Robert Adams - The Death of a Legend

“At once and instinctively, my father and uncles made to cloud the mind of the Eyeless Wise One, bid him see them not, for this is how the Teenéhdjook had traditionally protected themselves from true men; but the Eyeless Wise One, lacking eyes of his own, had learned to so mesh his mind with those of the great cats that he could see out of their eyes, and, as you are become aware, lord champion, our illusions are ineffective on the minds of beasts.

“Then did the Eyeless Wise One’s powerful mind enter into that of my father. He sensed my father’s inborn fear of him as a representative of a different, a savage and bloodthirsty species, and he bid my father not fear and asked, graciously, the help of the three Teenéhdjook to free him and the horse from out of their predicament.

“Now, my father and his kin had never before been mind-spoken by a true man. Indeed, they had always thought that only the Teenéhdjook and certain of the other beasts could so communicate, and so he was truly fascinated that a man would so bespeak him. He sent his two brothers back to their cave to fetch strong ropes of braided strips of hide, and whilst they were gone he and the Wise Old One reassured the disturbed, protective cats that the Teenéhdjook meant not harm but rather salvation to the trapped man.

“Upon the return of my uncles with many coils of sturdy rope and three other Teenéhdjook, my father and another slid down the treacherous slope and secured the horse, then held it steady whilst my father lifted it enough that he might free the Eyeless Wise One and get him up onto the ledge from which he and the horse had plunged.

“That feat accomplished, my uncles drew the small horse back up as well, but so nervous were all the horses that no amount of mental soothing by the cats, the Teenéhdjook or the Eyeless Wise One could assure him a safe and uneventful ride if he should be placed upon one of the near-hysterical creatures. With his much-damaged leg, the Eyeless Wise One could not walk, so my father bore the eyeless man in his arms back to the commodious cavern which had for generations been the home of the Teenéhdjook.

“The Eyeless Wise One, perforce, wintered with my father, while his old bones slowly knitted, for we—my father and his kin—did not yet own the healing skills we now possess, which were, indeed, the generous guesting-gift of this highly uncommon true man.

“For vast knowledge of the mind had he, of men and of beasts, far and away more than even the wisest and most venerable of the Teenéhdjook then owned. Even though his man’s mind was very different from those of my father and his kin, he soon proved able to explore Teenéhdjook minds, especially that of my father. He plumbed every depth of his host’s mind, he rooted out hidden abilities and latent talents, and then did he show my father and the others how to do things they none of them had ever before done or even thought of doing.

“The healing of flesh and of bone was but one such new thing; he could not do it himself, for his mind did not own that potential, but he taught my father to do it when he discovered that blessed potential in his very different mind. Then, armed with his new and wonderful abilities, was my father able to help his guest in certain ways.

“They two became fast friends—the first such friendship between a true man and a Teenéhdjook as was ever before known to have existed, for as I have said the Teenéhdjook then both feared men with good cause and carefully avoided any contact with them. But before he departed westward in the spring with his horses and his cats, this man gifted my father, also, with glimpses he had in some way had of the future of him and his get and of the Teenéhdjook. Then he rode on toward the setting sun, bound, he said, for a place he called the Sea of Grass, where he had been born so many long years before. And that was the last that any Teenéhdjook ever saw of the Eyeless Wise One, who called himself Blind Hari of Krooguh and who had given them so very much.”

Bili shivered all over, felt the hairs at the nape of his thick neck all aprickle. He had often heard of Blind Hari of Krooguh, as had all Kindred-born and bred. The name and the story of this hundred-and-fifty-year-old tribal bard who, with the Undying High Lord Milo of Morai, had led the first forty-odd clans on their twenty-year-long trek from the Sea of Grass to Kehnooryos Ehlas was a much-recounted part of any bard’s repertoire—be that bard a clan bard or a traveling professional. But Bili, like most of the last few generations of Kindred, had always considered it to be mere legend.

But now, in the light of what Master Elmuh had just related, he recalled the last few verses of the Saga of Blind Hari, recalled bow it was recounted that this ancient man had tired of the new and hateful life of the settled clansmen and, longing for the Sea of Grass and the life-style of the nomad, had returned west some decades after the conquest of the east.

Bili had often meant to ask Milo and the Undying High Lady Aldora—whose lover he had been for some months—if Blind Hari of Krooguh had ever actually existed, but he had always forgotten to do so in the press of events. Now, from the mind of this alien creature, he had at long last learned the truth.

“But what of this prophecy, Master Elmuh? What of this so-called Last Battle?” However, Prince Byruhn chose that moment to speak. “Young cousin, I would hope that you have learned all that you would from our Elmuh. But, if not, your queries must be continued at another time, I fear me. We cannot march fast, what with my infantry and your wounded, so we must leave within the hour, are we to be certain of reaching the Safe Glen, ere nightfall.”

The prince tucked his cold pipe into his belt purse and arose; so too did Bili. Boldly facing the older, bigger man across the firepit, he demanded, “Why should I and my force quit this vale? That still has not been explained to my satisfaction, Prince Byruhn. Furthermore, why—if leave we do— should we follow your banner? Why should we not simply ride eastward, back to the Ahrmehnee lands?”

The prince sighed gustily, “No, you did not learn much of present value from Elmuh, it seems. Very well, then I’ll try to explain. Those raiders you fought and routed before the earthquake were but a scant third part of the outlaw horde who haunt these hills and vales all along the eastern border—which is why there are no villages and but few farms hereabouts, since the outlaws prey upon their own kin as relentlessly as upon the Ahrmehnee.

“Moreover, you may be dead certain that they know you are here and also know about how many you number, young cousin. That they have not already attacked you I can only attribute to the turmoil of the tremors and the fires, added to the great losses you and yours inflicted upon those in this area. “But attack they will, eventually, and probably sooner than later, and in vast, overwhelming numbers. This position is untenable—surely you with your obvious war sense can see that. Your force is simply not large enough to adequately man the hills roundabout, and, even if it were, the slopes of those hills are a much steeper pitch within than without the vale. Nor could you hold here for any long time, in any case, with no supplies, scant graze and a near dearth of large game. “As for riding back eastward, it would be sheer suicide! You’ll be ambushed and bushwhacked and sniped at by bowmen and dartmen and slingers until your party is weak and sufficiently demoralized for an all-out attack. If you so choose to die, I’ll regret your needless deaths, young cousin, but I’ll not try to physically impede you.

“I’ll say but one thing more, ere we two part, Do not allow the outlaws to take any one of you alive. Any kind of an honorable death, even by your own dirk, is preferable to the suffering of what those animals will do to your body.”