A Hawk In Silver Part 16

"Not any more, Priest of the Abyss. Not now and not ever again." He raised the pike and snapped the shaft over his knee, and threw the pieces at Florin's feet. "We will have what is ours by right!"

They took up the cry, and others with them, until Holly found herself standing deafened and cheering in the centre of a shouting swaying crowd; elukoi and morkani; and she knew that the Harper had won them over at last. And there were tears icy on her skin. The crowd called out for Mathurin and cried for Tanaquil, and they would not be silent until the Starlord paced slowly forward; and then the noise died down.

Holly stood on tiptoe, craning to see what was happening. They had drawn together about Fyraire and Oberon and Eilunieth. She thought, What about Elathan?

"Well, Master Sorcerer?" Mathurin's voice. He was out of her sight then.

"You fool. Do you think I have not known from the begin-ning that the sea-people were not our true enemies? There was only ever one-Domnu. We might have beaten the Seahawk's people, but never the Mother. Never! Her darkness and power is boundless. And now, within sight of her, on this night of all nights, you take her people from her." Elathan lifted his head. "But-I do not see how we might have moved events to avoid this. So for what it is worth, I am with you."

In the crowd Holly was pressed against Fletcher, and she felt him let out his breath in a deep sigh of relief.

Mist came up whiter and colder from the sea. The figures round her blurred-elukoi, morkani; foxes, stags, mares, stallions, hounds, falcons; the beasts who fought with the elukoi-Tanaquil with a gull hawk-wise on her wrist, Oberon with Tarac on his shoulder; Holdfast and Lightfoot with Silver-leaf... the rest was night and shadow and torchlight glittering on mail and blade and hair. She and Chris kept close together.

Fiorin spoke coldly. "You are determined on this, then, to withstand by force of arms whatsoever the Seamother may send against you? For I know that with these mortal children here there is a ban on such sorcery as you might employ."

Tanaquil answered for all. ''We are so determined."

"Then you are witless! You do not know what power is in the Abyss. You do not know that even now you may not set foot off this beach-and the sea is coming, mark me well, the sea is coming!"

"And you, Fiorin, will you not come with us while there is time? Take heed for yourself; we are enough for the return to Faerie, I do not think one more or less will make a differ-ence."

Fiorin spat at the Seahawk's feet.

"I curse you!"

He flung both arms up before him. Holly shrank back but the press of bodies was too great. The sea-bom's glittering eyes were inhuman.

"I curse you all in Domnu's name! I curse you sleeping or waking, loving or hating, fighting or at peace, living or dead. I curse you, mortal or immortal, on land or on sea-"

Brionis shouted, "Join us or go!"

"-and I summon up against you the power of Rak-Domnu, I, Fiorin, Priest of the Bitter Sea; I call into myself the power of the Abyss-"

He stopped, covered his face, then let his hands fall limply. His head lifted. Holly heard the sharp intake of breath all round her; her stomach turned over.

Chris whispered, "If that's an act it's too b.l.o.o.d.y good."

He spoke again: "Do you know me? House of the Hawk, do you know me?"

The Lord of Stars paced forward but the seaborn never moved. There was not a yard between him and that murderous horn.

I know you, Domnu.

"And I you, Lord of Beasts. Shall we finish what was begun in Caer Ys, think you?"

Chris was bewildered. "What's he at?""He called Domnu." Fletcher shuddered, "She's come."

There is nothing for you to fight for, Domnu. The House of the Hawk will not return to sunken Ys, they will not worship you again.

"But I will not let them go. I am the Sea, eternal. I have endured as long as this earth, and none may count the days of it; and when I die this world goes down in dust. I have swallowed down cities and towns and continents; mortals and beasts and G.o.ds; good men and evil men; kingdoms and empires. There is no end to the dead within me. The Abyss hungers, and all the blood in the world cannot satisfy it. You shall not leave this place."

The cold bit into Holly; numbed feet, hands and face; sunk into her bones. Domnu's words numbed her mind. She had become used to Ys's bell tolling in her head, but now it rang deeper and slower and louder. There was nothing in the world but cold and fog and the sea. She thought dumbly, I am drowning.

Fire!

Fierce white light: the Starlord rears up and cries defiance, and behind him they shake off that cold nightmare and raise weapons and make a great shout against Rak-Domnu!

Fiorin's face went slack. He pitched forward and fell heavily, with no attempt to break the fall. The Unicorn sniffed at him.

"Is he dead?"

He lives, Seahawk, but I fear for his mind; it was not strong enough to contain her. He may be imbecile if he survives.

"We will care for him, an we live through this night. He was once great, or ever we came to Ys." Two of the morkani went at her signal to Fiorin's body.

"Indeed, if we live through this night... we should go afore the Seamother attacks," Mathurin Harper advised.

