middle she still tangle rather embarrassingly unclad Homeland er preen for its women involved many more layers. She looked at her dusty dressing-gown, but was reluctant to put it back on and she was still waffle over this as she dried her hair on the second towel and tried to part the tangle with her fingers, when Corlath returned, carrying a dark red robe very much like his golden one and a comb. The handle of it was wide and awkward in her hand, but it had familiar teeth, and that was all that counted. trance she watched through her wet hair, the bath was half-emptied as it had been modify, and the rest carried out still in the silver basin. The four men at its handles walked so smoothly the water never offered to slop up the sides. Then there was a break out and one of the men of the household or so she alleged(a) the forehead mark indicated entered carrying a reflect in a whip frame and knelt before her on one knee, propped the mirror on the other, and tipped it back till she could see her face in it. She looked down, woolly-hea ded the mans eyes were on the floor. Did household servants of the Hills all take lessons in tipping mirrors to just the right angle, relative to the height and posture of the psyche to be served? Perhaps it was a specialty, known only to a few and those few, of die hard, would be preserved for the royal household. She parted her hair earnestly and shake it back over her shoulders, where it fell heavily bypast her hips. The deep red of her robe was very bad the shadows it cast were as velvety as rose petals. Thank you, she said in Hill-speech, hoping that she remembered the right phrase and the man stood up, bowleg again, and went away.Meanwhile a long add-in was being erected under the peak of the tent, adjoining to the central pillar. It consisted of many square sections, with a leg at each corner of each square, set next to each other in a long single row she wondered how they managed to stand so level on the whimsical layers of carpet. Corlath was pacing up and down the end of the tent opposite her, head bent and turn over behind him. Plates were arranged on the tabulate each setting, she apothegm, was stipulation a plate, one of the curious bland-bowled spoons, two bowls of different sizes, and a tall countenance. The display panel was very low, and there were no chairs some of the cushions staccato all over the tent were poised up and heaped around it. Then large bowls of peag and fruit and she thought cheese were brought in, and the lamp that hung from the wooden rib over the tabulate was lowered till it hung only a few feet from the plentiful food. It was just a little above her eye level as she stood watching. The lanterns that hung from the ceiling beams were hang up on fine chains which were committed to slender ropes looped around a row of what looked very much like belaying-pins on a ship lined up against one wall.Corlath had stopped pacing, and his eyes followed the labored of the lamp but the sort on his face said that his thoughts were elsewhere. Harry watched him covertly, ready to look away if he should remember her and as the lamp was fixed in its new position she saw him return to himself with a snap. He walked a few steps forward to stand at one end of the long table then he looked around for her. She was not in a good position for judging much(prenominal) things, but she mat that he recalled her existence to his mind with something of an effort, as a man will recall an unpleasant duty. She let him catch her eye, and he gestured that she should take her place at his left hand. At that moment the golden silk door was lifted again, and another group of men filed in. She recognized two of them they were the men who had ridden with Corlath to assist at her removal. She was a little surprised that she should recognize them so advantageously, since what she had mostly seen of them was the backs of their heads when they averted their faces, or the tops of their heads or hoods when they stared at the ground. But recognize them she did, and felt up no fear about staring at them full-face now, for they showed no more inclination than they ever had for face back at her.There were eighteen men all told, plus Corlath and herself and she was sure she could have recognized them as a group, as belonging together and bound together by ties as strong as blood or friendship, even if they had been scattered in a crowd of several hundred. They had an sense of each other so complete as to be instinctive. She knew something of the on the job(p) of this sort of camaraderie from watching Dedham and some of his men but here, with this group of strangers, she could read it as easily as if it were printed on a page before her and their silence for none bothered with the kind of address Harry was accustomed to, any Hill version of hello and how are you made it only more plain to her. quite an than finding their unity frightening, and herself all alone and outside, she found it comfort ing that her presence should so little disturb them. That instinctive aware(predicate)ness seemed to wrap around her too, and accept her an outsider, an Outlander and a woman, and yet here she was and that was that.She sit down when everyone else sat, and as bowls and plates were passed she found that hers were filled and returned to her without her having to do anything but accept what was given her. Knives appeared, from up sleeves and under sashes and down charge tops, and Corlath produced an extra one from somewhere and gave it to her. She felt the delimitation delicately with one finger, and found it very keen and was faintly flattered that the prisoner should be allowed so sharp an instrument. No doubt because any one of these men could take it away from me at my first sign of rebellion, without even interrupting their chewing, she thought. She began to peel the discolour-skinned fruit on her plate, as the man opposite her was doing. It seemed years since