Levas nodded to his man. “Ride after them, Criten. Do not catch up with them but follow. Keep well back. We will signal with the mirrors at need.” Criten rode away as Lorcan looked us over. “Best we get these bodies away some distance off the trail. Then we bury them deep.”
“What about the horses, Lord?” Gera had rejoined us.
“We’ll take those with us for now. We’ll make sure to strip the men before we rid us of them.”
That we did and gained well thereby. In their belt-pouches I found silver. There was a good dagger on each sword-belt and fair swords also.
As we had laid in ambush snow had begun to fall lightly. To the place where we had taken our prey I brought more snow in my cloak, flinging it into the hoof-prints behind me as I walked my mount away up the trail. In an hour or two there would be no sign anyone had ridden there. Levas judged our stragglers to have been almost an hour behind the main group when we took them.
“It’s late. By the time they think it strange their friends have not caught up it will be growing dark. They’ll make camp and hope the two come in on the fire. Once it is dark they’ll not want to go seeking down that trail anyway. It’s treacherous enough in daylight.”
I nodded. “If they come back tomorrow they’ll find nothing. It’s ready to snow all night I think. There’s a good place to camp in those trees, I used it twice when I lived in the shrine and I was out hunting overnight. If we set up there Dogas may find us. He knows where to look.”
I was right. Dogas tramped wearily into camp some time after dark, leading his mount. He was tired, hungry, and the horse was shivering. I left Levas to rub down and blanket the animal while I fed Dogas and poured him a hot drink. After he ate he began to tell us what he had overheard.
“They will take the hill-path further South along the high hills.”
“Did you hear anything they may plan?” Lorcan queried.
“Yes, Lord. They will circle, cutting down to the lower ground from the hills West. Then they go North again along the foothills. If they find nothing they cut over West again and return along the base of the lowest slopes.”
“They’ll find it’s easier to say than ride,” I commented.
Lorcan turned to me. “You know the trails hereabouts, my Lady. What can you tell us?”
I dropped to my knees near the fire to smooth a patch of snow. “Here, see.” I marked in the line of hills, the trails I knew after three years living in the shrine and regularly hunting in the lands around it.
“Many of the trails will be impassable still. Others may appear passable, but because of the thaw and refreeze they will be so treacherous as to be deadly. At such times after the false Spring there begin to be great snow-slides.” My tongue all but clove to the roof of my mouth as I looked at my companions. All understood.
“If they attempt the trails the lord said, where is the best place for us?” Levas looked eager. I smoothed my patch of snow again and talked. After that we slept the night away before mounting to ride. Criten would find us sooner or later, in that there was no haste. Just now we wished to find Hogeth and his men. Lorcan waited, until we were ahead on the trail they should take, before he summoned Gera.
“I have a message for Honeycoombe. Can you reach there before dark?” The boy nodded. “Good lad. Now, say to Elesha all you have seen and heard. Tell her this also, that we hunt Hogeth with fair results, but she is to ready the keep for siege in case. If any come demanding entry, let her deny them.” Gera looked mutinous. He knew there would be danger the next day and he had no wish to ride home with nothing to show he’d taken part. I rose and took up the reins of the horses we had taken.
“Lead these back with you. Say one is for your family because of the part you have played. The other is to go to Isa’s family because it was she who first saw Todon. You have done well.” I clapped him gently on the shoulder. “Tell your father I said you are a good soldier who serves his dale well.” Gera’s face lit proudly. He drew himself up, gave the soldiers’ bow, scrambled into the saddle, and rode away down the trail leading his prizes.
Lorcan touched my cheek. “You always say the right thing. Now the boy is proud to leave instead of thinking himself unjustly cast off.” I took his hand in mine, holding it for a moment. Behind us Levas coughed.
“Where do we go now, Lady?”
