PROLOGUE (27 page)

Adica took his hand. She leaned into him, and kissed him. Her lips were sweet and moist. Where her body pressed against his, his

own body woke hungrily. His hand tangled in the strings of her skirt, and beneath the wool cording he touched her skin.

A small voice woke in the back of his head. Hadn't he made vows? Hadn't he promised celibacy to Tallia, to honor God? Oughtn't he to remember his foster father's promise that he would cleave to the church and its strictures?

He let the oak staff fall to the ground as he tightened his arms around Adica. Her warmth and eagerness enveloped him. He'd given all that away when he had come into this country. Now he could do as he pleased, and what he pleased right now was to embrace this woman who desired him.

Once, perhaps, in those long ago days when he had been joined to Stronghand in his dreams, Alain would have heard the shouting first. Now, because he was lost in the urgency of her embrace, the blat of a horn startled him so badly he jumped. Sorrow and Rage began barking. Adica pulled away and threw back her head to listen.

The sun hadn't yet risen, but light glinted at the height of the tumulus, lying to the east. Distant thunder rolled and faded.

She exclaimed out loud, words he could not understand. As she bent to grab her leather bundle off the ground, an arrow passed over her back, right where she had just been standing up straight. He dove and knocked her down. A flight of arrows whistled harmlessly past, pale shafts skittering to a halt on the ground beyond.

Figures sprang out of the forest. The horn sounded again, and a third time, shrill and urgent.

The masked attackers who rushed out of the forest swarmed toward the birthing house, where Weiwara sheltered with her infant twins. Adica was already up, staff in hand, leaving her bundle behind. Sorrow and Rage bolted forward in her wake, and Alain, fumbling, got hold of his staff and raced after her.

But no matter how fast they ran, the bandits got to the birthing house first even as he heard Adica scream out Weiwara's name. Too late.

Weiwara shouted from the house. There came a shriek of anger, followed by the solid thunk of a heavy weight hitting wood. Two figures darted from the house, each carrying a small bundle. Adica got near enough to strike at one with her staff, hitting him forcefully enough at the knees so he stumbled. The other raced on, back
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to the forest, as the first turned and, with the child tucked under one arm, thrust out his sword. Dawn made fire of the metal as he cut. Adica danced aside. The rising light played over the man's face, since he, unlike the other two, wasn't masked. Nor was he human: he had a dark complexion, with black hair and striking features that reminded Alain of Prince Sanglant.

Another Aoi warrior emerged from the birthing hut, this one a young woman clad, like the others, in a bronze breastplate fitted over a short tunic. The feathers woven into her hair gave her a startling crest, and her mask had been carved into a peregrine's hooked beak. She carried a small round shield and a short spear.

Alain struck with his staff. She barely had time to parry. Her companion, hampered by the infant, contented himself with thrusting again, but Adica's reflexes were too good. She sprang back and swung her staff hard around, aiming for the woman instead of the man, and caught the Aoi warrior a glancing blow to the jaw. Blood dribbled out from the young warrior's neck as she bit back a yelp of pain. Alain circled right to close the two against the wall of the birthing house. He heard shouts from behind, Kel's voice, and suddenly Kel and his brother came running with their spears ready.

The Aoi man dropped the infant and bolted for the trees, following his companion; Alain clipped the woman as she tried to follow, and she fell heavily. Adica stepped back. Kel and Tosti shrieked with glee as the Aoi woman rolled over, lifting her shield to protect herself.

"No!" cried Alain, for truly, she was helpless before them, and it would be more merciful to take her captive. But they hated her kind too much. He winced as they pinned her to the ground with angry spear thrusts. Her blood ran over the dirt.

The baby wailed.

"Weiwara!" cried Adica, dashing inside.

He looked away from the dying warrior thrashing on the ground. Tosti had run inside after Adica. Kel wrenched his spear free and grabbed Alain by the shoulder.

He shouted a word, indicating the woman. Beyond, fire sparked and caught in the thatched roof of one of the village houses.

"Come! Come!" Kel stooped to pick up the screaming baby.

About ten Aoi warriors fitted in bronze armor and wielding
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weapons forged of metal emerged from the last bend in the earthworks.

"Come!" cried Kel with more urgency, gesturing toward the village and its closed gates. A man lay prone by the outer ditch. Farther out, five of the enemy clustered behind the shield of a ruined hut. From this shelter they shot flaming arrows toward the village, an easy target over the low stockade.

Adica and Tosti appeared at the door with Weiwara's limp body between them. Blood ran down the side of her face, and a nasty bruise discolored her left cheek, but she breathed.

"The other baby!" cried Alain. He pointed to the shrieking infant and then to the forest.

"No!" said Adica, indicating the threat to the village.

The horn rang out again. Armed adults sallied out from the village, yelling defiantly. Beor led them; Alain recognized him by his height and his shoulders, and by the bronze spear he carried. A half dozen split off from the main group to hurry toward the birthing house, among them Weiwara's husband and Urtan.

"Go!" said Alain, because it was a word he knew, and because help was coming.” I go get baby."

Kel shrieked with glee and shoved the infant into Tosti's arms. He grabbed the dead woman's bronze spear from the ground.” I go!" He struck his own chest with a closed fist, and then Alain's.” We go!"

There wasn't time to argue. The ones they sought had already gotten a head start, and Alain wasn't going to let that baby be stolen, not when God had welcomed him to this village by granting it the blessing of living twins on the day he had arrived.

