The riders approached swiftly. There were about ten of them. Ciri saw Paulie Dahlberg, in the wagon behind her, place two readied crossbows on his knee and Regan covered them with a cloak. Ciri crept stealthily out from under the canvas, hiding behind Yarpen’s broad back. Triss tried to raise herself, swore and collapsed against her bedding.
“Halt!” shouted the first of the riders, no doubt their leader. “Who are you? From whence and to where do you ride?”
“Who asks?” Wenck calmly pulled himself upright in the saddle. “And on whose authority?”
“King Henselt’s army, inquisitive sir! Lance-corporal Zyvik asks, and he is unused to asking twice! So answer at the double! Who are you?”
“Quartermaster’s service of the King’s army.”
“Anyone could claim that! I see no one here bearing the King’s colours!”
“Come closer, lance-corporal, and examine this ring.”
“Why flash a ring at me?” The soldier grimaced. “Am I supposed to know every ring, or something? Anyone could have a ring like that. Some significant sign!”
Yarpen Zigrin stood up in the box, raised his axe and with a swift move pushed it under the soldier’s nose.
“And this sign,” he snarled. “You know it? Smell it and remember how it smells.”
The lance-corporal yanked the reins and turned his horse.
“Threaten me, do you?” he roared. “Me? I’m in the king’s service!”
“And so are we,” said Wenck quietly. “And have been for longer than you at that, I’m sure. I warn you, trooper, don’t overdo it.”
“I’m on guard here! How am I to know who you are?”
“You saw the ring,” drawled the commissar. “And if you didn’t recognise the sign on the jewel then I wonder who you are. The colours of your unit bear the same emblem so you ought to know it.”
The soldier clearly restrained himself, influenced, no doubt, equally by Wenck’s calm words and the serious, determined faces peering from the escort’s carts.
“Hmm…” he said, shifting his fur-hat towards his left ear. “Fine. But if you truly are who you claim to be, you will not, I trust, have anything against my having a look to see what you carry in the wagons.”
“We will indeed.” Wenck frowned. “And very much, at that. Our load is not your business, lance-corporal. Besides, I do not understand what you think you may find there.”
“You do not understand.” The soldier nodded, lowering his hand towards the hilt of his sword. “So I shall tell you, sir. Human trafficking is forbidden and there is no lack of scoundrels selling slaves to the Nilfgaardians. If I find humans in stocks in your wagons, you will not convince me that you are in the king’s service. Even if you were to show me a dozen rings.”
“Fine,” said Wenck dryly. “If it is slaves you are looking for, then look. You have my permission.”
The soldier cantered to the wagon in the middle, leaned over from the saddle and raised the canvas.
“What’s in those barrels?”
“What do you expect? Prisoners?” sneered Yannick Brass, sprawled in the coachman’s box.
“I am asking you what’s in them, so answer me!”
“Salt fish.”
“And in those trunks there?” The warrior rode up to the next wagon and kicked the side.
“Hooves,” snapped Paulie Dahlberg. “And there, in the back, are buffalo skins.”
“So I see.” The lance-corporal waved his hand, smacked his lips at his horse, rode up to the vanguard and peered into Yarpen’s wagon.
“And who is that woman lying there?”
Triss Merigold smiled weakly, raised herself to her elbow and traced a short, complicated sign with her hand.
“Who am I?” she asked in a quiet voice. “But you can’t see me at all.”
The soldier winked nervously, shuddered slightly.
“Salt fish,” he said, convinced, lowering the canvas. “All is in order. And this child?”
“Dried mushrooms,” said Ciri, looking at him impudently. The soldier fell silent, frozen with his mouth open.
“What’s that?” he asked after a while, frowning. “What?”
“Have you concluded your inspection, warrior?” Wenck showed cool interest as he rode up on the other side of the cart. The soldier could barely look away from Ciri’s green eyes.
“I have concluded it. Drive on, and may the gods guide you. But be on your guard. Two days ago, the Scoia’tael wiped out an entire mounted patrol up by Badger Ravine. It was a strong, large command. It’s true that Badger Ravine is far from here but elves travel through the forest faster than the wind. We were ordered to round them up, but how do you catch an elf? It’s like trying to catch the wind—”
“Good, enough, we’re not interested,” the commissar interrupted him brusquely. “Time presses and we still have a long journey ahead of us.”
