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AFTER THIS, suddenly the winter was too short, despite the nighton’s, ore a red cloak The snow ht buds knuckled out from the trees, and the first vivid purple shoots parted the last year’s dry grass There was a heavy rich ss in the shadows just beyond the edge of sight, and hearing far high laughter she could not be sure she did not is she would whip around to look at Luthe, who, as often as not, would be staring into the ue silly smile on his face
"You aren’t really alone up here at all, are you?" she said, and was surprised to feel so she suspected was jealousy
Luthe refocused his eyes to look at her gravely "No But myfriendsare very shy Worse than I a soon anyway," Aerin said "They’ll coh’’
Luthe did not answer iot out Talat’s saddle and gear and cleaned everything, and oiled the leather; and upon request Luthe provided her with soed a plain breastplate, for Talat had insufficient wither to carry a saddle reliably straight She also on stone, which had been living under a corner of herThen she spent hours currying Talat while the winter hair rose in clouds around theratification
She ca shed a great deal of white hair and dust in the bathhouse, and found Luthe pulling the wrappings off a sword The cloth was black and brittle, as if with great age, but the scabbard gleaeht as fire "Oh," breathed Aerin, co up behind hi the scabbard in a shred of ragged black cloth, offered her the hilt She grasped it without hesitation, and the feel of it was as srips seemed to mold to her hand She pulled the blade free, and it flashed ht that cut the farthest shadows of Luthe’s ever shadowed hall, and there seereat clap of sound that deafened both the red-haired wo And then it was reat blue gem set at the peak of the hilt
"Yes, I rather thought she was for you," Luthe said "Goriolo said I would knohen the time came Funny I did not think of her sooner; there can be no better ally against Agsded"
"What - who is she?" Aerin said, holding the tip upright so the firelight would run like water down the length of the blade "She is Gonturan," Luthe said "I - er - found her, long ago, on h I think it probable that she called ood reason foroff on a long journey East I have never been a traveler by nature"
"Called you?" said Aerin, although she had no difficulty in believing that this particular sword could do anything - juernaut, speak riddles thatstory," said Luthe Aerin took her eyes off the sword long enough to flash him an exasperated look
"I’ll tell you all of it someday," Luthe said, but his voice carried no conviction
Aerin said quietly, "I leave at the next new moon"
"Yes," said Luthe, so softly she did not hear hiree; and Gonturan slid like silk into her scabbard They stood not looking at anything, and at last Aerin said lightly, "It is as well to have a sword; and I left ’s business; although if Arlbeth knew of Agsded he ’s business"
Luthe said, "He would; but he would never admit that it was your business, even if he knew all the story Arlbeth is a worthy oes with you, and Gonturan is better than a platoon of Damarian cavalry"
"And easier to feed," said Aerin
"North you o," said Luthe "North and east, I think you will find the way"
Talat stood still while Aerin tied the last bundles behind his saddle, but his ears spoke of his impatience It’s been a pleasant sojourn, they said, and ould be happy to return soh ti on a strap and then turned to Luthe He stood next to one of the pillars before his hall She stared fixedly at the open neck of his tunic so she need not see how the young spring sunlight danced in his hair; but she found herself watching a rapid little pulse beating in the hollow of his throat, and so she shifted her attention to his left shoulder "Good-bye," she said "Thanks Um"
The ar at reached out toward her, and she was so absorbed in not thinking about anything that its hand had seized her chin before she thought to flinch away The hand exerted upward force and her neck reluctantly bent back, but her eyes stuck on his chin and stayed there
"Hey," said Luthe "This is me, remember? You aren’t allowed to pretend I don’t exist until after you leave my mountain"
She raised her eyes and reen ones He dropped his hand and said lightly, "Very well, have it your way I don’t exist"
She had already turned away, but she turned back at that, and his arms closed around her, and so they stood, while the sun shone down on their two ures and one impatient stallion
Aerin broke free at last, and heaved herself belly down over the saddle, and swung her leg hastily behind, thurunted
"Come back to me," said Luthe behind her
"I will," she said to Talat’s ears, and then Talat was trotting briskly down the trail The last Luthe saw of thelea seeh Talat’s sreenness from the earth; as if the last white hairs of his winter coat conveyed a charm to the earth they touched When they slept, they slept in sun to show; but in the s, sorass Aerin lay on had thickened during the night hours Talat see whiteness brilliant in the sunlight, tirelessly joggingmile; and the birds followed them, as the leaves opened for them, and the flowers cast their perfuht she was iain that perhaps she wasn’t; but the sun told her that they went steadily north, and the hard feel of Gonturan in her hand reminded her of why they went
They had first descended to the forest plain when they left Luthe, and turned right, or north, in the foothills; and here the grass grew to Talat’s knees, and he had to wade through it, with a rushing sound like a ship’s prow through the sea Before therass was thinner; behind therass was deepest where their trail had been, and waves of grass rippled out froo in coh the company chooses to be silent" Talat cocked his ears back to listen
But soon they cli had h she continued to try Aerin was not conscious of guiding Talat, any ht for Luthe; they both knehere they were going, and it drew theher they went, as the sun rose over theround underfoot was no longer turf, but rock, and Talat’s hoofs rang when they struck
When they first ca sound; they seemed to thunder of doom and loss and failure, and Talat shied away fro Gonturan with her; and she swung her up over her head and down, and thrust her into the trail before her, which was not rock at all, but earth; and as she drew the blade out again, there were so from the hole that she had made Aerin knelt, and picked up a handful of dirt and pebbles from the tiny bit of broken earth before her; and threw her handful down the rocky way before therated, the bits twinkled She threw another handful after the first; and when she threw this into the air it smelted of the crushed leaves of the surka, and as she looked ahead she saw, as if her eyes hadbearing green leaves; and in its top; and around the tree’s foot there grew a budding surka plant, which explained the heavy pungent smell in the air
"What a pleasant place this is," said Aerin dryly, but it seemed that her words were sucked away from her, and echoed in some narrow place that was not the place where she stood Her hand tightened a little on Gonturan’s hilt, but she raised her chin, as if so, and re out merrily, like hoofbeats on the stony ways of the City; and there was grass growing in tufts a to crevices over their heads
The feeling of being watched increased as they went on, though she saw no one, except, perhaps, at night, when there sees than there had been when they were still below on the plain, and ht since she had plunged Gonturan into the earth, and the twelfth since she had left Luthe, she stood up from her fireside and said into the darkness, "Cohtened her, for it sounded as if it knehat it was doing, and she was quite sure she did not; and so she staggered and al did cohs She did not lints of ht level for creatures the size of the thing that leaned against her legs She had her arms crossed over her breast; noith infinite reluctance she unbent her right elbow and let the hand dangle down behind her leg, and she felt the creature’s breath She closed her eyes, and then opened theed over the back of her hand The weight against her legs shifted a little, and then a round skull pressed into her palm
She looked down over her shoulder with dread, and the great cat thing, one of the wild folstza of thedown a horse, began to purr "Pleased to make your acquaintance," Aerin said shakily "I think"