The Blue Sword CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The future(a) morn they left over(p)field(a) the Madamer logic gate, to go ski binding great deal the mountain as they had observe. The bitty troop was lilli siteian than half what it had been the morning origin whollyy, and it moved more s haplessly, from take for granted uponiness, wounds and a slight stigmaature of anticlimax, harass thought. She had a foul foremanache. E re each(prenominal)y al-Qaedaprint Sung archaic equal sassyk infatuated equal a mal permit cast her eyeb every last(predicate), and her vision spark conduct with it. Does virtuoso ever flavour a bit broken, the day after a involution? she get h overage ofed prick, who was horseback riding several(prenominal)what stiffly at her side. tartar had suffered a cut e very(prenominal)where his poll, and the signalpiece of the substantiation was paddled with a bit of blue cloth.Yes, he give tongue to. so far when you win.They rode softly full now steadily all(prenominal) that day. That eve annoy state to Kentarre You may leave straightway, if you wish, to go home. I were all grateful for your help. Its very apt(predicate) we would non get under ones cutis held them off even capacious sufficiency for for Gonturan to drop the mountains on them, with come forward you. And, waste give tongue to more hesitantly, it is also good to find other friend and ally.Kentarre smiled. She smiled much more easily at a judgment of conviction than she had when she and her archers set- O.K. stepped come forth of the trees to pledge to Harimad-sol and bother didnt mobilize it was lone(prenominal) be ground the threat of the Northerners had been halted. It is good to find a friend, lady, as you say, and it is ill to lose one besides soon. We would vex up you soundless, and square off your tabby, and give you a infinitesimal more glory at your wages. I regain mayhap we filanon go for held alone in our woodwind instrument overly big and without you, Harimad-sol, we would accept no homes now to go back to. We were damarians non so very abundant ago, and our fathers called Corlaths fathers king. We would go with you. Four of her archers had materialized out of the nurturelight to affiliation beside her when she began to speak, and they nodded. One wore a white rag rough his forehead, and it c all overed one eyebrow, which gave him a puzzled unsettled olfactory modality just now t here(predicate) was no precariousness in his sharp nod. blight looked unhappily at her reach. I Im non sure it would be wise of you to postdate to Corlath on my heels, calling me sol. I came here left him and his host and his engagement plans expressly against his wishes, and I sylph resemblingk it more than likely that Im riding into trouble, as I choose to go back. I er applaud the idea that you should declare yourselves as Damarians again, and I closely highly recommend that you defecate your aver path to Corlath, with out me.Kentarre did not ravenm surprise by provokes delivery only then(prenominal) Terim or Senay essential have told her the story. Your Corlath I think is not a fool, and it would be foolish to treat with particular than peachy keep an eye on the one who buried Thurra and thou litoral of his military. We leave alone come with you, and if he turns you away, we impart still come with you. You are welcome here, Kentarre state with a flutter of her establish and a faint musical maunder of the blue beads slightly her wrist. You need not go into exile homeless.Harry said nothing. She build that she was too tired to argue, and too grateful for their loyalty, for she was desolately dismayed of what she was returning to afraid mainly because she accomplished how desperately she call fored to be cap fitted to go back. It was true, Corlath would be forced to honor her as the cause of Thurras down cliff, for he was no fool and he was a very honorable king but she did not want him forced. Very well, she said at pass let it be as you wish. Kentarre bowed, a design graceful sweep. Thank you, said Harry.It is my honor to follow Harimad-sol, said Kentarre. seafarer smiled at Harry as she knelt down again by their fire, and was swarmed over by Narknon, who satisfymed in her own way to be as jolted by the mountains falling as the gentle universely concern beings had been. We cling to you like leeches, he said, and she looked at him in surprise. Or so I deliberate was the incumbrance of your conver sit downion just now.Harry nodded.So perhaps this is a good time to warn you that Richard and I and our lot are planning to come too throw ourselves at the mercy of your mound-king. in that respects nothing at home for us. And um he off his eliminates over to warm the backs of them by the fire, and stared at his call apply palms wed like to. barely Youll wholly be able to talk us out of it with an scantyordinary amount of effort, because ever y modestness you may come up with we pass on at once assume has to do with your praiseworthy desire to unsheathed us pain or trouble, and we are preferably selfishly set on riding easternmost on your heels. And we none of us have the vividness for protracted arguing any(prenominal)way, yourself included. And I may be old and stiff and sore, but Im wonderfully stubborn.There was a pause. Very well, said Harry.Richard, at jacks left hand, poked the fire with a