“Fare you well then. Hey, follow me!”
“You heard, Geralt?” snarled Yarpen Zigrin, watching the patrol ride away. “There are bloody Squirrels in the vicinity. I felt it. I’ve got this tingling feeling in my back all the time as if some archer was already aiming at me. No, damn it, we can’t travel blindly as we’ve been doing until now, whistling away, dozing and sleepily farting. We have to know what lies ahead of us. Listen, I’ve an idea.”
Ciri pulled her chestnut up sharply, and then launched into a gallop, leaning low in the saddle. Geralt, engrossed in conversation with Wenck, suddenly sat up straight.
“Don’t run wild!” he called. “No madness, girl! Do you want to break your neck? And don’t go too far—”
She heard no more – she had torn ahead too fiercely. She had done it on purpose, not wanting to listen to the daily cautions. Not too quickly, not too fiercely, Ciri! Pah-pah. Don’t go too far! Pah-pah-pah. Be careful! Pah-pah!Exactly as if I were a child, she thought. And I’m almost thirteen and have a swift chestnut beneath me and a sharp sword across my back. And I’m not afraid of anything!
And it’s spring!
“Hey, careful, you’ll burn your backside!”
Yarpen Zigrin. Another know-it-all. Pah-pah!
Further, further, at a gallop, along the bumpy path, through the green, green grasses and bushes, through the silver puddles, through the damp golden sand, through the feathery ferns. A frightened fallow deer disappeared into the woods, flashing the black and white lantern of its tail and rump as it skipped away. Birds soared up from the trees – colourful jays and bee-eaters, screaming black magpies with their funny tails. Water splashed beneath her horse’s hooves in the puddles and the clefts.
Further, even further! The horse, which had been trudging sluggishly behind the wagon for too long, carried her joyously and briskly; happy to be allowed speed, it ran fluidly, muscles playing between her thighs, damp mane thrashing her face. The horse extended its neck as Ciri gave it free rein. Further, dear horse, don’t feel the bit, further, at the gallop, at the gallop, sharp, sharp! Spring!
She slowed and glanced back. There, alone at last. Far away at last. No one was going to tell her off any more, remind her of something, demand her attention, threaten that this would be the end of such rides. Alone at last, free, at ease and independent.
Slower. A light trot. After all, this wasn’t just a fun ride, she also had responsibilities. Ciri was, after all, a mounted foray now, a patrol, an advance guard. Ha, she thought, looking around, the safety of the entire convoy depends on me now. They’re all waiting impatiently for me to return and report: the way is clear and passable, I didn’t see anyone – there are no traces of wheels or hooves. I’ll report it, and thin Master Wenck with his cold, blue eyes will nod his head gravely, Yarpen Zigrin will bare his yellow, horse teeth, Paulie Dahlberg will shout: “Well done, little one!’, and Geralt will smile faintly. He’ll smile, although he very rarely smiles recently.
Ciri looked around and took a mental note. Two felled birches – no problem. A heap of branches – nothing the wagons co
uldn’t pass. A cleft washed out by the rain – a small obstacle, the wheels of the first wagon will run over it, the others will follow in the ruts. A huge clearing – a good place for a rest…
Traces? What traces can there be here? There’s no one here. There’s the forest. There are birds screeching amidst fresh, green leaves. A red fox runs leisurely across the path… And everything smells of spring.
The track broke off halfway up the hill, disappeared in the sandy ravine, wound through the crooked pines which clung to the slopes. Ciri abandoned the path and, wanting to scrutinise the area from a height, climbed the steep slope. And so she could touch the wet, sweet-smelling leaves…
She dismounted, threw the reins over a snag in a tree and slowly strolled among the junipers which covered the hill. On the other side of the hill was an open space, gaping in the thick of the forest like a hole bitten out of the trees – left, no doubt, after a fire which had raged here a very long time ago, for there was no sign of blackened or charred remains, everywhere was green with low birches and little fir trees. The trail, as far as the eye could see, seemed clear and passable.