I started my mount up-trail in answer. If we went this way then we would be cutting across the long shallow loop of paths Hogeth would take. He would not know that under the snowfield I crossed there was a thread of safe trail of which Ithia had told me. It could not be seen, but one who knew of it could ride from landmark to landmark in safety. It was long before I drew rein again. Then it was by a vast area of brush high into the foothills which marked the path for me. I turned direct downhill and pointed.
“Below us is the trail they would take if Dogas is right. Beyond here the track becomes more dangerous than they will wish to travel. But that they will not know until they ride on. Above us,” I waved uphill, “the snow lies heavy on an area of unbroken and tilted rock face. It takes little to make it move. Dogas said they are loading two ponies with the blankets, both led by the one rider. If we are sure that, whatever else is in the snow’s path, the blankets are lost, then we’ve done well.”
And so we planned. Riders could outrun the slide. They had time to see and the path ahead of them was smooth enough. But if the led ponies were cast off by the one who led them, if the beasts panicked and were caught beneath the slide, taking with them all the blankets, that loss we would bless. In such night’s chill as we suffered in these hills blankets were no luxury but an essential for those who traveled. Without blankets men slept poorly. They would wake shivering to lose strength and concentration both. Without a blanket across their backs at night horses would balk, unwilling to travel with morning light.
The horses would use up more of what they ate in keeping themselves warm. Thus they would travel more slowly and eat more heartily of the sacked grain. And of that there was less each night. Hogeth had not known how much he would require and had carried only a few sacks. In another two or three nights all would be eaten.
Levas was considering that. “Is he like to turn back?”
My lord shook his head. “Not Hogeth. He’ll take the best of what they have for himself but he’ll push on. Nor will he let his men leave the trail. He believes he must have what I own in order to keep his own lands. Paltendale suffered from the invaders. Hogeth would rebuild and become mighty among the northern lords. To do that he requires coin.”
“Would there be enough?” I believed it an honest question and honestly Lorcan replied.
“No. I think he has persuaded himself there is more. I have sufficient to make Honeycoombe better. But our dale is small compared to Paltendale. Nor was our keep much damaged, the livestock neither stolen nor scattered so wide they were lost to us. The cots did not burn. In Paltendale all that happened. Hogeth has spent all he has, yet only a half of what was damaged has been repaired. The silver I own would not do more than repair perhaps a half of what is yet needed. Hogeth wishes to do far more than raise up what was. He would see a greater keep, a richer table spread for lords who call.”
Levas looked dour. “Aye. I know the kind. They’d rather have silk on themselves even if it means rags on their folk. They’ll eat until they can eat no more, then fling scraps to the dogs while their people hunger. A shipload of gold would not be enough. The more they have the more they seek. Such a man can not be reasoned with.”
I looked at him. “You thought perchance if we offered him the silver we have he would ride away? My lord has said it. He is not of that kind.”
“Ah, well. Then if there’s no other way we’ll have to kill him.” He shrugged. “Sorry I am he’s kin to you, Lord. But then,’tis he who’s come hunting this fight.”
“I know. If you must kill, do so and owe me no debt. That’s for any of you.”
We understood, I, Levas, and Criten. I wondered
if Hogeth had thought of that. One who rode in open warfare against another lord who was kin stepped outside Dales Law. Hogeth had not gone before a Dales Court to speak his grievances. He had brought none to mediate, no one to stand as peacemaker. Imgry or someone of his clan might have agreed. They had not been asked. Nor had Hogeth any honest grudge he could claim. Since this was so, his death could not be demanded as blood-debt even if it be proved against us. Lorcan was right. He could absolve any of Hogeth’s fall if Lorcan willed it, since he was kin.
We laid up that night in a fireless camp, lest any of Hogeth’s scouts see the firelight. With daylight I led my small group on foot to where boulders lay, far above the slope. If only two or three were sent rolling they should bring down the whole snow slope upon the trail below. Most of the trails Hogeth was following were deer trails. But if we dropped branches, sprinkled snow again in the right place, he would not see where the deer turned off. He would follow instead what appeared to be the easier path.