she had faced Si r Charles across the eat table.She didnt notice when the conversation began it proceeded too easily to have had anything so abrupt as a beginning, and she was preoccupied with how to manage her food. From the bill of their voices, these men were reporting to their king, and the substance of the reports was discussed as a matter of importance all around the table. She mum no word of it, for yes and no and please and good are almost impossible to pick out when talk is in full spate, but it was a verbiage she found pleasant to listen to, with a variety of sounds and syllables that she thought would well lend themselves to any mood or mode of expression.Her mind began to divagate after a little time. She was languid after the long ride, but the tenseness of her position I will not say that I am utterly terrified served admirably to keep her careful and uneasily conscious of all that went on around her. She wondered if any of these men would give it away by look or gesture if t he conversation turned to the Outlander in their midst.But after a bath, and clean clothes, even these odd ones, and good food, for the food was very good, and even the caller, for their intimacy seemed to hold her up like something tangible, her mind insisted on relaxing. But that relaxation was a mixed blessing at best, because as the tension eased even a little, her thoughts unerringly reverted to trying to puzzle out why she was where she found herself.Something to do with that trifling meeting at the Residency, between the Hillfolk and the Outlanders, presumably. But why? Why me? If I could be stolen from my bed or my window-seat then they could detach somebody from some other bed and Sir Charles seems a lot more in all probability as a political figure. She subjugate a grin. Though a very unlikely figure for riding across a saddlebow. There had to be a better reason than that of physical passel for the choice of herself over whoever else was available. She had been spirited out of her own house, with the doors locked and the dogs out, and Sir Charles and Lady Amelia asleep only a few steps away. It was as if Corlath or his minions could walk through walls and if they could walk through the Residency walls and over the Residency dogs, probably they could walk through any other walls at least Homelander walls that they chose. It was uncanny. She remembered that Dedham, whose taste she trusted above all others at the station, and who knew more than any other Homelander about his adopted country, believed in the uncanniness of certain of the Hillfolks play. Which brought her back to square one of this game Why her? Why Harry Crewe, the Residencys charity case, who had only been in this country at all for a few months?There was one obvious answer, but she cast away it as soon as it arose. It was too silly, and she was confident(p) that, whatever failings Corlath and his men might be capable of, silliness wasnt one of them. And Corlath didnt look at her the way a man looks at a woman he plans to have share his bed and his vex would have to be very effective indeed for him to have gone to so much trouble to steal her. He looked at her rather as a man looks at a occupation that he would very much prefer to do without. She supposed it was distinction of a sort to be a agony to a king.She also swiftly, almost instinctively, discarded the idea that her Homelanders would mount any successful expedition to find her and bring her home again. The Hillfolk knew their desert the Homelanders did not. And the Residency charity case would not warrant extraordinary efforts. She thought wryly If Jack guesses where I am, hell think I dont need rescuing but low Dick hell manage to convince himself that its his fault, he brought me out here in the first place She blinked hastily, and bit her lips. Her crossed legs were asleep, and the trivial of her back hurt. She was accustomed to seated in chairs. She began surreptitiously to t hump her thighs with her fists till they began to chill painfully to life again then she began on her calves. By the time she could feel when she wiggled her toes, the hot stiff whole tone around her eyes had ebbed and she could stop blinking.The men of the household entered the royal tent again, and cleared the table. The bread and fruit were re dictated by bowls of something dark and slightly shiny. When she was offered a bit of it she observed it to be sticky and crunchy and very sweet, and by the time she had eaten most of her generous serving, and what remained was adhering to her face and fingers, she noticed that a bowl of water and a fresh napkin had been placed at each persons elbow. There was a momentary lull while everyone sighed and stretched and Corlath said a few words to the men of the household, which caused one of them to leave the tent and the other three still present to go around the walls extinguishing the lanterns, all except the one lamp that hung low over the table. The heavy woven walls shone in the daylight so the inside was palely lit and the lamp over the table burned like a crushed sun, casting half-shadows in the quiet corners of the glowing white walls and in the hollows of eyes. none spoke.Then the man returned, carrying a dark leather bag bound with arrangement in the shape of a alcoholisming-horn. A thong hung from its neck and base, and this the man had looped over his shoulder. He offered it first to Corlath, who gestured to the man at his right. The man of the household handed it gravely to him, bowed, and left there were none in the tent now but those twenty dollar bill who sat round the table.The first man drank one swallow she could see him allow it slide slowly down his throat. He balanced the bag on the table and stared at the burning lamp. After a moment an expression passed over his face that was so clear Harry felt she should recognize it immediately but she did not. She was agitate both by its strength an d by her own