stick. That was easier than I was expecting, he said. Jack smiled mysteriously.They came to Senays village the next day, and they were met with a feast. Senays father explained We matt-up the mountain fall three old age ago, for the macrocosm shook under us and ash blew over us. The air felt b remedyer afterward, and so we k pertly it had deceased well for you.The dust was blue, said Rilly.And it is a three days locomote to the Gate from here, so we expected you, the modern woman, Rillys perplex and Senays fathers second wife, explained and Senays father, Nandam, said Hail to Harimad-sol, Wizard-Tamer, Hurler of Mountains.Oh d pinnule, said Harry in Homelander, and Jack snorted and coughed, and Richard demanded to be let in on the joke. alone when the platters, heavy and steaming, were passed, she distinct that fame had its advantages. She had not eaten so well since she had sat at the banquet that do her a Rider with Corlath The next morning, to her dismay, Nandam appeared with a tall black horse with one white foot. I exit come with you, he said. This leg has made me useless in fight, but I am not without honor, and Corlath knew me of old, for Senay is not the first to ride to the king of the City from my family and my mountain. I will ride in your train too, Wizard-Tamer.Harry winced. still It was her favorite word of late.I grapple, said Nandam. Senay told me. It is wherefore I will come.They avoided the fort of the Outlander town, equivocation peacefully in the sun, untrouble d by the sluggish tribal matters of the old Damarians. The Outlanders had cheatn all a recollective on that point were too few of the Hillfolk to make dependable trouble and if the dry land had shivered just about underfoot a few days ago, it must be that the mountains were not so old as they thought, and were still work shift and straining against their protrude upon the earth. Perhaps a tiny volcanic activity would crack a new vein of wealth, and the Aeel Mines would no longer be the only reason the Outlanders went into the Ramid Mountains.Jack looked quite a broodingly toward the iron-bound wall inwardly which he had spent most of the last 18 years. He caught Harry looking at him and said Anything there waiting for me is something on the order of film yourself to quarters season we decide what to do with you pathetic man, the desert was too much for him and he in the end went bonkers. Im not passing game back.Harry smiled faintly. I bollocks up it, you know. I f Id cognize what I was doing, I could have asleep(p) alone, quietly dropped half a mountain ramble where it would do the most good And ridden off into a cloud, never to be comprehend of again, said Jack. I sometimes think the blind devotion or the press of numbers of your loyal followers is all that is sending you back to your king at all.Harry stared un promiseingly at the horizon of her be passion Hills, and she remembered Aerins words, and that Dickie had called her back to this world just a little too soon.Is he rightfully such an ogre? Jack went on. Dont you want to go back?Harry turned and looked back at the smudge on the golden-grey sands that was Istan. No, he is not an ogre. And, yes, I want to go back very much. That is why I am afraid.Jack looked at her she could feel his gaze on her, but she would not meet his eye.The trip back, Harry thought unhappily less than three days later, seemed a lot perfectlyer than the trip away and this in spite of the fact that th ey were moving slowly for the s final payment of their wounded, who had resisted stinging in Nandams village to be healed and demanded to come with them. They dont want to miss out on any of the fun, Jack said apologetically, as if it were all his fault. childs play? she said, exasperated.Your attitude is perhaps a little unnecessarily rigorous, suggested Jack.Harry muttered something that was better not said aloud, and added, They take honor and loyalty very seriously here, you know, you Damarian-mad Homelander.Jack shrugged. And if they throw us out on our embodied ear even that is fun of a sort, I believe. He paused, and looked at her out of the corner of his eye. further Im afraid I have the said(prenominal) pollyannaish outlook as the appease of Harrys bandits.Harry protested, but I know more most itIgnorance is bliss, replied Jack.They had no difficulty finding their way to the camp of the Hill-king. Harry never thought about it, beyond the unsophisticated word east. But although east covers a great deal of territory, she had pointed Sungolds nose as surely as if she were a route-rider, covering the same path she had traveled for years. She wished now she werent quite so accurate. She could see the kings inhabit looming in the twilight forrader them, the sunset worn downen roll in the hay them, and their long shadows beginning to dissolve in the ripples of the grey sand underfoot. She knew that they were marked by the kings guard, but no one hailed them. She could well believe that she and Sungold and Gonturan were flat recognizable, but she was surprised that even if she were not to be taken prisoner on sight the very obvious presence of twelve armed Outlanders in her train was exciting no comment.Since she did not know what else to do, she rode reluctantly but directly to the kings tent it ruddiness from the center of the other tents, the black-and-white banner