Year of the Unicorn (4 page)

But he did not move. There was no scowl on his face...only the lines of determination which I had marked at the table grew a fraction deeper. For a moment there was silence and then the Abbess spoke, and now her tone was that which I had heard now and again, infinitely remote and daunting.

"You are her guardian-by-rule-and-blood, my lord. We know well the law and will not move against your will, no matter how ill we think your decision. She shall not be spirited away in the night-how could she be? Nor is it necessary for us to give oath on such a point under this roof!"

He did then look a little ashamed, for it was plain she had read aright his thoughts. Yet at the same time her voice carried the conviction of one taking that oath she had denied the need for.

"My daughter," again her eyes sought mine and held them. I could not read her thoughts. If she read mine, or guessed my intention, she did not reveal the fact. "You will heal as you can, and watch through the night, should that be needful."

I made no direct answer, only bent knee in curtsy, and that more deeply than I had to my lord. He was at the door, still hesitating there. But as the Abbess advanced upon that portal he went, and she, followed, closed it with a click of falling latch.

Marimme stirred and moaned. Her face was flushed as one in a fever, and she breathed in. uneven gasps. I set the tray on the table and measured by spoon a portion of the liquid into the horn cup. I held it for a moment in my hand. This was the last parting between present and future. From this point there was no back-turning-only complete success, or discovery and ill will of the kind I could never hope to escape. But I did not hesitate long. My arm behind her shoulder raised Marimme. Her eyes were half open, she muttered incoherently. The horn cup to her lips...then she swallowed with soft urging from me.

"Well done."

I looked around. Sussia stood by the door, but it was safely closed behind her. Now she came forward a step or two.

"You will need anally-"

That was true. But why-?

Again it was as if we were mind to mind, one thought shared.

"Why, Lady Gillan? Because of many things. First, I have more than a little liking for this soft creature." She came to the end of the bed and stood looking down at Marimme. "She is a harmless, clinging one of the kind who find the world harsh enough without bending and breaking under blows never meant for their shoulders. No-you-and I-we are of a different breed-"

I settled Marimme back on her pillows and stood up, putting down the horn cup with a hand I was pleased to see was steady.

"And second, I know you, perhaps better than you think, Gillan. This Norstead has become a prison to you. And what other future could you look to but endless years of like living-"

"The dusty years-" I had not realized I spoke aloud until I heard her small chuckle of amusement.

"I could not have said it better!"

"But why should my fate be a matter of concern to you, my lady?"

She was frowning a little. "To me that is also a puzzle, Gillan. We are not cup-fellows, nor sister-friends. I can not tell why I wish to see you forth from here-only that I am moved to aid you so. And I think this is truly a venture for you. It is one which I would have chosen, had I been allowed a choice."

"Willingly?"

She smiled. "Does that surprise you?"

Oddly it did not. I believe that Sussia would have ridden on such a bride trek with tearless eyes, looking forward with curiosity and desire for adventure.

"I say it now again, we are of one breed, Gillan. Therefore this abbey is not for you, and since there is naught else within High Hallack for you-"

"I should go forth with a high heart to wed with a shape-changer and sorcerer?"

"Just so." Still she smiled. "Think what a challenge and adventure that presents, my Gillan. Greatly do I envy you."

She was right, very right!

"Now." she spoke more briskly. "What dose have you given her? And what do you plan?"

"I have given her sleep, and shall give it again. She will wake refreshed a day, perhaps more, from now. And also she will awake with soothed mind and nerves."

"If she sleeps here-" Sussia put finger tip to lips and chewed upon it.

"I do not intend that she shall. In her sleep she will be open to suggestion. As soon as the Hour of Great Silence begins I shall take her to my chamber."

Sussia nodded. "Well planned. You are taller than she, but in the morning dark that will not be marked. I will bring you riding robe-and with her tabard, and the cloaks-You can be allowed some weeping behind a wind veil. I do not think Lord Imgry will question if you walk with face hidden to your horse. But there is the leave taking with the Abbess, she is to bless the brides at the Chapel door-"

"It will be very early, and if it snows-Well, there are some things one can only leave to chance."

"A great deal in this ploy must be left to chance." she countered. "But what I can do, that I will!"

Thus together we pushed onward my plan. Marimme lay at last in my bed and beside it I did on the underclothing for a long winter ride, setting over it the divided robe Sussia brought me. It was a finer stuff than I had worn for years, though plain of colour, being a silver grey to match the cloak she also gave me. Over it the tabard was a bright splash of colour, the striking hippogriff of Marimme's crest picked out in bright scarlet with touches of gold, prancing over a curve of blue-green representing the sea.

I braided and pinned very tight my dark hair and then coiled a travel veil and hood over that, leaving veil ends loose to be drawn mask-fashion over my face. When I was done, Sussia surveyed me critically.

"To one who knows Marimme well, this would be no true counterfeit, I fear me. But the Lord Imgry has seen her little, and those you will ride with on the morn do not know her at all. You must use all wits to keep the play going until they are past the place from which they might return. The time for the meeting with the Riders comes very close, ill weather in the highlands could mean more delay, so Lord Imgry would not dare return. After all, he needs but twelve and one brides, and those he shall have. That will be your safeguard against his wrath when discovery is made."

And that was the only safeguard I would have. A little shiver ran through me, but that I would not let Sussia guess. My confidence must be my armour.

"Good fortune to you, Gillan."