Elathan nodded. "Nine of every ten morkani you have won over with your words; the rest will hinder our going if they may. Also there will be spells, like as not, so that we should lose direction and find nought but sea every way we go. Yet we have a remedy for that."

Come here.

Holly went with Chris and Fletcher to Fyraire.

You and you-he did not use their names, but Holly felt her and Chris's images in his mind- must go in midst of us. First, that your protection extend over all; second, that we can defend you.

"But the marshes-" Elathan was struck by a sudden thought, never having considered retreat. "To skirt them gives Domnu too long a time to attack us. The direct path we have not used these hundred years and more..."

"I found it. I know it." Fletcher, confident.

"Then find our way for us, boy. Now-go!"

Holly stood in the middle of that fighting force. Chris and Mathurin were by her, but everyone else she knew had gone ahead with Fletcher and Fyraire.

"Fear nothing. Keep walking, and nought shall harm." The pressure of Mathurin's hand moved her forward. It was too dark here, without the torches, to see what the others did around her.

"Who's afraid?" Holly thought, Who am I kidding?

Now there was a torch-bearer not far behind her. She could just see the mailed backs of morkani moving ahead of her.

She was hemmed in. Whatever attacked, she wouldn't see it.

"Something's up." Chris was tall enough to see through the ranks to the head of the line, where there were a dozen spluttering torches. "We're stopping."

They stood for several minutes, stamping their feet against the cold. The column began to move slowly at last. Holly saw what lay ahead.

The sea.

Black and sullen, rolling past them to the west; the torches sending yellow flares across its oily darkness. Holly, tight with fear, thought, But we were supposed to be OK...

Silver came hunting down the line, spear in hand. She smiled as she pa.s.sed them. "The tide comes in apace, we'll beat it an we hurry. It is no more than a handspan deep, but 'ware mud."

Holly remembered walking the beach in past summers and remembered the long shallow inlets that cut the sand off from the shingle when the tide came in. She was not afraid of that.

The mud sucked hungrily at her feet, but she came to dry land in half a dozen jerking steps. The ranks closed up again as they crunched up the long slope, going inland.

"Jesus, am I glad you turned up." Chris grinned. "Knew you wouldn't let me down, though. Even if you did leave it a bit late."

You've got a nerve. "It wasn't me. It was all him. Fyraire."

"Yeah." The blonde girl lost her smile. "He scares me. I mean, things like that shouldn't exist-they can't. The rest I can explain. But not him."

"He won't hurt you." The mist deadened their voices; along with the marching feet, and the clink of mail and sword and shield.

"That's not what I'm afraid of. It's just-there he is. And things like him didn't ought to be."

Shouts ahead. A tw.a.n.g and a hiss; Holly knew it for the sound of an arrow loosed. More of them-too many to count.

The ground rising. A scramble over a bank, a flat stretch of snow, another bank-the road, she realised. Isolated shouts came from all sides now, but she could see nothing -not even Mathurin or Chris-now their one torch was gone.

"We're being attacked." Chris's voice, not where she expected it to be. "Reckon we're safe here."

"You hope."

The column thinned. In the marsh they could go no more than three abreast; the middle one keeping his hand on the shoulder of the one in front, while those to left and right defended themselves. Holly was flanked by two elukoi bowmen, and felt Mathurin's hand on her shoulder. The man in front was a tall morkani. She could not reach his shoulder and so clung to his swordbelt. The mud was over her ankles. The fog closed in. She could see nothing.

And her eyes kept shutting. The flu had given her a week of sleepless nights, and drained her body's resources badly.

Neither cold nor the razor's edge of danger could keep her awake now. She gave a jaw-cracking yawn. The hand behind pushed forward. The belt yanked her sideways. She skidded and recovered. An arrow was loosed at her ear."Get him, Starkweather?"

"I think not-sea take that boy, he's led us astray, I swear. It was never so far to the Hills before."

I could get killed, she thought, dizzy with lack of sleep. It must be gone one o'clock. Again she stumbled. The ground was never where she expected it, and the mud betrayed her at every step.

More arrows, but all in silence. Holly knew she would break and run if anyone was. .h.i.t and cried out.

Solid ground underfoot.

Holly rubbed her eyes; tried also to rub warmth into her frozen cheeks and chin and nose. The fog had cleared a little. She could see moon and stars in the roof of the sky. Also a dark ridge of ground: the gate to the Hills.

"Where's the rest?"

"Gone through. We've to go in last, keep Domnu from any magic-Holly!"

"What? Oh, sorry, Chris."

"For Christ's sake stay awake, girl."

Holly kept her eyes open, but time disjointed itself into sudden pictures. The Harper's face, intent in torchlight, peering out where mist hung like thick cotton wool, filigreed with the moon... Fletcher with the longbow, arm going back smoothly, and the hissing shock of the arrow's flight... Chris, hunched and cold... shapes that moved but could not be clearly seen- "They are all in, Harper."