With morning we prepared. The snow was flung with care to hide the safer track. Above us Levas and Criten worked, easing the rocks from their beds, poising them on wooden wedges so unseating them needed but a quick powerful thrust. It took time and hard work and there was no sign as yet of Hogeth and his men. I was sent along the trail with my small steel mirror. If Dogas followed our enemy I had to warn him to hold back.
I waited, the cold eating further into my bones. At last along the trail I saw men come riding. As high as I was I could see that Dogas trailed them perhaps two miles behind. That was well. I turned in my brush cover to wink the mirror. Lorcan would read my sign and know to be ready. The men drew closer, Hogeth riding perhaps a third of the way from the front of the lagging column. I poised ready. They reached the place I had marked with a fallen branch.
I signaled. High above and ahead of me, two great rocks trembled. Then, very slowly, they began to roll down the slope. They bounced high, struck, and bounced again, the second time upon the snow slope. I saw a crack in the snow flash into being, swerving jaggedly across the slope. Then with a rush the whole slope was in downward motion. Below, faint screams echoed. I saw men point at their coming doom, crying out in terror as they attempted to flee.
XVII
The rumble of the snow seemed to vibrate in the pit of my stomach. It was a sound felt rather than heard. I strained, trying to see what occurred below. Would our enemies fall or would some escape the traps we had set? I knew that with the slide would come all the debris on the slope below the snow. In the flying snowdrift, which rose above the slope as it rushed down, I could see nothing. Then the air before it cleared. I saw Hogeth first. Without regard for his men he was forcing his horse forward along the steep narrow trail. I moved, racing along the deer track which ran along the top of my slope. From the bend at the edge I could see further down the lower trail. Hogeth came into view.
I was safe where I stood, and in any event he was too much occupied with survival to stare about him. When the boulders fell he had been about one third of the way back from those who led his group. They had looked up, seen what would befall them, and run their mounts in terror. But Hogeth, more reckless, more selfish in his determination to escape, had overtaken most. Those who still led saw the flatter part of the apparent trail and took it. Hogeth, some yards behind, was slowing as if beastlike he somehow sensed a trap lay in that innocent appearance. I admit before the Gods that I cursed him for it.
Long ago a log had fallen slantwise across a rough broken area a fraction lower than the outer edge of the trail. That had produced a small dam. Rain falling over the early part of Winter filled it then froze. So where there had been a long piece of broken land turning a comer of the hill, there now appeared a flat section which looked as if it was part of the old trail’s continuation. At least it did once it was beneath snow. That we had seen to. But beneath the snow was a long strip of ice which sloped to the outer edge.
The hooves of the first rider’s mount met the ice beneath the snow just as the second rider thrust his mount alongside. The horses staggered, fought for footing, and fell. One rider was thrown, to fall twisting and screaming over the edge of the cliff and down a sheer drop of many hundreds of feet. The other was under his mount as the beast landed, sliding on the ice. He screamed once, then lay motionless as his mount struggled to its feet again before walking cautiously away up the slope. The other horse followed, head down, as it limped after.
Hogeth had been just far enough away, when he slowed, to take warning from their destruction. From where I stood in cover I could see how he wrenched his mount to a halt, thrusting it uphill. Another rider hard on his heels was less lucky or sensible. He passed Hogeth on the outer edge of the trail and suffered the fate of the other two men. Then all I could see below was blotted out as the snow roared high, like a giant wave, cresting onto the scene.
“Meive? What happened, did we succeed?” Lorcan and Levas had reached me with Criten not far behind.
“At least somewhat,” I told them. “Of four in the lead two went over the cliff, a third was beneath when his mount fell. I think he will not rise. Hogeth avoided our trap but I think the snow slide has taken many others of his men. But of how many it will rid us we must wait to see.”
“I felt it fall in my very bones,” Levas commented.
“And I,” Lorcan agreed. “I know not what snow weighs but that must have been great. I think those who were beneath are unlikely to be shaking off snow before rising to the attack bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.”