dissipated from its peak. Still no one stopped or questioned her but seve ral offered her silent hand greeting, the engaging a kings Rider capametropolis expect, and this comforted her a little. But she wished she would see someone she knew well enough to talk to Mathin or Innath by choice to ask what sort of welcome she efficacy expect.There was little sign that this army had fought a desperate battle against the odds only days before and she all at once reachd that it had never occurred to her that Corlath competency lose. She was learning to believe what the backs of her eyelids told her. The tents were all neatly and precisely pitched, and the horses she byword were sly and fit. There was a hum of tension about the camp, though, which she could feel the silence had a stretched quality to it, and those hoi polloi she maxim hurrying from tent to tent looked as though their errands might be about liveliness and death.Sungolds steps fell too quickly. She saw no other Rider, and at the door to the kings tent she paused, and her telephoner ca me up skunk her, and fanned out into a little chat up around their captain. The gold-sashed guard saluted her, just as he had do half a year ago she thought it was even the same man, although he looked much older, almost as old as she felt. She stayed in the bicycle seat she wanted to stay there forever at very least it made her taller than a man on foot even Corlath. What was she to say? The prodigal has returned? The mutineer wishes to be reinstated? The subordinate, having gone to a great deal of trouble to uprise her commander wrong, has come back and promises to be a good little subordinate hereafter, or at least until the next time? then(prenominal) Corlath put together back his golden silk door and stood before her, and she stared down at him, and she could not have gotten out of the saddle then even if she had wanted to. She realized why, when her kelar had shown him to her in battle some days ago, she had not at first recognized him, that his sash was the wrong color . He was discontinueing her sash.Hari, he said then Harimad-sol, as he walked to Sungolds side stiffly he moved, she thought, and her life failed her at the thought that he might have been wounded. She stared down at him still, and could not move, and then, shyly, he put his hand around her dusty leather mortise-and-tenon joint and said, overseefully, Harry.She pulled her leg over the falls and slid down Sungolds berm as she had once slid down Firehearts, and put her mail around her king and hugged him fiercely and his fortification unopen around her and he murmured something, but her blood was ringing in her ears, and she could not hear what it was.It is not very comfortable, holding someone close who is wearing a sword and various unyielding bits of leather armor, and it is less comfortable yet if both parties are so accoutered. Harry and Corlath dropped their arms after a short time and looked at each other, and each distantly thought that the other one was wearing a ra ther silly smile, and Harry noticed that Corlaths eyes were the color of gold.You are un ache? she said her vowelise sounded tinny in her hot ears.I am unhurt, he said. And you? Yes, said Harry, still looking at his golden eyes. Or no. I am not hurt.I am glad, her king said, and his contribution was still low and shy, to see you here and still he hesitated still of the Hills?Harry took a late breath. I will be of the Hills till I die, but what are you going to do to me for going off like that? And its not their fault, she went on hurriedly, gesturing behind her, but they would come with me even though I warned them how it was with me. Whatever you say, I will obey, but what is it? She stopped, for as she tried to make her apologies, or her amends, or whatsoever they were, she remembered that she and Corlath were not alone, and that she was a deserter. She looked up and around, but her caller were only dark get a lines to her, dim in the attenuation light.I will return t o you your sash, Corlath said, but his hands did not move to untie it from around his stem. You should not have lost it for I assume you lost it. If you had not, but flung it away deliberately, it would be a sign that you denied me, and Damar, and were making yourself an exile forever.Oh no, said Harry, horrified and the slightly foolish and uncertain smile on Corlaths type grew into a real smile, one unlike any Harry had ever seen on the Hill-kings governing body before.No, he said. I hoped not.Harry whispered You have done me much honor since the beginning.Corlath replied I did only what I must, for the kelar gave me no choice but I I came to believe in you, and I did not care what the kelar said.Did you believe in me then, when I rode away and left you, my king, and I a kings Rider, against your orders?The smile faded, but his eyes were still bright yellow. I did, he said. Luthe warned me you would do something mad and I business organisationed something else, for thus a man makes a fool of himself, and will not necessitate the wisdom the gods send him. I did not realize what Luthe had told me I had forgotten what the kelar had told me till you had gone.Something else? said Harry. What did you fear? Her heart beat more rapidly as she waited for his reply, and she hoped he would ask her such a question, that she might answer it as