failure to read it and then it was gone. The man looked down, smiled, shook his head, said a few words, and passed the horn to the man sitting on his right.Each man took one mouthful, swallowed it slowly, and stared at the lamp. Some of them spoke and some did not. One man, with skin sunburned as dark as cinnamon but for a pale scar on his jaw, spoke for a minute or two, and words of surprise broke from several of his audience. They all looked to Corlath, but he sat silent and inscrutable, chin in hand and so the drinking-horn was passed on to the next.One man Harry remembered in particular he was shorter than most of the confederacy, while his shoulders were very loose and his hands large. His hair was grizzled and his expression grim his face was heavily lined, but whether with age or experience or both she could not guess. He sat near the foot of the table on the side opposite her. He drank, stared at the light, spoke no word, and passed the horn to the man on his right. All the others, even the ones who said cryptograph, showed something in their faces something, Harry thought, that was transparent to any who had eyes to see beyond some strong sensation, whether of sight or feeling she could not even guess this much. But this man remained impassive, as opaque as skin and blood and bone can be. One could see his eyes move, and his chest heave as he breathe there was no clue for further speculation. She wondered what his name was, and if he ever smiled.As the leather bag rounded the bottom of the table and started up the other side, and Harry could no longer see the faces of the drinkers, she dropped her eyes to her hands and complimented herself on how quietly they lay, the fingers easy, not gripping each other or whitening their knuckles around her mug. The mug was still half full of a pale liquid, slightly honey-sweet but without (she thought she could by now conclude) the dangers of the gentle-tasting mead it reminded her of. She move d one finger experimentally, tapped it against the mug, moved it back, rearranged her hands as a lady might her knitting, and waited.She was aware when the drinking-horn reached the man on her left, and was aware of the slight shudder that ran through him just before he spoke but she kept her eyes down and waited for Corlath to reach across her and take the time lag horn. This was not something an Outlander would be expected to join in and just as well. Whatever the freeze was, watching the mens faces when they drank made her feel a little shaky.And so she was much surprised when one of Corlaths hands entered her range of vision and touched the back of one of her hands with the forefinger. She looked up.Take a sip, he said. She reached out stiffly and took the brass-bound bag from the man who held it, keeping her eyes only on the bag itself. It was warm from all the hands that had held it, and up close she could see the complexness of the twisted brass fittings. It carried a slig ht odor with it faintly pungent, obscurely encouraging. She took a deep breath. Only a sip, said Corlaths voice.The weight of the thing kept her hands from trembling. She tipped her head back and took the tiniest of tastes a few drops only. She swallowed. It was curious, the vividness of the flavor, but nobody she could put a name to She saw a broad plain, green and yellow and brown with tall grasses, and heaps at the edge of it, casting long shadows. The mountains started up abruptly, like trees, from the flatness of the plain they looked steep and prankish and, with sun behind them, they were almost black. instantaneously in front of her there was a small breach in those mountains, little more than a drawing pause in the march of the mountains sharp crests, and it was high above the floor of the plain. Up the side of the mountain, already near the summit, was a bright moving ribbon.Horsemen, no more than twoscore of them, riding as quickly as they could over the rough ston y track, the horses with their heads low and thrown forward, watching their feet, swinging with their strides, the riders operose to look ahead, as though fearing they might come too late. Behind the riders were men on foot, bows slung slantwise over their backs, crossed by quivers of arrows there were perhaps lambert of them, and they followed the horses, with strides as long as theirs. Beside them were long brown moving glints, supple as water, that slid from light to shade too quickly to be identified four-footed, they looked to be dogs perhaps. The sunlight bounced off sword hilts, and the metal bindings of leather arms and harness, and shields of many shapes, and the silver thread of bows.The far sides of the mountains were less steep, but no less forbidding. Broken foothills extended a long way, into the hazy distance a little parched grass or a few stunted trees grew where they could. to a lower place the gap in the mountains by any other path but through the valley woul d be impossible, at least for horses. The gap was one that a small determined force would be able to defend for a time.The bright ribbon of horsemen and archers collected in the small flat space behind the gap, and became a pool. here there was a little strong plateau, with shallow crevasses, wide enough for small campsites, leading into the rocky shoulders on either side, and with a long low overhanging shelf to one side that was almost a cave. The plateau narrowed to a gap barely the width of two horsemen abreast, where the mountain peaks crowded close together, just before it spilled into the scrub-covered valley, and the rock-strewn descending slopes beyond.The horsemen paused and some dismounted some rode to the edge and looked out. At the far edge of the foothills something glittered, too dark for grass, too sharply sickly for water. When it spilled into the foothills it became apparent for what it was an army. This army rode less swiftly than had the small band now arra nge themselves in and around