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"What did she look like?" Lleu asked

"You question like an old woman!"

He frowned and tossed his head, and said, "Don’t tell me, then"

"She was ‘very dark, but cos over the old books, hymns chanted, stories told "‘Like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solo at the fire, while the sords of the Song of Songs echoed on the cold and quiet air Lleu whispered then, "Hoould she ad?"

I whispered in return, "She would not admire it"

"Did you love her? Have you ever loved anything?"

Yes Yes All the wrong things The hunt, and darkness, and winter, and you, Godmother

"Oh, be careful, little brother," I breathed "You are hurling your slight weight against a very thin scale of ice"

"I a for my freedom in any way I can," he answered

He sat awake and watched all through that night

The h still more bare, deserted forest; Lleu walked in a private haze of exhaustion Snow covered the trees and forest floor as far as could be seen, and drifted across our vision There was only soft light, the ft u walkedlight one drearay clouds, or snow, or blue shadows, but never the true light of the sun In the afternoon we left the dale and struck out over another stretch of empty moorland Lleu rode behind ave hiht in the saddle through sheer strength of will, riding doggedly, dazed eariness

Before dark we came upon a small, round hill, wider and lower than the mounds we had passed earlier Here we dismounted Lleu did not resist when I laid ently at the tense ravain asked At the bottom of the slope the rise of land cut off soh it was still cold and could not compare to the protection the forest had offered us

"Clie"

Agravain led the horses, and I guided Lleu the little way to the top The mound was not a hill but an earthen rae formed a wall about the hollow of the hill, and sheltered there an ancient ring of stones Those that were fallen now squatted balefully, but a few still stood upright or pointed at drunken angles to the sky Lleu stood shivering beneath otten shrine Helike despair in his voice, "We are to shelter here?"

"The earthworks cut off the wind," I said

"I think I would rather freeze"

Agravain gazed at Lleu with aoing to be sacrificed"

"No" Lleu shook hiht hold and said, "How far are we from the road?"

The road was less than a mile south of the circle, but I would not let him know this "Close by," I answered "We will reach it tomorrow"

"How close?" he pressed

"I will not tell you," I answered directly "You have won thisnor hope"

We set caled stones The air was very still There was no wood for a fire and only the lanterns for light Lleu took charge of these, appropriating all our steel and flint He put out the lights but for one, which he set close by hihtly druine hoould drive hiht

"He ravain "If you and I rest in turns, one of us should be able to take hiht was alrown deep and harsh; it hurt ravain wokeLleu, I struck his hand aside storravain muttered with distaste, "I wouldn’t I’ht me full awake I said ravain answered with the fierce devotion that had driven hiht One, for I kno she’ll use hilanced up in undisguised horror "What does she want of ainst the old stone, pale and miserable "Ah, God, you are both daravain murmured bitterly

"No, my soul isat me "I have not sold it yet"

I heard in his clear voice an echo of your iravain, where the two of us crouched stiff and shivering in the shadow of the dark rock "You hope to catch me unaware I swear you will not do it"

In abrupt, unchecked anger, Agravain dealt his cousin so fierce a blow that Lleu fell sprawling in the snow, stunned He pressed one hand to his face even as with the other he drew his hunting knife, an easier and less exacting defense than his bow I uttered in a terrible voice, "Agravain!"

I was so suddenly despising of his blind and adoring obedience to you, and so jealous of nored Lleu’s disadvantage What reason had Agravain to hate Lleu, other than that you desired he should?

"Any hurt you deal the prince," I said in quiet fury, "I will deal to you" I struck Agravain carelessly across the face He stared at me in astonished resentment "Do you understand that?" I asked in the same voice