Darkwalker on Moonshae - Douglas Niles [95]
Also during the ride back to camp, Tristan had described his friends’ experiences of the past weeks and summarized their current mission. The sisters, he found, knew about the raiders and were aware of the branch of the army that was even now crossing into Myrloch Vale.
The prince gathered Robyn, Daryth, and Keren in the moonlit clearing and joined Brigit and her two lieutenants for a council.
“The army we follow includes a large band of horsemen and many thousand footmen. It seems they now intend to violate Myrloch Vale,” the prince began.
“We discovered this army yesterday, announced Maura. She was the smallest of the sisters, not a great deal larger than Pawldo. Her voice was so soft that the others had to lean forward to hear.
“The horsemen number perhaps a hundred – strange-looking men in fur cloaks, to a man mounted on black horses. There is something foul and unnatural about them. They are to be feared.”
“Someone had blazed the trail over Dynloch Pass,” growled Carina, almost accusingly. “We discovered the fact too late to divert them.”
“By now,” concluded Brigit, “they have probably reached the pass and entered Myrloch Vale.”
“What will that allow them to do?” asked the prince. “I am not familiar with the terrain of the Vale.”
“They will have two choices,” explained Brigit. “Since travel west is blocked by the highest mountains on Gwynneth, they can turn north, in which case all of Myrloch Vale is open to them. Or, by turning south, they can cross a low pass and, in a few days, occupy all of central Corwell.”
The strategic possibilities did not escape the prince. “Should the army enter Corwell, as you suggest, it could cut the kingdom in two. Corwell Road is the only easy path between the eastern and western halves of the kingdom, and they could close that road!”
“Don’t forget the other army!” exclaimed Robyn. “It’s moving down Corwell Road from the east – they’ll trap thousands of refugees between them if these riders reach Corwell Road before we do!”
“It would be a massacre such as the Ffolk have never suffered,” said Keren, quietly.
Tristan’s mind groped for a solution to the problem. This small force could never hope to halt the northern army, yet somehow the fleeing populace must be helped to escape.
“Is there any other way into Corwell from here? A way that doesn’t involve travel over Dynloch Pass?”
The sisters looked at each other nervously for a moment. Glaring at Brigit, Carina shook her head, silently arguing with her about whether to speak. Finally, however, the captain of the sisters turned back to the prince.
“There is such a way, shorter even than the route through Dynloch Pass. Yet it passes through Synnoria, and our people do not brook lightly the passage of outsiders.”
The prince’s heart leaped. “You must take us that way!” He looked Carina squarely in the eyes. She bit her lip, fighting the temptation to retort furiously, and her huge eyes seemed to blaze with suspicion and distrust.
Brigit, giving an awkward glance at her sisters, finally answered for them.
“It shall be as you wish.”
As they turned to their bedrolls, they heard a faint cry, carried by the wind for an impossible distance. The noise increased in volume, haunting and joyful at the same time. Together, the sister knights and the prince’s party listened to the song of the wolves.
*****
An unearthly chorus rolled across the moors, carrying mystical notes through the midnight air for miles. The full moon, brilliantly spilling the radiance of the summer solstice, illuminated the Pack. Individual wolves sat upon every high crag and plateau of rock for miles, joining another wolves in raising their voices in praise of the Mother.
Woodland creatures, and all the animals of the wild, cringed at the sound. Dogs throughout the isle howled an answering cry, as the call awakened some primeval instinct within