The Coral Kingdom - Douglas Niles [55]
By the following dawn, propelled by unspoken urgency, they were saddled and ready to ride. Deirdre, they discovered as they prepared to depart, was nowhere to be found. She had apparently teleported back to Caer Corwell without any farewells.
The morning of the last day had broken a few hours ago with the promise of Corwellian hearths before nightfall. The absence of Pawldo was a persistent cloud, hovering over members of the party at different times but affecting them all deeply.
Brandon rode beside Alicia. He had been silent for much of this day. Now, however, the other companions had trailed out before them, and they could talk privately. It was the moment he had awaited.
"We're well along the path to your father," he declared. "I know that-you have to trust me, Princess!"
"We're not even started yet, really," she replied. "It seems like an impossible dream-that somewhere at the end of this, we'll sail under the ocean and rescue him."
"But I know that this is a dream you'll not abandon, and because of that, neither will I!"
She felt a deep sense of relief to have his help in this quest. At the same time, his presence caused a real ambivalence in her feelings. What would be the cost-in his own mind, and to her own sense of debt and honor-of his courage and sacrifice? Certainly she knew that he didn't help her out of any such selfish motives, but could she separate those issues in her own mind, her own heart?
"When we find your father, will you allow me to ask him for your hand?" pressed Brandon.
"I… I don't know!" Alicia replied, suddenly afraid. "I can't decide that-I can't even think about it-now! You have to understand that!"
Unconsciously Alicia picked up the pace so that she and Brandon drew closer to Hanrald and Brigit, who rode in tandem before them. Their nearness, more than Alicia's reluctance, brought Brandon's conversation to a halt.
The two knights, human man and elven woman, were engaged in serious discussion. Though Hanrald loomed over Brigit on foot, the difference was somewhat lessened on horseback. The earl's war-horse was a heavy steed, capable of charging with the knight in plate armor and the horse fully barded in chain. Yet Brigit had selected for her mount an exceptionally long-legged young mare-naturally of purest white. The horse scampered with such a bounce in her gait that she seemed to float above the road.
"The chain armor has its place for scouting and speed," Brigit was saying as Alicia and Brandon drew even with them.
"But there's nothing like solid plate for making a charge or mixing it up in a melee," Hanrald replied.
"True-to a point," Brigit allowed. "But then a good shirt of chain can provide nearly the same protection and also give you the speed to cover your back with your weapon, instead of your armor."
"You'd be talking about better chain than I've seen," Hanrald said with a rueful laugh. "Even the best armorsmiths in Callidyrr can't link together anything that'll hold the bite of a northman's axe."
"And what kind of northman would be striking at your back?" demanded Brandon, in mock offense.
"I'll welcome them at my side now," replied Hanrald seriously. "It's no small thing you've done, offering to take a company of foreigners on a quest for their king!"
Alicia flinched. The words were too close to the turmoil she wrestled with so frequently. She turned to Brigit, trying to ignore the men.
"What do you know about the barriers around Evermeet?" the princess asked.
"Very little," admitted Brigit. "And neither Erashanoor nor the sages could tell me much, though I spoke with them about it on the evening before our departure.
"There are the things called cyclones," continued the sister knight. "But whether they're funnel clouds of intense pressure or great masses of storm I can't tell you. As to the Warders, it seems that their nature has been kept-intentionally-a secret."
"We'll need spare rigging and sails, extra oars," Brandon mused. "All things we can gather in Corwell Town."
Alicia nodded. "We'll have