I made too many bad decisions, not anyone else but me, Rhodorix thought. The shames mine, he said aloud. Better I just die with you here. Even if we got back, what am I going to tell the vergobretes?
Neither Galerinos nor his brother could look him in the face. Neither said a word.
But Gallo, you can hide or suchlike, Rhoddo went on. Get away after they kill us.
If Great Bel wants me to die, then die I will, Galerinos said. Theres no use in running.
Well, how by the hells do you know what he wants? You keep praying, and we keep getting more and more lost.
Thats why I think he wants us to die. If hed only led us to water right away
A cry drifted up on the hot and dusty air, a shriek of triumph, an answering howl from a band of men.
Theyve spotted us, Rhodorix said. Naught else matters now.
Help me up! Gerontos said. Cursed if Ill die sitting down.
Between them Rhodorix and Galerinos hauled him up and helped him prop himself against a boulder. Gerros face had gone pale under the smears of dust. Sweat plastered his dark hair to his forehead. Had his leg been sound, Rhodorix knew, the two of them could have scored some kills before the superior numbers against them brought them down. As it was, they could no longer fight back to back. Not long now, he thought. Soon well all be drinking in the Otherlands.
Twelve men were making their way uphill through the rocks and the underbrush, twelve savages with manes of dark hair and milk-white skin, scored with the black lines and dots of tattoos. Ten of them carried spears; the others bore the heavy war-axes that had so efficiently shattered the Devetians wooden shields that morning. Some hundred yards downhill they paused to argue among themselves, pushing each other in their eagerness to be the first to attack.
Gallo, run! Rhodorix snarled. Get out of here now!
I wont. The young priest stepped forward and raised his staff to the sky. Ill beg Bels help and try to curse them.
A load of horseshit would do us more good than that.
Galerinos ignored him and took another step forward. He stared straight at the enemy and began to chant, a low rumble of sound at first, then louder and louder. His words came punctuated with deep breaths, and every breath seemed to draw power from the very air around him. Each curse vibrated like a swarm of angry wasps as it streamed toward the enemy below. Rhodorix had never heard such a sound out of any mans mouth. He felt himself turn cold as the chant rose and fell. More to the point, their enemies seemed as transfixed as he. They stood and listened, weapons slack in their hands as Galerinos cursed them, their women, their offspring, their clans, their future offspring, their crops, their herds, and anything else they might touch or cherish.
With one last bellow of sound, Galerinos cried out, Begone! and swung his staff down to point straight at them. All of the ill luck of the curse sprang out at them and a good deal more. With a hiss and crackle like lightning from a clear sky, blue fire leapt from the staff in a long sizzling bolt and struck among them. They screamed, began to back away, screamed again as a further shower of blue flames burst out of the staff and struck. One man fell backward, writhing and foaming at the mouth. Two others grabbed him, but he continued to twitch and foam. All at once the enemy band broke. They ran this way and that, for a brief moment hysterical and leaderless, then turned and began to race downhill, howling as they ran. A last bolt of blue fire followed them.
Galerinos stood staring, his mouth half-open, his eyes stunned.
What did you do? Rhodorix grabbed him by the shoulders. How did you do that?
I dont know.
What you have to know!
The curse never worked like that before! Back in the homeland, I mean. Galerinos paused to gasp for breath. You heard me. I asked the god to send ill-luck down upon them, and from the look of things, Id say he did.
Laughter sounded behind them, an odd laugh, more like the plucking of a citharas strings than a sound made by a throat. Rhodorix spun around. The strangest man hed ever seen stood leaning against a tree trunk and smiling at them. A slender fellow, he had yellow hair as bright as the paint on a Rhwmani standard, and his lips were a paint-pot red as well, while his eyes gleamed sky blue. His ears, however, were the strangest feature of all, long and furled like lily buds.
I doubt if your god had anything to do with those bolts of fire, the fellow said. You know sorcery, dont you?
What? Gallo gaped at him like a dolt. But thats unclean!
Sorcery such as my friend Caswallinos studies is not unclean. He pried himself off the tree trunk and walked over. My name, by the by, is Evandar.
Rhodorix dropped to his knees. Forgive my brother, Mighty One, he said. He cant kneel before you. Hes badly hurt.
So I see, Evandar said to him, then turned back to Galerinos. Your master, in fact, that very same Caswallinos, asked if I might find you for him. Come walk with me.