And safe.
What are they afraid of? she thought. The Scoia’tael? But what was there to be afraid of? I’m not frightened of elves. I haven’t done anything to them.
Elves. The Squirrels. Scoia’tael.
Before Geralt had ordered her to leave, Ciri had managed to take a look at the corpses in the fort. She remembered one in particular – his face covered by hair stuck together with darkened blood, his neck unnaturally twisted and bent. Pulled back in a ghastly, set grimace, his upper lip revealed teeth, very white and very tiny, non-human. She remembered the elf’s boots, ruined and reaching up to the knees, laced at the bottom and fastened at the top with many wrought buckles.
Elves who kill humans and die in battles themselves. Geralt says you have to remain neutral… And Yarpen says you have to behave in such a way that you don’t have to ask for forgiveness…
She kicked a molehill and, lost in thought, dug her heel into the sand.
Who and whom, whom and what should one forgive?
The Squirrels kill humans. And Nilfgaard pays them for it. Uses them. Incites them. Nilfgaard.
Ciri had not forgotten – although she very much wanted to forget – what had happened in Cintra. The wandering, the despair, the fear, the hunger and the pain. The apathy and torpor, which came later, much later when the druids from Transriver had found her and taken her in. She remembered it all as though through a mist, and she wanted to stop remembering it.
But it came back. Came back in her thoughts, into her dreams. Cintra. The thundering of horses and the savage cries, corpses, flames… And the black knight in his winged helmet… And later… Cottages in Transriver… A flame-blackened chimney amongst charred ruins… Next to it, by an unscathed well, a black cat licking a terrible burn on its side. A well… A sweep… A bucket…
A bucket full of blood.
Ciri wiped her face, looked down at her hand, taken aback. Her palm was wet. The girl sniffed and wiped the tears with her sleeve.
Neutrality? Indifference? She wanted to scream. A witcher looking on indifferently? No! A witcher has to defend people. From the leshy, the vampire, the werewolf. And not only from them. He has to defend people from every evil. And in Transriver I saw what evil is.
A witcher has to defend and save. To defend men so that they aren’t hung on trees by their hands, aren’t impaled and left to die. To defend fair girls from being spread-eagled between stakes rammed into the ground. Defend children so they aren’t slaughtered and thrown into a well. Even a cat burned alive in a torched barn deserves to be defended. That’s why I’m going to become a witcher, that’s why I’ve got a sword, to defend people like those in Sodden and Transriver – because they don’t have swords, don’t know the steps, half-turns, dodges and pirouettes. No one has taught them how to fight, they are defenceless and helpless in face of the werewolf and the Nilfgaardian marauder. They’re teaching me to fight so that I can defend the helpless. And that’s what I’m going to do. Never will I be neutral. Never will I be indifferent.
Never!
She didn’t know what warned her – whether it was the sudden silence which fell over the forest like a cold shadow, or a movement caught out of the corner of her eye. But she reacted in a flash, instinctively – with a reaction she had learnt in the woods of Transriver when, escaping from Cintra, she had raced against death. She fell to the ground, crawled under a juniper bush and froze, motionless. Just let the horse not neigh, she thought.
On the other side of the ravine something moved again; she saw a silhouette show faintly, hazily amidst the leaves. An elf peered cautiously from the thicket. Having thrown the hood from his head, he looked around for a moment, pricked up his ears and then, noiselessly and swiftly, moved along the ridge. After him, two more leaned out. And then others moved. Many of them. In single file. About half were on horseback – these rode slowly, straight in their saddles, focused and alert. For a moment she saw them all clearly and precisely as, in utter silence, they flowed across a bright breach in the wall of trees, framed against the background of the sky – before they disappeared, dissolved in the shimmering shadows of the wild forest. They vanished without a rustle or a sound, like ghosts. No horse tapped its hoof or snorted, no branch cracked under foot or hoof. The weapons slung across them did not clang.
They disappeared but Ciri did not move. She lay flat on the ground under the juniper bush, trying to breathe as quietly as possible. She knew that a frightened bird or animal could give her away, and a bird or animal could be frightened by any sound or movement – even the slightest, the most careful. She got up only when the woods had grown perfectly calm and the magpies chattered again among the trees where the elves had disappeared.
