Itʼs another of his fits, said Uwen.
No, Tristen said, trying to shut out what was still trying to take him, holding to this place, the solid mass of horse under him. He kept his eyes open, burning the light of the worldʼs sky and the shadow-shapes of hills and woods into his vision. Cefwyn and Uwen and Idrys were close at hand. They willed no harm to him.
The other thing would unmake him if it could not use him against those he least wanted to harm. Against all Maurylʼs work in the world. It wanted that undone, the barriers to its will all removed.
Tristen.
No, my lord, forgive me. It was hard to speak against the weight that crushed him, and he must hold Dys, for the horse felt the tension trembling in his legs and in his hands, and was fighting him continuously to move. Do not leave us, Cefwyn had begged him. Do not leave us. And he tried not to. He did try to keep his wits about him in this world.
Asyneddin is there, mʼlord King. In the woods. I have no doubt.
A shiver came over him then. He slipped into that risky place, and felt thunder in the air, like storm.
He twitched as he escaped there to here in a shock that rang through the world, but the two lords by him had never felt it: they talked on of strategy and ambush while he felt ambush in the very roots of the hills. He felt the Shadows all stir beneath the leaves of Marna Wood, but the lords talked of whether his warning meant mortal enemies, and whether they could draw attack out to them and not risk the woods.
If they stay in that woods, Idrys said, they risk having it fired around them. Your grandfather would not have stuck at it.
These are my ladyʼs people, Cefwyn said, rejecting that. Not all of them may even be here by choice. We carry her banner with our own, master crow. No fire.
They are rebels, Idrys said.
No fire, master crow. Iʼll not make war after that fashion.
Against wizardry, mʼlord? What will our enemy stick at? Weʼll not venture in there. Weʼll have them out, if they are there.
They are there, Cefwyn said.
Tristen is here, Idrys said. That indeed is our certainty, mʼlord King. And I do believe his warnings. Itʼs the advice I doubt. This haste to go blind into that.
He is not blind, Cefwyn said.
Came a rush of air just above their heads. A shadow swooped over them. The horses snorted and threw their heads in startlement. But Tristen knew it with a leap of his heart.
Owl! he called to the wide sky. Owl, where are you?
Gods! Uwen gasped, and men about them swore.
Devils, some said.
But Tristen lifted his hand to the sky and Owl settled on his fist, bated his great blunt wings a moment and flew again, a Shadow indeed, by broad daylight.
Gods save us, Cefwyn said, and Idrys muttered in his hearing. Gods save us indeed, my lord King, but this isour ally.
Well he were our ally, Cefwyn said. It harmed you none at all. Did it?Did it, master crow? Did it, any of us?
Follow Owl! Tristen said, for Owlʼs path was clear to him, as Owlʼs warning was clear as a blaze across the sky: as, discovered in its ambush, a darkness of men and horses began to stream out of that line of woods ahead of them. It spread out, moving first to fill the road, and then to spread out wings beyond it, like some vast creature taking to flight.
Asyneddin has sprung his trap! Umanon shouted out. Attend the flanks, Your Majesty! Heʼll want the hills!
Likewise they needed room to spread wide needed the flat and the hills on either side in front of that stretch of woods, and they did not yet, by reason of the trees, know how many that army was.
Kanwy struggled to be loosed. Dys pulled at the bit. All about, there was a shifting in their own ranks as a wind out of the west ripped at the standards. The standard-bearers, Cefwynʼs, his, Ninvrisʼs, all three in the center, and Umanon and Cevulirn on either hand, were advancing; but the hills had taken on an unnatural quality in the pearl-skyed noon, distinct in their edges, seeming cut from velvet, the trees still breathing with secrets.
My lord! Tristen said, reining Dys back with difficulty. They are already in the hills, my lord theyʼre there, left and right of us, where we must pass!
Cefwyn did not question. Cevulirn! he said, and waved the lord of the Ivanim and his light horse toward the hills on their left. Umanon! Him he sent to the right flank; and dispatched a messenger to the Amefin lords at their backs. Follow my banner, his word to the Amefin was; and to messengers dispatched on the heels of Umanon and Cevulirn: Sweep them east, away from the woods! We shall break their center! Do not let them close behind us!
Dys was pulling at the rein, breathing noisily and chafing at the bit, and given rein but of a sudden Elwynim light horse were pouring off the hills toward them and sweeping in to try to envelop them, downhill against Umanon and Cevulirn on either hand. The heavy center, still coming out of the woods, lay beyond those two rapid-moving wings that attempted to fold in on them.
They were in danger of the same swift envelopment they had broken around Cefwynʼs father. Dys was working at the bit, shaking his neck so the barding rattled, traveling sideways, nudging Cass, who likewise worked to be free.
Lances! Cefwyn called out, and the trumpets blew. Lances!
They were going. None of it he had ever done, save only with Uwen, in the practice field by Henasʼamef but like a Word, it had been with him then and it had always been with him. He ducked his head to brush his visor down, settled his reins in his shield-hand and looked up within the narrow frame of that visor as he reached out for his lance. It arrived in his hand, Lusin coming up at his side, horse bumping horse and falling back again. He took a solid grip, tucked the length of ash-wood high for a hard ride as he brought the shield up. Dys was pulling at the reins, a warfare occupying all his attention else.
Cevulirnʼs men and then Umanonʼs engaged with the Elwynim wings, two almost simultaneous hammer blows. Ride for their heart! Cefwyn was saying to the standard-bearers and the riders that would pass the word. Let them see the standards! Break their line and go around them again! Unit standards keep spread, in the godsʼ name! Pass through them, behind, and around!In the good godsʼ name!
Cefwyn loosed Kanwy. Tristen let the reins fall, settling all his grip on the shield and all his mastery of Dys on his knees
Dys broke into his run like chasing rabbits through the meadow, like chasing the leaves and the wind down the road, with Uwen by him, likewise shielded, likewise helmed, likewise with lance braced. A thunder was growing in the earth, the strike of hundreds of plate-sized hooves, whuffs of breath entering a vast unison, like a blacksmithʼs bellows. There was nothing in the world but that moving vision of shielded line and forest that the visor-slit held.
Sihh prince, said the Wind, above that rolling thunder.Remember the Galasieni. How many of these foolish Men will you kill? Turn back now. Your friends will be alive. You can win them that. You can save them all. Didnʼt you learn, the last time? I know the outcome of this. But you donʼt, do you?
The Shadow grew above the woods, above the opposing line, that was a forest of lances. Something throbbed in the air, faint and far in the dark West, like the beat of a great heart to his ears. Or perhaps it was still the horses gathering speed. On either hand came a clash of metal, as if a cartload of pots were being shaken, on the hillsides. But the thunder throbbed and beat like his heart in his ears.