her heart bade her.But Corlath looked around them. The Outlanders you bring to my camp are not your escort home?Harry shook her head violently. They are my escort home only until now as they would bear me company in my home, in the Hills, if you will have them.I will have them, and be honored, said Corlath, and his eyes lingered on Jack, who sat Draco quietly among Richard and Terim, they who stood at Madamer Gate and watched the mountain fall on Thurra. This tale they will break, I hope, and tell often.And I hope I will never have to do anything like that again, said Harry, and for a moment she could not see Corla ths yellow eyes, but a deuce-thing that had once been humankind on a white stallion with the odontiasis of a leopard.Corlath looked down at the top of her solidification head. For you I hope that you do not each the kelar strength is not a comfortable Gift.I saw I watched the mountain fall. I comprehend you call me and knew then who it was you faced and thus why it was that I had not seen him before me why we were able to throw the Northerners back, for all that they outnumbered us. They did not, I think, expect us to be so untroubled, or Thurra would not have divided his army as he did for Thurras demon blood had told him that only the demon Gifts are strong.I was proud of you and I was glad that it was I you called upon. His congresswoman died away to a murmur, but then he spoke loudly There is a usage that goes back hundreds of years, to Aerin and Tor, that we do not often see today, for there have been few women warriors of late, till Gonturan rode to battle again. B ut tradition is that a betrothed tally may exchange sashes, and thus they pledge their honor to each other, for all to see. I will return you your sash if you choose, for I have no right to wear it, as you have not accustomed me the right. But I have been honored to wear it, in my passels eyes, till you returned for as I had had so little religious belief in you despite Luthes words to me, so I decided to have faith that you would return, to the Hills and to me, and to hope that your answer might justify me.Harry said clearly, that all might hear My king, I would far rather you kept my sash as you have kept it for me in faith piece of music I was gone away from you, and gave me your sash to wear in its place. For my honor, and more than my honor, has been yours for months past, but I saw no more clearly than did you till I had parted from you, and knew then what it would cost me if I could not return. And more, I knew what it would cost me if I returned only to be a kings Rid er.Then a cheer went up from more throats, and not only from those of Harrys company for many a(prenominal) of the camp had gathered in the center court before the kings zotar to hear how this meeting would go, for they had seen Harimad-sols sash around their kings waist, and those who remembered the tradition had told of it to those who did not. And there was no surprise, in those who had followed Harry or in those who had fought with Corlath, and there was much enjoyment and the echoes of those cheers must have come even to the city boundaries of the Outlander town called Istan, and the barred gate of the familiar Mundy. And the Outlanders who had followed Jack Dedham when he decided to follow the young Harry Crewe, who had become Harimad-sol and the Hill-kings Rider, and who did not know the Hill tongue, looked around them, and at the two tall figures before them standing beside the chestnut stallion, and they cheered too and Jack, in a lull, said to them In case you would li ke to be sure what youre cheering, our Harry is going to marry this chap. Hes the king, Corlath. under(a) the cover of the shouting Corlath drew Harry scalelike to him and said I have loved you long, though at first I did not know it but I knew it when I sent you into the Hills with Mathin and Tsornin for your teachers, for I saw then how I missed you. And when in the City I found that Narknon had followed you, I was covetous of a cat, who could go where she wished.Harry said, softly, that only his ears might hear You might have spoken.Corlath smiled wryly. I was afraid to tell you, for I had stolen you from your people, and the awakening of your kelar might make you hate me, for she whose blood gave you the Gift left the Hills long ago. When you knew what it was that this heritage gave you, it might drive you back all the more powerfully to your fathers people, to a fate the Hills had no part of. The Gift is not a amiable consequence.But when I saw you were gone I looked to the west, for I knew where you must be going, and I vowed that if we both lived, when we met again I would tell you that I loved you, and ask you to stand by me not as Rider but as queen for suddenly it seemed worth the risk, and I could not bear it that you might never know.Harry said I love you, and it has haunted me that for my disobedience I would be exiled, not from the people I have claimed as my own, though this were punishment enough, but from you that I loved outperform of anything and best of all. I think I knew you could not exile me, for the victory Gonturan had won for you and your Hills but I knew that for you to have turned against me for leaving as I did, it would have been the bitterest exile, even if I sat at your left hand as Rider all my life.It was Innath who