Galerinos obeyed, striding uphill to join the being that everyone in the migration of the Devetii assumed was a god. Together they moved a few paces off. As Rhodorix got up to keep a watch downhill, he felt the air turn cool around him. He glanced up and saw a mist forming in the sky, a strange opalescent cloud shot through with pale lavender gleams and glints. The hairs on the back of his neck rose.
Ye gods! Gerontos said abruptly. Theyre gone!
Rhodorix spun around to look where his brother pointed. Sure enough, Evandar and Galerinos both had vanished. As he watched, the cloud of peculiar mist began to shrink into a swirl of grey and lavender. In a heartbeat it had disappeared as well. Rhodorix tried to speak, then merely shook his head in bafflement.
Do you think Gallo will bring us back some aid? Gerontos said.
I hope so, Rhodorix said. Id think so. Yet he felt that he lied. Why would the clan care about two shamed men such as themselves? Especially me, he thought, Im the one who led us right into the trap.
With a curse and a groan of pain, Gerontos let himself slide down against the boulder until he sat upon the ground. Rhodorix sat down next to him and prayed that the gods would allow his clan to take mercy on his brother.
To Galerinos it seemed as if he and Evandar had walked but a few feet away. The god, as he thought of the being next to him, paused and turned to face him.
Your master worried when you lads didnt come back, Evandar said. He and some of the other men found that battlefield, if you can call it that. A slaughter yard, more like.
So it was, Galerinos said. Im surprised that any of us got away.
They assumed youd been taken prisoner, so I said Id fetch you back.
You have my humble thanks. Galerinos glanced around and saw nothing but mist all around them. Where are the other two?
Back where I left them. I told Casso that Id bring you back. He said naught about your friends.
I cant desert them!
You already have. Evandar grinned with the wide-eyed innocence of a small child and pointed off in the distance.
Galerinos spun around to look downhill. The mist was lifting, revealing a clear view of the camp, only some five hundred yards away. Horses, wagons, people they spread out in a dusty spiral on the plain, desolate except for grass, crisping in the autumn heat, and a few straggly trees. A faint umbrella of brown dust hung in the air above the conjoint tribes of the Devetii, refugees from the Rhwmani wars.
Galerinos spun around to look downhill. The mist was lifting, revealing a clear view of the camp, only some five hundred yards away. Horses, wagons, people they spread out in a dusty spiral on the plain, desolate except for grass, crisping in the autumn heat, and a few straggly trees. A faint umbrella of brown dust hung in the air above the conjoint tribes of the Devetii, refugees from the Rhwmani wars.
Out in the open grass stood Caswallinos, his hands on his hips, his staff caught between his side and the crook of his left elbow. For someone so blessed by divine power, he was an unprepossessing fellow, almost as skinny as his staff and bald except for a fuzz of grey stubble round the back of his skull. As they hurried down to join him, Galerinos was expecting his master to kneel before the god. Instead, the old man merely smiled and bobbed his head in Evandars direction.
My humble thanks for returning this stray colt to me, Caswallinos said. I take it the other lads are all dead.
Two were still alive last I saw them, Evandar said.
Then where are they?
Still up on the mountain. They were wearing iron, and so I left them there.
Caswallinos sighed and ran a hand over his face as if he were profoundly weary. What have I told you about wyrd? he said. And how things undone redound upon you?
Do you think those two are part of my wyrd? Evandar said.
They are now, since you left them somewhere to die.
But they were wearing iron. Evandar stamped his foot like an angry woman. Iron swords, iron shirts. It aches me.
I know that, Caswallinos said. No one was asking you to touch them.
The supposed god Galerinos found his belief in Evandars divinity crumbling stared at the druid for a long moment, then turned away. He seemed to be watching the white clouds drifting in from the south.
We need our two lads back, Caswallinos said, and we need water.
Youre not far from a big river. Evandar kept his back to the druid. Head to where the sun rises. It wont take you long to reach it.
I wish youd told me that this morning.
Evandar merely shrugged.
If you had, Caswallinos went on, those lads wouldnt be dead, and the last two stranded on a mountainside.
Oh. Evandar turned around to face him. Mayhap their wyrd is mine, then.
It is.
Evandar pouted down at the ground for a long moment. I suppose youre right, he said at last. But I shant bring them here.
Why not?
