“Your lady told us that the beast seemed to be tracking the horses, which were on their way back after a run to the south, so I signalled them to wait. From the speed of the beast that your lady described and the size of it that you described, I thought it might have trouble with a sharp turn. I had the men and the ladies of Goria form two lines, one each side of the road, ready to mount when the horses returned.”
“I wondered at that,” Gawain muttered, slowly succumbing to the glow of the brandy.
“When I gauged the time was right, with the help of your lady, I signalled the horses to return at the gallop, which they did. Not long after, we thought we saw something burst from the trees to the west behind the horses, but with the horses on the road all we could make out was trees coming down on the eastern side of the road.
“As soon as the horses returned I had the wagons drawn across as a barricade, and got the people mounted. That was when your lady asked the wizard to help her into the wagon, which he did. I tried to persuade her down, my lord, her horse was ready and waiting nearby, but she said nothing, just made ready her bow and then announced that the darkness was on its feet again.” Tyrane took another deep breath, and let it out slowly.
“Everyone else but she and the wizard were now in saddle, including myself. We heard the beast cry out, and when we looked down the road and saw that immense creature thundering towards us, we knew we were staring at our doom. And then, my lord, we saw you emerge from the ditch at the side of the road, and start running towards it.”
Allazar sighed. “A sight beyond the realms of imagination. What mad courage possessed you, Longsword?”
“Bah. Carry on, Captain.”
“We stood and watched in awe, and if truth be told, in terror. The wizard Arramin stepped down from the wagon and began to make ready his staff, preparing himself for his attempt at destroying the beast. But then your lady looked down at him and said ‘the sword is close to the darkness, wizard.’ At this, Arramin gazed along the road towards the charge; his old eyes hadn’t seen you. He made a chanting, and suddenly seemed to see you, and then called up to your lady, ‘I cannot loose the fire with a man so close!’”
“Hmm.” Gawain mumbled, eyeing Allazar in the gloom and remembering again the earlier disaster.
“And then,” Tyrane added, shaking his head in wonder, “Then your lady said ‘I shall warn him away’, and loosed an arrow at the beast. Alas you kept running. She loosed a second shaft, but still you ran, and then…” Tyrane paused, and swallowed. “Then we saw you leap upon the beast’s back.”
“Magnificent.” Allazar whispered, his eyes still closed, shaking his head at the memory, for he had seen that moment too.
“The wizard Arramin was desperate by now, he turned to me and shouted that he could not loose his fire upon the beast with a man upon its back. He said for the sake of all of us…” Tyrane paused and looked away.
“For the sake of all of you?” Gawain prompted, though he too remembered the sight of Eldengaze and her bow, and guessed the answer before Tyrane sighed and confirmed it.
“He said for the sake of all of us, you must be removed from the beast’s back. At that, your lady shot a third shaft. You and the beast were so close we saw it strike the creature just below its vile black horn. And still you came on. ‘You must shoot, lady!’ Arramin cried, gazing from you to your lady and to all of us behind the wagons. Then he shouted, ‘Fly Captain, take them to safety!’ and I gave the order to ride.
“I remained. It was my intention, I think, to snatch your lady from the wagon and take her to safety, but she stood poised, an arrow drawn, and I dared not to disturb her. I thought perhaps she intended a wounding shot, a shot to knock you safely from the beast’s back, I don’t know… I just saw her poised there, and then you, thrusting your hand deep into the Kraal’s eye and sliding the great blade under its head…”
Tyrane tailed off, and the air was filled with the sound of night, and the gentle hum of many people talking in hushed voices around them on the road.
“The road is secure, my lords, and I have my duties. There is a little news too, such as it is, from Callodon, though I’ll let your wizard share it with you. By your leave, my lord, I’ll bid you good night.”
“Thank you, Tyrane. For all you have done this day, and more besides.” Gawain smiled weakly in the gloom, his face bruised and aching.
The captain saluted, and quietly moved away.
“And you, Allazar, what happened in the forest?”
“Ah,” the wizard fiddled with his robes, now no longer swimming with the colours of the deep woodland, but back to their grubby and mud-stained white.
“Ah?”
“I know you think it a great weakness, Longsword. I know you may point to many deadly examples to the contrary, but I still may not harm the races of Man. I am sorry. The guardsman on the chain, he was pulled in to my line of fire, I could not let him be destroyed. Some kind of… instinct. I am sorry.”
“Twice, it happened. I know. I saw. And I do understand, Allazar. But that instinct of yours nearly got us all killed. Everyone, including the horses.”
“I know.”
Gawain sighed. “It’s one thing for some ancient bookworm to creep forth from the crypt of some musty Callodon library to hold fast to those old laws, but be honest, Allazar, you and he are probably the only two wizards in the southlands who do.”
“I am sorry.”
“I know,” Gawain sighed, and his voice carried not a hint of anger. “I just have a feeling that it’ll be the death of us all one day. Tell me again, how does it go?”
Allazar repeated by rote: “The first mandate of the book of Zaine, the Codex Maginarum: No wizard may harm the kindred races of Man, save in defence of his realm and of himself.”
“Then it might be a good idea to start thinking of all the lands south of the Teeth as your realm, wizard, because Raheen is gone, and Morloch is not beaten yet.”
“Aye.”
“I know what I’m asking,” Gawain said softly. “I’m not as totally insensitive as Elayeen recently accused me.”
Allazar said nothing.
“I wonder how close Eldengaze would have let me get before shooting me off the beast.” Gawain muttered quietly.
“Thirty yards, or thereabouts.” Allazar whispered. “That’s about the best range Arramin could hope for at the speed it was moving. I doubt he has summoned white fire since his days in the Hallencloister.”
“Has she said nothing?”
“Only that all is light once more. She is become dread, my friend, as the Eldenelves of old, and I do not know how to bring her back to you.”
Gawain screwed his eyes tight shut against the sudden tears that threatened, all the tension of the day welling up within him. But he choked it back, and let out a shuddering sigh.
“So what did happen in the forest?”
“Hmm?”
“After the beast was loosed.”
“Ah. There is nothing much to tell, Longsword, in truth. I struck down the parGoth for his treachery, while the two guardsmen, Rollaf and Terryn, despatched the surviving Gorians with rather alarming speed, and we simply set off after you. We were hard on your heels, though you had a good head start. We emerged on to the road some two hundred yards behind you and the Kraal, and were gaining fast when you made that wondrous leap upon its back.”
“Ah.”
“Hmm?”
“Then you might have been able to incinerate it from the rear.”
“A very slim possibility, Longsword. I have never summoned white fire on the run, and only three times since becoming Keeper of The Stick.”
“If I thought you were being kind, and I had blocked your fire as I clearly blocked this wizard Arramin’s…”
“We shall never know, Longsword. Though I do wonder what possessed you.”
“I was being creative.”
“Ah.”
“Never mind. I thought I had seen a weakness in the Kraal’s armour, and it turns out I was right. I didn’t know you were close behind me, nor did I know another wizard was ahead of me.”