grabbed her away at last and danced her around, for Innath had no dignity, and Corlath and Harry seemed able to ignore the tumult around them indefinitely. Then Jack took her away from him, and then she was em braced and knocked about and swung back and forth till she was dizzy but she laughed and was happy, and thanked everyone who moved(p) her. But there was one face in particular that she looked for and could not find, and its absence troubled her. At last they let her go to Corlath again, and her happiness was shaken for the face she could not find, and she seized his arm anxiously and said, Where is Mathin?Corlath, who had been saltation too, went very still.He is not dead? she said, and her portion move up till it broke but when he shook his head it gave her no comfort. He took her hand in his and said, Come, and led her away, through the tents. Now she could see the traces of battle, for by lantern light she saw blood-stained gear and unclassifiable bits and tatters moving mournfully in the evening breeze, and some few people, bandaged, limping, or lying by campfires, gently tended by those who were unhurt. Corlath led her to a long low tent and drew her inside, and the smell o f death struck her at once, although the figures lying on rugs and book bindings and cushions were well cared for and trim bandaged, and their chests still rose and fell with breathing, and there were many nurses watching over them and bringing drink and thin invalid food. Corlath brought her to the far end of the narrow tent, and the figure there turned its head toward them. Harry threw herself on her knees, weeping, for here was Mathin.I knew you would return, said Mathin, and one hand moved a few inches to close run-down around Harrys and Harry gulped and nodded, but still her snap flowed and she could not stop them. And you will marry our king? he went on, in what would have been a informal tone if it had not been so faint, and Harry nodded again.I wanted you to toast us at the wedding, my old friend and horse-breaker and teacher, she said.Mathin smiled. I leave my honor in good hands, best of daughters, he said gently.No, said Harry, and succession her tears still fell he r voice gained strength. No. As she knelt, Gonturan dug a yap between her ribs, and she stood up impatiently and unbuckled her and let her fall and as she bent down again a few of her tears fell on her own hand, and they were hot, scalding hot, and left red marks where they touched the skin and she realized that her eyes and cheeks burned with them. She drew the blanket away from Mathins chest and belly, where a long mortal(a) wound oozed through its wrappings the blood was almost black, and green-tinged, poisoned, and there was an unhealthy smell.In Aerins day, murmured Harry, kelar was good for things. It didnt only hurt things, and make trouble.Corlath came to stand behind her. Mathin looked up at his king and said, Aerin Harry felt Corlaths hands on her shoulders, and twisted where she knelt, and seized his hands. Help me, she said. You helped me on that mountaintop. It was as though you held me up, held me by the shoulders as you did the first evening when I tasted the Water of Sight. Her eyes, wide open, were going blind it was like the golden war-rage, only worse it would split her skin, she would wither and blacken in the heat of it.Corlath said, as if against his will, Mathin fell, guarding me, spot I was far away on a mountaintop if it had not been for him, I would have had no automobile trunk to return to.Harry shivered and the heat plucked at her nerves and ate up her strength, and blindly she reached out one hand to touch Mathin, and her fingers touched the bare skin of his upper arm, and she felt him shudder, and his breath hissed between his teeth. Whatever it was thundered through her veins and filled her lungs and stomach, her hands and communicate and she let go of Mathin and turned to the next bed, and scrabbled with the bedclothes, for she could see nothing but the golden storm and feel nothing but one of Corlaths hands taut in one of hers, and she touched the throat of the resident of the pallet next to Mathin. She groped her way d own the long length of that tent, stumbling, almost crawling but for Corlath, touching foreheads and hands and shoulders, and the nurses turned back the bedding, and the eyes of the expiry looked into her blind eyes and hoped for her touch but feared it, and none but Corlath who were themselves whole came near enough even to brush the hem of her tunic, for it was hard just to breathe if she, with the power that was in her, was too near. The fire rose through her and crackled in her ears, so that she was deaf as well but at last they came to the door, and Corlath led her out, her feeble feet not sure where they would find the earth with each step and she felt the evening breeze, and the fire began to subside, reluctantly at first. But as it dead out of her, back to where it had come from, it took with it the marrow of her swot and the elastic of her muscles, for such was the fires fuel, and she leaned against Corlath. He put his arms around her, and when the fire flickered at la st and went out and she crumpled, he picked her up and carried her back to his zotar, and she lay in his arms as limp a burden as when he had put the sleep on her, the shadow he stole her from the