"I shall doubtless need all such wishes and more, too." I replied shortly as I picked up the bag of herbs and simples I had earlier packed. Yet at that moment had I been given a chance to retrace all I had done that night and be free of the action I had embarked upon, I would have scornfully refused it.

Back in Marimme's chamber I rested for the rest of the night, having fortified myself with another cordial from my store, so that while I did not sleep much, I was vigorous and eager when there was a morning scratching at my door.

I had my veil about my head, my cloak over my arm. For a moment I did not move to open and then I heard a whisper:

"Ready?"

Sussia again. When I came forth she put her arm quickly about my shoulders as one who supported a friend in distress. Thus I adopted my action to her suggestion, and walked in a feeble, wavering fashion down to the hall. There was food waiting: cakes of journey bread and hot drink. And of this I managed to eat more than appeared with Sussia sitting as a cup-companion, urging me on in a solicitous fashion. She told me in whispers that she had warned off Marimme's other friends, saying that I was so distraught that their sympathy might prove disastrous. And after Marimme's hysterical fit of the night before when the news was broken to her, they believed this readily.

Thus it went as we had hoped. When Lord Imgry, who had avoided me heretofore, came to lead me forth, I went bent and weeping, so I hoped, in a piteous fashion. The last test came as we knelt for the Abbess's blessing. She gave each the kiss of peace and for that I needs must throw back my veil for a moment. I waited tensely to be denounced. But there was not a flicker of change on the Abbess's face as she leaned forward to press her lips to my forehead.

"Go in peace, my daughter-" She spoke the ritual words, but I knew they were truly meant for me and not Marimme. Thus heartened, I was aided by Lord Imgry into the saddle and so rode out of Norstead for ever, after some ten years of life within its never-changing walls.

The Throat of the Hawk

IT WAS cold, and the falling snow thickened as the road wound out of Norsdale, across the uplands, where the fringe forests made black scars against the white. In the spring, in the summer, in autumn, the dale lands were green with richly rooted grass and tree, bush and briar, but in winter they held aloof, alien to those who dwelt in village or upland farm.

Into Harrowdale the road narrowed. Before the long war of the invasion, men had spread out and out to north and west, putting under tillage land uncut by plough before. And then there had been travel on these roads, pack merchants, hill lords and their men, families with their worldly possessions on carts, driving their stock, moving out to fresh new lands. But since the war years communication across the Dales had dwindled, and what had been roads became mountain tracks-narrowed and blurred by the growth of vegetation.

There was little or no talk among our party as we rode, not mounted on such horses as the host kept for raiding and battle, but rather on shaggy coated, short legged beasts, ambling of pace, yet with vast powers of endurance and deep lungs to take the rough up and down going of the back country with uncomplaining and steady gait.

At first, we rode three and four abreast, one or two of the escort with each pair of women. Then we strung out farther as the brush encroached and the road became a lane. I was content to keep silence behind veil and hood. For a space I had ridden stiff of back, tense, lest some call from the Abbey...a rider sent after...would reveal me for what I was. Still did it puzzle me that the Abbess Yulianna had not unmasked me in that farewell moment. Did she have such tenderness for Marimme that she was willing to let the deception stand to save a favourite? Or did she consider me a disturbing factor in her placid community, of whom she would be well rid? Every hour we travelled lessened the chance of any return. And Imgry forced the pace where he could, conferring with the taciturn guide who led our party at least twice during the morning. How far away was our rendezvous? I only knew that it lay upon the edge of the waste at some point of landscape which was so noteworthy as not to be mistaken.

Harrowdale with its isolated farms was gone, and yet the road climbed with us. Save for our own party we might have passed through a deserted countryside. No animal, no bird-and certainly no man-came into sight. When winter wrapped the farms their people kept much indoors, the women busy at their looms, the men at such tasks as they wished.

Now followed the sharper descent into Hockerdale and the murmur of water, for the swift flowing stream there was not yet completely ice roofed. We passed a guard post at the head of that dale, and men turned out to salute our leader and exchange words with him and the guide. It was at that pause another pony edged close to mine and she who rode it leaned a little forward in her saddle.

"Do they mean to never give us any ease?" she asked, perhaps of me, perhaps only of the air, that her words might carry to Lord Imgry.

"It would seem not so." I made my answer low-voiced, for I did not want to be heard abroad.

She pulled impatiently at her veil and her hood fell back a little. This was that Kildas whom Tolfana had pricked with her spite at the table. There were dark shadows under her green-blue eyes in this wan light, a pinching about her full lipped mouth, as if both harsh dayshine and the cold had aged and withered her for the nonce.

"You are his choice." she nodded to Lord Imgry. "But you ride mum this morning. What whip of fear did he use to bind you to his purpose? Last eve you swore you would not come-" There was not any sympathy in her, just curiosity, as if her own discomfort might be eased a little by seeing the sores of another sufferer exposed.

"I had the night for reflection." I made the best reply I could.

She laughed shortly. "Mighty must have been those reflections to produce so collected a mind this day! Your screams had the halls ringing bravely when they took you forth. Do you now fancy a sorcerer bridegroom?"

"Do you?" I countered. The thought that Marimme had made such a show of her fear and revulsion was a small worry now. I was not Marimme and I could not counterfeit her well. Lord Imgry had been engrossed all morning in his urge for speed. But what would happen when he found he had been befooled? He needed me to make up the tale of the Bargain, and that should protect me from the full force of any wrath that he would feel upon learning of the substitution.