She rose only to find herself in a strong grip. A black, leather glove fell across her mouth, muffled the scream of fear.
“Be quiet.”
“Geralt?”
“Quiet, I said.”
“You saw them?”
“I did.”
“It’s them…” she whispered. “The Scoia’tael. Isn’t it?”
“Yes. Quick back to the horses. Watch your feet.”
They rode carefully and silently down the slope without returning to the trail; they remained in the thicket. Geralt looked around, alert. He did not allow her to ride independently; he did not give her the chestnut’s reins; he led the horse himself.
“Ciri,” he said suddenly. “Not a word about what we saw. Not to Yarpen, not to Wenck. Not to anybody. Understand?”
“No,” she grunted, lowering her head. “I don’t understand. Why shouldn’t I say anything? They have to be warned. Whose side are we on, Geralt? Whose side are we against? Who’s our friend and who’s our enemy?”
“We’ll part with the convoy tomorrow,” he said after a moment’s silence. “Triss is almost recovered. We’ll say goodbye and go our own way. We have problems of our own, our own worries and our own difficulties. Then, I hope, you’ll finally stop dividing the inhabitants of this world into friends and enemies.”
“We’re to be… neutral? Indifferent, is that right? And if they attack…”
“They won’t.”
“And if—”
“Listen to me.” He turned to her. “Why do you think that such a vital load of gold and silver, King Henselt’s secret aid for Aedirn, is being escorted by dwarves and not humans? I saw an elf watching us from a tree yesterday. I heard them pass by our camp during the night. The Scoia’tael will not attack the dwarves, Ciri.”
“But they’re here,” she muttered. “They are. They’re moving around, surrounding us…”
“I know why they’re here. I’ll show you.”
He turned the horse abruptly and threw the reins to her. She kicked the chestnut with her heels and moved away faster, but he motioned for her to stay behind him. They cut across the trail and reentered the wild forest. T
he witcher led, Ciri following in his tracks. Neither said anything. Not for a long time.
“Look.” Geralt held back his horse. “Look, Ciri.”
“What is it?” she sighed.
“Shaerrawedd.”
In front of them, as far as the woods allowed them to see, rose smoothly hewn blocks of granite and marble with blunt corners, worn away by the winds, decorated with patterns long leached out by the rains, cracked and shattered by frost, split by tree roots. Amongst the trunks broken columns flashed white, arcades, the remains of ornamental friezes entwined with ivy, and wrapped in a thick layer of green moss.
“This was… a castle?”
“A palace. The elves didn’t build castles. Dismount, the horses won’t manage in the rubble.”
“Who destroyed it all? Humans?”
“No, they did. Before they left.”
“Why?”
“They knew they wouldn’t be coming back. It happened following their second clash with the humans, more than two hundred years ago. Before that, they used to leave towns untouched when they retreated. Humans used to build on the foundations left by the elves. That’s how Novigrad, Oxenfurt, Wyzima, Tretogor, Maribor and Cidaris were built. And Cintra.”
“Cintra?”
He confirmed it with a nod of the head, not taking his eyes off the ruins.
“They left,” whispered Ciri, “but now they’re coming back. Why?”
“To have a look.”
“At what?”
Without a word he laid his hand on her shoulder and pushed her gently before him. They jumped down the marble stairs, climbing down holding on to the springy hazel, clusters of which had burst through every gap, every crevice in the moss-covered, cracked plates.
“This was the centre of the palace, its heart. A fountain.”
“Here?” she asked, surprised, gazing at the dense thicket of alders and white birch trunks amongst the misshapen blocks and slabs. “Here? But there’s nothing there.”
“Come.”
The stream feeding the fountain must have changed its course many times, patiently and constantly washing the marble blocks and alabaster plates which had sunk or fallen to form dams, once again changing the course of the current. As a result the whole area was divided up by shallow gullies. Here and there the water cascaded over the remains of the building, washing it clean of leaves, sand and litter. In these places, the marble, terracotta and mosaics were still as vibrant with colour, as fresh as if they had been lying there for three days, not two centuries.