He grabbed the shield off the corpse and ran for the forest as the sun split the horizon behind them. Adica called after him, but the clamor of battle drowned out her voice. They hit the shadow of the trees, and he raised a hand for silence as he and Kel and the hounds came to a halt. They heard the headlong flight of the other two as cracks and rustles in the forest ahead. Rage bounded away, so they followed her trail as she pelted through the trees.

Alain saw the two Aoi when he burst out of the woods at the border of the burial field. Sorrow and Rage loped after them, big bodies closing the gap. They hit the man limping behind without losing momentum and he tumbled to the ground beneath them. Kel reached him first. Before Alain could shout for mercy, Kel stuck him through the back. As the bronze leaf-blade parted the man's skin, Kel screamed in triumph.

The sound shook Alain to his bones, made bile rise in his throat. He had known for a long time that he couldn't serve the Lady of Battles by killing. But he could save the child.

The hounds matched him stride for stride as he ran after the third warrior, the one who carried the crying infant under his arm. The warrior cut left, and then right, as if expecting to dodge arrows. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Alain and the hounds and that made him run harder, although he seemed to be grinning like a madman, caught in an ecstacy of flight and fury. But Alain knew fury, too, rising in his heart, goaded by the memory of a tiny body coming to life beneath his hands.

By now they had moved well away from the river, but a stream cut down from a hill on the eastern side of the burial field. When the other man tried to head up the stream, he found himself boxed in by the hillside and by a cliff down which a cataract fell, not more than twice a man's height but too rugged to climb without both hands.

The warrior was no fool. He kept hold of the baby and brandished his spear threateningly as he sprang back to put the rock wall behind him. The baby hiccupped in infant despair, exhausted by its own screaming, and fell silent. Far behind, Kel shouted Alain's name.

He threw down shield and staff as Sorrow and Rage stalked forward on either side of him.” Give me the child, or strike me down, I care not which you choose."

The warrior's eyes widened in fear or anger, flaring white, all that could be seen of his face behind the grinning dog mask he wore.

Alain took another step forward, showing his empty hands but keeping his gaze fixed on his opponent.” Just give me back the child. I want nothing else from you."

The warrior shied nervously, keeping his spear raised, and he made a testing thrust toward Alain, who did not step back but instead came forward once again.

"As you see, I do not fear dying, because I am already dead.

Nothing you can do to me frightens me. I pray you, give me the child."

Maybe it was Kel, shouting as he came up from behind. Maybe it was the silent hounds. Maybe the warrior had simply had enough.

He set down the child, turned, and scrambled as well as he could up the cliff face. Alain sprang forward to grab the infant just as the warrior lost hold of his spear and it sailed down to land in the cataract with a splash. The haft spun, rode the cascade, and lodged up between two rocks as water roared over it. With an oath, the man vanished over the lip. Pebbles spattered down the cliff face, then all trace of him ceased.

Kel whooped as he came up behind Alain. The baby whimpered, more a croak than a cry. Kel waded out to fetch the spear and offered it to Alain.

"Nay, I won't take it!" Alain snapped. Kel flinched back, looking shaken.” Here," said Alain more gently, giving him the man's shield. With a hand free again, he took up his oak staff.

They went swiftly back, but cautiously, skirting the corpse sprawled in the burial field and taking a deer trail through the forest, not knowing what they might find at the village or if they would need to fight when they got there. Luckily, the newborn fell into an exhausted sleep.

Easing out from the forest cover, they saw the village with the first slant of morning sun streaming across it and figures moving like ants, in haste, scurrying here and there. As they watched, trying to understand what they saw, a cloud covered the sun and the light changed. Thunder rumbled softly. Rain shaded the southeastern hills.

"Beor!" said Kel softly, pointing.

Alain saw Beor walking down through the earthworks with a spear in his hand, his posture taut with battle anger. At least fifteen adults accompanied him, all armed, some limping. Smoke striped the sky, rising from the village, but it had the cloudy vigor of a newly doused fire. A few corpses lay evident, some clad in bronze and one, alas, the body of a villager. It seemed strange that these people would strike with such determined ferocity and swiftness only to retreat again, like a thunderstorm opening up overhead with fury and noise that, as suddenly, blows through to leave fresh puddles and cracked or fallen branches in its wake.

Halfway between the river path and the birthing house, Alain saw a lump on the ground. Fear caught in his throat. He ran, only to find, as he feared, Adica's leather bundle bulging open on the ground right where she'd dropped it when she first ran for Weiwara's house. It seemed wrong that rain should fall on the gold antlers. As he wrapped up the bundle, he found her polished mirror lying beneath.

Adica never went anywhere without her mirror. At that moment, the same choking helplessness gripped him that had strangled hope on the night when Lavastine had been trapped by Bloodheart's revenge behind a locked door.

Voices called from the village. He slung the bundle over his shoulder and rose just as Kel hurried up with a scared look on his face.

"No. No," he repeated, over and over, pointing to the bundle. Alain ignored him and hurried on. He had to find Adica.

Weiwara had been taken to the council house and settled upon furs there together with the other wounded folk, not more than six, although six was too many. When Alain gave the lost infant into her arms, she burst into tears. Both Urtan and Tosti were among the wounded. Urtan had taken a blow to the head and he lay unconscious, with his young daughter Urta moistening his mouth with a damp cloth. Tosti drifted in and out of awareness, moaning; he had two nasty wounds in his right shoulder and left hip. Kel dropped down beside him, keening, scratching his chest until it bled.

Mother Orla shuffled in, leaning heavily on her walking stick as she surveyed the injured. She called for her daughter, Agda, who brought potions and poultices. Exhaustion swept Alain, but as he tried to make his way to the door, to find Adica, Mother Orla stopped him, her expression grim. He heard voices outside, but it was Beor who entered, not Adica.