"Go, then. At least Domnu cannot take the Hills while the Starlord holds the Gate."

Holly made no protest when the Harper bent down and scooped her like a child into his arms; she was asleep instantly.

She had no memory of pa.s.sing for the third time into the Hollow Hills.

Seaward, the bells of Ys fell silent.

Holly woke in bed with a sour taste in her mouth. Disap-pointment flooded in on her. Dreamed it? I might've d.a.m.n well known.

She had never been so reluctant to face the morning. Stirring uneasily she rubbed at her gritty eyes, saw the blurred edge of a green pullover and silver watchstrap.... Pullover?

She rubbed her eyes until they watered, and her vision cleared. Two undyed wool blankets lay over her, and she could feel that she was fully dressed except for shoes and anorak. The bed was low and hard. Beside her, a hunched lump in the blankets, a spray of uncovered white hair- Silverleaf. Beyond her, Chris; on her back with her mouth open, one arm flung over the edge of the bed.

Holly slid out from under the covers and felt for her shoes. The brick floor was chilly. She moved to one of the scattered wool rugs. Shoes and anorak. She yawned, stretched, and went to the window. In the half-dark she gazed down on the top branches of a pine. Every needle was thickly encrusted with snow, making the tree resemble some stiff underwater sponge-growth. Other trees, elm and beech, spread out white fans of snow-laden twigs. The ground was lighter than the sky; but the last pre-dawn mists were dis-persing and she saw a red glow beginning in the east.

Of course it's all true. She pushed her hair away from her face, wishing for a comb. She plaited it back roughly, finding an elastic band in her pocket. I remember-the beach. Mathu-rin, Fiorin. And who else but me could fall asleep in the middle of a battle?

The other two did not wake as she left. Once outside, the frosty air roused her. She strolled through an orchard, and came out on top of the eastward-facing slope of Brancaer's hill. The frozen meadow lay below her, and the still stream, and the silent forest. The sun was split by the tree-horizon; a deep red globe that shot the snow with pink and gold, crimsoned the dawn-mist, cleared the sky to winter brightness, and threw long blue shadows westward. Behind her the city was asleep.

She stretched again, shaking her head. Then she ran a few steps, kicked up sprays of snow, slipped, and rolled yards down the hill. Breathless she staggered back up the slope, swung on the trunk of a rowan till it stood crimson-berried and bereft of snow; then leaned against it, laughing weakly. They had come clear through it-herself and Chris and Fletcher, elukoi and morkani, and Fyraire of the Silver Wood! Her exultation demanded a physical outlet.

The sun cleared the horizon, went from red to gold, too bright now to gaze at. Holly heard a drum-beat sound from the north and twisted round to see what caused it. Far out across the open field three swans flew, low, but gaining height with every slow wingbeat. They swung in a rising curve towards her, long necks outstretched like geese, wings outspread. She felt them shake the air above her, a white thundercrack, and for a second saw the morning sun through stainless feathers.

They vanished into Brancaer. And she was quiet, and her joy ran deep.

The city was waking, the first spirals of smoke went skyward. The day was clear blue, clean, and bitter cold. One icicle hung from the rowan tree. Holly snapped it off and sucked it, still kneeling in the snow.

"You are awake early."

With animal carelessness, barefoot in the snow; bareheaded too, and with no weapon-Mathurin Harper.

"So're you."

"Will you walk with me? I would talk with you." Holly nodded agreeably. She stood and dusted snow from her jeans and went with him down the hill.20 The Last Morning All the hazels and hawthorns were stiff with snow, and dead reeds jutted up from the ice at the fringes of the river. Away from the reed-javelins the water ran quick and black. Wisps of white vapour glided across it. Holly walked with Mathurin by that monochrome river, cutting deep swathes in the snow that was marked only by bird tracks.

"You're going, aren't you? All of you. When?"

"Now. As soon as they have all they wish to take with them. And none to blame them, girl, not even you." He looked up at the forest, casting its shadow down towards the stream. "Earth moulds them to her pattern; would give them children, take their immortality-given rime, would make them as human as you..."

"I don't blame anyone-for anything." Holly was not sure if she meant to needle him or not.

"No, that is true." He dropped an arm loosely across her shoulders. "If you could only come with us, the marvels I could show you! But no mortals go to Faerie."

Holly grinned up at him, liking him still. As an only child, she had always wanted brothers. (She knew too many girls to have illusions about sisters.) Mathurin would have been a good elder brother, she thought.

"No wonder you knew so much about those sigils." She was jealous for a brief second. "I suppose Tanaquil gave it to you?"

He nodded. "We met and loved, and after the ancient custom of Faerie we exchanged tokens. To her I gave one of the silver harpstrings of Math's Harp. And to me she gave one of the royal seals of Ys."