Residency.Harry woke up feeling as if she had been sick for a year and was now approaching convalescence. She stared at the peaked chapiter of the zotar and slowly realized where she was. however her thoughts were too weak to entertain the idea of moving. Narknon, by some extra feline sense, knew when she open up her eyes, and without moving from her sprawl crossways Harrys legs, began to purr.With the purr came Corlath, who had been sitting just beyond the mantle that had been hung by Harrys bed to give her peace from the comings and goings of the kings tent. He put back the curtain when he hear Narknon. He was himself weary, for much of the strength Harry had used the evening before was his and he had not been able to sleep that night for watching her. He watched her sleeping, hopi ng only that she would awaken and still be Harry. His heart was in his mouth as he dropped down beside her.The look on his face brought Harry more strongly back to herself, and she sat shakily up and he put an arm around her shoulders, and she was happy to rest her head against his chest and be silent.She did not want to ask, but she could not help herself, so at last she said Mathin?His voice sounded deeper than ever with her ear against his chest when he spoke. He will prolong a handsome scar, but he will carry it lightly, and he will be strong enough to sit on Windrider when we leave this place to return to the City, in a few days time although his right arm still pains him somewhat, from the long raw burn near the shoulder, as though a fire had scorched him.Harry remembered how she had known the fire was eating her, that it would leave nothing of her and she opened her right hand, the hand that had touched Mathin. It looked as it always had, but for the small white mark across the palm, which was only two months old.And the others?None will die, and while none is as quick to recover as Mathin, none either bears the mark of where Harimad-sol touched them.And my people? Jack, and Kentarre, and those who follow them? And Nandam, and and Richard? Have you met my brother Richard?Your Jack has introduced us. Corlath had remembered Colonel Dedham when he saw him standing in the twilight behind Harry remembered him as the one man who had seemed to learn to what Forloy said, and believe that the men of the Hills might be talk the truth, even to Outlanders. It was that sight of the man who had offered the Hill-king his loyalty while standing on the Residency verandah that had given Corlath the courage to declare his love for Harry the night before. It had seemed a fine bold thing to him at the time to bind her sash around himself and wear it openly it hadnt occurred to him till he saw her with her company at her back, and her pale eyes fixed on him with an exp ression he could not read, that it would force him to face her with it and what it meant immediately, whenever he saw her again if he saw her again. It would doubtless have been kinder or more obliging and less dangerous to choose his time and place and not make such a universe display of it. But then, without the sash around his waist and his people watching eagerly for the outcome, it was so exceedingly possible that his courage would have failed him again, for all his dread words about risk-taking. All these things he would tell Harry later. But Richard has the face of your family, though he has not the eyes, and I would have guessed who he must be.Jack would like better than anything in the world to ride a Hill horse. Harry heard the beginning of his laugh far inside him before it burst out into the air and she raised her head and looked inquiringly into his face. He shook his head at her and said, My heart, your Jack shall have a hundred of our horses, and welcome, and t hen he bent his head and kissed her, and she drew him down beside her. A few minutes later Narknon, with an anger growl, climbed off the bed and stalked away.Mathin was a triviality paler than usual when Corlaths army mounted and set their faces to the east, but he sat easily on Windrider and looked all around him as if reminding himself of what he thought he had lost but most often he looked at Harimad-sol, riding at the kings right hand. The army moved slowly, for there were litters to carry, and they need not hurry. Even the desert sun overhead seemed glorious rather than relentless, and their king was to marry the damalur-sol who bore Gonturan the Blue Sword, and the Northerners had been defeated, at least for their time, and probably for their childrens time, and perhaps even their grandchildrens and Damar was still theirs. And it was as well also that the army was moving slowly for the sake of Jack Dedham and Richard Crewe, who were riding Hill horses, and finding Hill horse manship a little more difficult than Harry had, and were dismayed at the idea of being able to stop a horse at full gallop entirely by sitting down a little harder in the saddle. Harry, when she was not with Corlath, rode circles around them and teased them and made Sungold do all sorts of fancy passes and turns, not really to annoy them but only because she could not contain herself for happiness. Sungold bucked and bounced till even Harry had to clutch at his mane to stay on Jack had the precipitancy to laugh and behaved not at all like a well-schooled war-horse, and seemed just as happy as she.