Andre Norton - The Duke's Ballad

“Come with me, Aisling. There is a place here that should be cleansed, but there is danger.” He frowned. “If we do this, then we will alert others. They will come hunting, and they must not find you.” He thought briefly. “We shall wait tonight. In the morning we shall destroy this thing, and you shall ride at once for the river pass. We will remain. If hunters come seeking us then we shall ride openly in another direction. Let them follow us while you travel the pass in safety.”

Aisling would have objected. She was no soft-handed lady to leave friends fighting behind her and ride on. But a look at Hilarion’s stern face convinced her he meant what he said. Nor did he think the less of her. She was to ride now, so that she might fight a different battle. She bowed her head in acceptance. From the fire came an imperative yowl and a mind-sending. There was food and warmth here. Why did his human stand in the chill dark unfed? Both people laughed and walked back to the fire.

Dawn came soon enough. It was late spring and the days were lengthening. They rode, passing a small village just beginning to stir. Hilarian ignored it; they had no need for supplies as yet, and he wanted no questions as to who they were or where they rode. This place of the Dark was new. It was therefore even more important that it be destroyed. He glanced away to the left where from afar the trees of the mosswomen’s forest could be seen.

The stream that circled the forest was a way into Karsten. Aisling would not have to scale mountains on this trip. The river pass was rarely used. There was only a brief time in the year when it was safe, and the whole area on the Karsten side was almost empty of people. There had always been few garths or keeps there. With the Horning most of those had been destroyed, and of the new Karsten breed, none had chosen to settle again. Teelar would take the pass at a steady trudge.

Once on the Karsten side Aisling would have to travel on foot with Wind Dancer. Farther along the trail Hilarion’s man or men would be waiting for her with a mount. But right now they had to dispose of the new site that had been settled by dangerous nonhu-man forces. The guard had ridden ahead, spreading out in scout formation. Aisling rode back from Hilarion, whose mount was staying some two hundred yards behind the scouts.

At the very edge of danger she dismounted. Wind Dancer, still in his carrysack, was handed to one of the guards, and all three scouts retired out of range. Aisling and Hilarion conferred swiftly. Her hands flickered in shapes and gestures as she demonstrated her intentions. Then they both remounted, and Aisling started Teelar moving. He edged closer in a slow-walking spiral. The girl opened her mind, just enough to read the enticement that would reach for her shortly.

She felt it as they came in range of the slow-spreading pool of new evil. There was a mind-stench to the thing. And a drawing. She allowed it to sense her, not as she was but as a simple wondering girl, defenseless and ignorant. Its hunger quickened. The call changed: it sent dreams, visions of wonderful things. Only come to me and you shall have everything you want, it called. Come and find all you have ever desired.

Teelar moved in slowly, answering the careful nudge of her heel. His mind was blanked. The evil, eyeless and knowing only that a victim approached at the speed of one afoot, was less wary. Hilarion, his mind also blanked to it, but waiting, watching, sat his mount. He had no need to use mind-powers to read the time to strike. He watched Aisling. One hand was rising higher, out to shoulder level, the palm turned to hang edge down. There it stayed.

Aisling let her mind accept the offerings. They were wonderful. She’d be powerful, desired. She would be a leader, a ruler. Teelar moved a little faster under her signal. The evil roiled in its pool. A victim, young, innocent, and with the very faintest trace of untrained power. What a prize, a delectable tidbit to savor. It opened itself and called with all its strength, and Aisling’s hand chopped down. Even as she signaled, her mind hardened to spear point and slashed in.

Behind her, less than a heartbeat later, Hilarion threw in his greater power. They carved through the mind of the evil like lightning through storm sky, the blue of their power against the smoky black of the Dark. It screamed once and was gone, small oily puffs of noxious miasma rising lazily from the land where it had anchored its being.

Hilarion closed in. He raised his hands, and began to chant softly. The land had only recently been used by Darkness. If he acted swiftly it would heal. His mount and Teelar added power. The scorched circle of land rippled. Aisling added her own gifts of healing, and the land shivered. A hint of green showed, then, in a rush, a tiny tide of grass swept over the circle, pouring from the edges to envelop what had been an ugly twenty-foot circle gouged deep into the earth.

The scouts moved in with cries of approval. One produced a pouch, tossing illbane seeds to spray across the new grass. Power urged growth, and with the grass, the tiny plants rose up to hold the land secure. Where illbane blooms no minor evil can live. Wind Dancer squirmed from his carrysack and pounced gaily across the circle. Aisling laughed.

“I think he’s saying that we’ve done well.” She watched as the big cat sniffed a flower and sneezed vigorously.

Hilarion nodded. “Yes, now we ride. Best we’re away from here in case any come hunting whoever it was that killed their comrade.”

They mounted again, and the renthans leaped into a steady rocking canter. They could hold that pace for hours and now they did. By dusk the small group was partway through the river pass. Hilarion watched his pupil as she rode. The false jewel would see that her brother could not steal her gifts to use against others. And the other ability implanted in the jewel might save her. He would have wished to tell her, but wisdom bade him to silence. Visions in his crystal warned that Aisling would fight better if she did not know that. In this way at least, she was being used. He glanced about him before signaling a halt.

They camped late, rose early, and rode again. As they traveled he taught her the passwords that would reveal whether those who came to meet her were truly his messengers. By sun high they reached the far side of the pass. Here Hilarion and the others would leave Aisling. She had supplies, all around her the land bloomed, and she had weapons with which to hunt at need. She would walk south with Wind Dancer.

With brief farewells, she did so. The weather was lovely. Not too hot as yet but warm enough at night to sleep under the sky if they wished.

She passed the large ruined keep which had once been the home of some family of the Old Race. It was half keep and half fortified manor. She did not go in; it was too sad.

She came to a small clearing. Wind Dancer, who’d been scouting ahead, appeared, his mind-picture sharp: Horses! Men who waited! Aisling halted. Then she circled cautiously, drawing power to cloak herself. Wind Dancer swept up to guard her back. She studied the waiting men. Two of them, nondescript, one who was perhaps in his forties, the other younger, maybe by ten or fifteen years. One, the larger of the pair, had medium brown hair; the other was fairer, almost blond. Both were moderately well dressed but without obvious jewelry, not even a ring. Purely Karsten from their looks, and that was strange. Why would men without traces of the Old Blood aid Hilarion?

She extended a trace of mind-touch, and both came alert. That was odder still. Those who had no gifts could not detect the touch when done so lightly. But here hands had dropped to swords as they looked about. She let her glamour fall and stepped into the clearing, where she could be seen. Then she spoke quietly.