Because youll be leaving to find that river.
Will you bring them to me there?
I shant.
Why not?
Because the rivers too wide. Too much water! He vanished, completely and suddenly gone without even a shred of the opalescent mist to cover his departure.
Caswallinos muttered a few words under his breath, something highly unpleasant from what Galerinos could hear of it.
Master? Galerinos said. Is Evandar truly a god?
Of course not! Im not sure what he is, mind, but hes most assuredly not divine.
But he opened the sea road for our ships, and he comes and goes
Just as the gods are supposed to come and go? Caswallinos snorted profoundly. In the old tales, fancies of the bards, lad, fancies of the bards. Ill explain later. Come with me. We need to tell the vergobretes about this river.
True-spoken. Wed best get there today. The horses have to have water.
Indeed. My heart aches for your two friends, but Im afraid well have to leave them to Evandar. Caswallinos paused to look Galerinos over. Ye gods, your arms, lad! It looks like youve been fighting a few savages yourself. By the by, did Evandar drive your attackers off?
He didnt. Galerinos paused, wondering if his master would believe his tale. I uh well er I did. Not that I know what I did. I mean
What by all the hells do you mean?
I cursed them by the power of Great Belinos, just as you taught me. I pointed my staff at them, but then these long bolts of blue fire leapt out of it. Evandar called it sorcery.
Caswallinos glared at him with narrow eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, seemed to think better of it, opened his eyes wider, then shrugged. He warned me, Evandar that is, the old man said, that our magic would be a fair bit stronger here than in the homeland. I had no idea what he meant until this moment.
What did he mean?
Caswallinos smiled. Lets find Adorix, was all he said. He turned and strode away with Galerinos hurrying after him.
The tribesfolk stood beside their horses or sat on the ground in the little squares of shade cast by the loaded wagons. A fine film of brown dust covered everyone and everything. Children whined or wept while exhausted women tried to comfort them. The horses stood head-down; the dogs were panting open-mouthed. As Caswallinos walked through, people turned to him and wordlessly held out desperate hands.
Theres a river ahead! the elder druid called out repeatedly. The gods have promised us water. Not far now. Big river ahead!
The news spread in ragged cheers. Even the slaves, white savages captured in one battle or another, managed tired smiles in their chains.
Eventually the two druids found Adorix in conference with the cadvridoc, Brennos, as well as Bercanos, head of the Boar clan, and Aivianna, the Hawk woman and moon-sworn warrior. Although none of them wore armour or carried shields, each had their long sword slung in a baldric across their chests, and all four of them had warriors hair: bleached with lime until it stood out stiff and straight, as if a private wind had blown it back from their faces. The faces in question were all grim, tight-lipped, narrow-eyed, as they turned to the druid and his apprentice, though Aviannas was the grimmest of all, scarred as it was by the blue tattoo of the crescent moon on her left cheek.
Water straight ahead to the east, Caswallinos said. Evandar his very self told me that a big river lies nearby.
Brennos smiled briefly. The others nodded.
I dont suppose, Adorix said, that he had any news of my two cubs.
He didnt. Caswallinos lied smoothly. But Galerinos does. Theyre alive up on the mountain. He can lead some horsemen back to them.
Theres no time for that now. Bercanos stepped forward. If the savages attack us, our men and horses are barely fit to fight. Weve got to reach that river.
Adorix laid his hand on his sword hilt and turned toward him. Aivianna stepped in between them. She stayed silent, merely looked at each in turn, but Adorix took his hand away from the sword hilt and Bercanos moved a good pace away.
Theres no time for arguing amongst ourselves, either, Brennos said.
The heads of the two clans agreed in sullen mutters. Aiviannas expression never changed as she returned to her place by the cadvridocs side.
Evandar brought my apprentice back but not the others, Caswallinos said. I dont know why. The gods are like that, truly. But Gallo here can tell us what happened. He cocked a thumb at Galerinos. Tell them the truth, lad.
Just at dawn we rode out to find water, Galerinos began. I chanted the prayers and held out my staff, but we rode till the sun was halfway to zenith before my staff began to tremble. It seemed to be tugging toward the hills, so thats the way we went. We saw a little valley twixt two of the hills where the trees looked fresh and green. You couldnt see clearly into it, though, and our god sent me an omen about it. Just as we reached the trees a raven flew up, squawking and circling over the valley.