Honeycoombe had been my home all my life. I knew about snowslides. If a man taken by a snowslide was not swiftly freed and warmed, he did not rise at all. The snow stole from him first warmth, then consciousness, and finally his life. In a candlemark an uninjured man beneath heavy snow was dead. And that was if he had air and was unhurt. In our dale the children learned what to do if a snowslide occurred. How to run downhill and to one side to escape. Slides happen in a limited area. If caught, we of Honeycoombe knew to swim with the snow and upwards, arms crooked before the face to make a space to breathe.
But what would these strangers from the warmer northern dales know? Besides which, they had been ahorse. While having the warmth of their mount to aid them longer, many would also have sustained injury if their mount fell on them when the slide struck. I thought it unlikely many beneath the full slide’s weight would live. Beside me, Lorcan’s thoughts followed mine. He took my hand.
“They came of their own will. They came to rob and slay those against whom they had no just grievance. If they lie dead it is their own doing.”
“Their deaths under snow are easy,” I said quietly, as Levas and Criten turned to listen. “A man trapped so dies without pain. He merely becomes colder, then all at once he feels warm again. He dreams and into his dreams death comes without his knowing. I have heard it said by those who were saved before death could take them.”
“A better death than they’d have given any of us,” Criten said sourly.
“That’s so. But I’m satisfied if our enemies are dead.” Lorcan was brisk. “Let us move on to where we may see if any survived and where they go now. What of Dogas, did any see him?”
I nodded. “I saw him before I signaled. He was some two miles behind those Hogeth led. He should have been safe.” As we talked I saw a rider come into view, climbing his mount to the upper trail. Lorcan’s gaze followed mine and he sighed in relief.
“You were right. Well met, Dogas,” he hailed as our comrade reached the track to join us. “What can you say of those you trailed?”
“I caught another of them before I fell back. A lame man who’d halted to wrap his injured leg. I took him silently. I left his mount tethered on the lower path where we can find it again. Best we pick it up as soon as may be. There’s no food or water there. But in case we cannot I did not tie the beast too tightly. It can free itself if it becomes desperate. The rider I stripped and left his gear with the horse. The body I dropped down a crack and s
cooped snow over it until it was well hid. I think none shall find it even if they bother to search.”
“Well done,” I said.
Lorcan grunted approvingly. “Aye, now the main query is of Hogeth How many of his men survive?”
“Will he still think to attack Honeycoombe if there are few left to him?” Criten asked.
Lorcan’s eyes met mine. “If Hogeth lives unhurt and has even one or two men with him, he’ll try for us still,” Lorcan told him briefly.
Criten’s eyes widened. “Is the man a fool?”
“No, obsessed,” I muttered. “He lived fat, from what my lord says. He plans to live that way again and rebuild his keep larger and more lavishly on Lorcan’s coin. You could show him all we have and swear on Cup and Flame that there is no more. He would not believe. There must be all he requires because it is he who requires it. Only death will stop a man who thinks that way.”
“Aye,” Lorcan said quietly. “Kinsman he may be, but I am Lord of Honeycoombe. Against my dale, my lady, and my people, I would not count his blood as higher worth were Hogeth kin to Imgry and a hero of the war. And that he is not. Nor have I forgotten Faslane.”
Long since had I told Levas of Hogeth’s treachery against his own kin, and he had repeated it to his men. Now our men looked black. A blank-shield may be a fighter for hire, but they have their own strict code. A man who would stab another in the back in the midst of a fight against a common enemy is honor-broke. Were he one of their own they would put him to trial, then hang him. Hogeth was not one of them, but they despised him none the less. It would not make them careless. I had told them knowing that, to the contrary, it would make them more wary. Any trick might be expected of an honorless man.
We moved carefully along the upper track until below us we could see the trail as it wound past our snowslide. Very far below us lay dots which were dead men. Snow humped high over the trail before the slide. Looping around and past it we could see hoof-prints in the snow.