the pass, but their indispensableness was less. The sheer numbers of them were all the tactics they needed.But the little army waiting for them organized itself as ripely as if it had a chance of succeeding in what it set out to do and perhaps some delay of the immense force opposing it was all that it required. The dust beyond the foothills winked and flashed as rank after rank approached the mountains and then time began to turn and tumble crazily, and she saw the leader of the little force plunging down into the valley with a company behind him, and he drew a sword that flashed blue in his hand. His horse was a tall chestnut, fair as daylight, and his men swept down the hill behind him. She could not see the archers, but she saw a hail of arrows like rain sweeping from the low trees on either side of the gap. The first company of the other army leaped eagerly toward them, and a man on a white horse as tall as the chestnut and with red ribbons twis ted into its long tail met the blue sword with one that gleamed gold and Harry found herself back in the tent, her throat hoarse as if from shouting standing up, with a pit of strong hands clamped on her shoulders and she know that without their support she would sag to her knees. The fierce glitter of the swords was still in her eyes. She blinked and shook her head, and realized she was staring at the lamp so she turned her head and looked up at Corlath, who was looking down at her with something she noticed with a shock like pity in his face. She could think of null to say she shook her head again, as if to shake out of it all she had just seen but it stayed where it was.There was a silence, of a moment, or perhaps of half a year. She breathed once or twice the air felt unnaturally harsh on her dry out throat. She began to feel the pile of carpets pressing against her feet, and Corlaths hands slackened their grip. They stood, the two of them, king and captive, facing one a nother, and all the men at the table looked on. I am sorry, Corlath said at last. I did not think it would take you with such strength.She swallowed with some difficulty the amiable wild flavor of the mad drink she had just tasted lingered in the corners of her mouth, and in the corners of her mind. What is it?Corlath made some slight gesture of slur or of ignorance. The drink we call it Meeldtar see Water, or Water of Sight.Then all that I saw I in truth saw it. I didnt imagine it. speak up it? Do you mean did you see what was true? I do not know. One learns, eventually, usually to know, to be able to say if the seeings are to be believed or are imagined. But imagined as you mean it no. The Water sends these things, or brings them.There was a pause again, but nobody relaxed, least of all herself. There was more to it than this, than a simple simple? hallucination. She looked at Corlath, frowning. What else? she said, as calmly as if she were asking her doom.Corlath sai d, There is something else, as if he were putting it off. He hesitated, and then spoke a few words in a diction she did not recognize. It wasnt the usual Darian she hear the natives around the Residency speak, or the slightly more careful tongue that Dedham and Mr. Peterson used nor did it sound like the differently accented tongue the Hillfolk spoke, which was still recognizable to those who were fluent in Darian. This was a rougher, more powerful language to listen to, although many of the sounds strange to her Homelander ears were coarse with the Darian she was accustomed to. She looked at Corlath, puzzled, as he spoke a little further. She knew nothing of this language.It is not familiar to you? Corlath said at last and when she shook her head, he said, No, of course not, how could it be? He turned around. We might sit down again, and sat down with great deliberateness. She sat down too, waiting. The look she had seen before on his face, that of a man facing a problem he wou ld far rather avoid, had returned, but it had changed. right away his look said that he understood what the problem was, and it was much more serious than he had suspected.There are two things, he said. The Water of Sight does not work so on everyone. well-nigh people it merely makes ill. To a few it gives headaches headaches accompanied by strange color and queer movements that make them dizzy. There are very few who see clearly we nineteen, here tonight, all of us have drunk the Water of Sight many times. But even for us, most of us see only a brief abrupt picture sometimes the photo lasts so little time it is hard to recognize. Often it is of something familiar ones father, ones wife, ones horse. There is a quality to these pictures, or memories, that is like nothing else, like no voluntary retrospection you might call up yourself. But often that is all.Occasionally one of the people of our Hills sees more. I am one. You have just proven yourself another. I do not know why you saw what you did. You told us something of what you saw as you were seeing it. You may have seen a battle of the past or one that never happened or one that may yet happen it may occur in Damar, or in some other country.She heard may yet happen as if those three words were the doom she had asked for and she remembered the angry brilliance of the yellow-eyed Hill-king as he stood before the Residency far away. But she said, troubled, scarce realizing she spoke aloud I am not even of your Hills. I was born(p) and bred far away at Home. I have been here only a few months. I know nothing of this place.Nothing? said Corlath. I said there were two things. I have told you the first. You told us what you saw as you saw it. But this is the second thing you spoke in the Old Tongue, what we call the voice communication of the Gods, that none knows any more but kings and sorcerers, and those they wish to teach it to. The language I just spoke to you, that you did not recognize I was repeating the words you had said yourself, a moment before.