"Get to the horses!" he yelled. "Go!"
As an arrow hit the rock by his foot.
An arrow flew from another quarter, crosswise streak of black on pale rock, high up the ledges.
Not at them. At the hidden archer. An outcry said that it had hit. Other arrows followed, arcing downslope this time, into enemy positions, starting enemies from cover, as Morgaine turned on her slab of rock and fired again and again at targets suddenly visible.
A dark spot moved in the edge of Vanye's vision: he whirled and fired at a man coming up the throat of their little shelter, near the horses.
That man sprawled backward, his armor of no avail against an arrhendur bow at that range; and screamed as he slid down the slope, while Vanye nocked his last arrow with a deliberate effort at steadiness, as shafts sped unexplained over their heads, as the enemy broke and fled, offering their backs to the arrows and the red glow that flashed on a man and doomed him.
There were, perhaps, two or three who made it off that field. When quiet came the very air seemed numb. He still had the one arrow left. He refused to spend it on a retreating enemy. He slid off his rock and lost his footing in the landing, gathered himself up with his bow in one hand and the last arrow still nocked, and struggled through the brush to the tumbled mass Morgaine was descending.
"My lady Morgaine!"a shout came down from the heights.
He crossed the last distance with a desperate effort, to steady Morgaine as she jumped the last distance and to thrust her back where there was at least scant cover.
"No gratitude?" The mocking voice drifted down from that place of vantage. "No word of thanks?"
"Chei," Vanye muttered between his teeth, and pressed his body against Morgaine as some large object hurtled off the heights to land close by them, with a sickening impact of bone and flesh.
A helmet rolled and clanged down the rocks. Arrows scattered and rattled; and a qhalur body lay broken on the stone.
He bent the bow, aimed upward, hoping for a target.
"There is my gift," Chei called down to them, never showing himself. "One of Skarrin's pets, none of mine. An appeasement. Do I hear yet thanks?"
"He is mad," Vanye breathed.
"I could kill you both from here," Chei said. "Icould have let Skarrin's men kill you. But I do not. I had rather come down to talk. Which shall I?"
"Mad," Vanye said. His arm was shaking as he had it braced. His breath was short. He looked at Morgaine. "There were three of them. I have the one arrow left. I can gather more out there. Cover me."
"Stay!" Morgaine said. "Do not try it."
He lowered the bow and eased the string.
"My lady," Chei's voice drifted down to them. And an arrow struck and shattered in front of them. "Is that earnest enough of good faith? Talk is what I want. On your terms."
"I cannot see the wretch," Morgaine hissed softly, looking upward with the black weapon in hand. "Curse him, he can loft his shots, and I cannot—"
"Let me—"
"We still have another choice."
"Loose rock," Vanye muttered, looking at the set of the boulders Changelingmight dislodge. "The horses—"
"My lady—" Chei's voice came down. "They have sent a gate-jewel into the field, more than one—Do you want to talk about this?"
"I am listening," Morgaine answered him.
"The while we were on the road the jewel he wore was constantly sending. It could not but draw them. I do not deny—I fought you. But there is no more fighting. If you win, you will destroy the gate at Mante, you will destroy everything, and we die.
If Skarrin wins, we die—as rebels. We have few choices left. You want Mante. I want something else. It is alliance I am proposing."
"Alliance," Vanye muttered under his breath.
"Narrow quarters," Morgaine said quietly. "And an unstable gate. And no knowing where our enemies out there have gotten to."
"It is a lie—"
She rested her hand on his shoulder, and looked up at the cliffs. "Come down!" she called to Chei.
"Under truce?" Chei asked.
"As good as your own," Morgaine shouted back. "Do you trust it?"
A pebble dropped and bounded from somewhere above.
"For God's sake, do not trust him."
"I do not. I want him in sight. Remember I have no scruples."
He drew a larger breath. His hands were shaking. From off the rock where the qhal had fallen, blood ran, and dripped.
And from up among the rocks, on the trail they had ridden, the sound of movement.
"There were three," Vanye said again as a rider came down, out of their view behind the hill, hoof-falls echoing among the rocks.
"We do not know how many there are now," Morgaine said. "We have a dead man for proof. Perhaps they would kill their own. Who knows?"
He drew a long, slow breath, resting back against the rock that was no shelter.
"On the other hand," Morgaine said, "Chei has already killed men of Skarrin's. Did you not say? How did that go?"
"Aye." Breath was short. He sent his thoughts back, to gather everything, putting it in one place. "Typthyn was the name. For the stone. It was the stone the captain wanted. To take it to Mante, he said. And to get clear. But do not believe him for the sake of that. Chei wanted it for himself."
A single rider came into view, on the red roan that had been Gault's, the man a slight, young figure in silver mail.
"The fool," Vanye breathed.
"Foolish or desperate."
"No!" Vanye said. "I believed him a moment too long. He lies—very well."
Her hand clenched on his shoulder, on bruises. "Be patient. We will hear him out. That at least we can afford."
She stood clear to face the rider, who, finding himself in a pocket in the maze of stone, dismounted and leapt up to the flat rock which had been Vanye's post. Vanye took his place at her left shoulder, the bow easy in his hands, aimed at the ground.
But he kept the arrow nocked.
Chei spread wide his hands. "That I have men above me, you can guess. And you have the sword." He walked forward on the slanting surface and dropped lightly off the rock to the ground facing them—spread his hands again, keeping the palms in plain view. "I think the advantage is yours."
"Come no closer," Morgaine said. "For this I have no need of the sword."
Chei stopped instantly. The mockery was gone from his face as she lifted her hand toward him. "My lady—"
"I am not your lady and whatever there is of Chei ep Kantory I should best requite by killing his enemy, Gault.I saved you for last, only so youmight keep the others under your hand. I spared you once on Vanye's word—and because I should have enjoyed it too much— Do you hear me, Gault?"
"My men, my lady. Above us."
"We two, lord Gault, are in front of you, and this is the cleanest of my weapons, for which you may thank me. Is there something you want that is worth this?"
"What I always wanted. What I would have freely given, if you had come to Morund. What the boy gave when you befriended him—"
"Lies," Morgaine said sharply.
"Vanye!" Chei said, holding out his hands.
"I had as lief kill you," Vanye said; and bent the bow as Chei took a step closer. "No farther!"
Chei fell to his knees, hands outheld. "God help me, I do not know what I am, I cannot sort it out—What else do you leave me?"
"No more lies!"