Roger Taylor - Caddoran

‘He was afraid, I’m sure of it,’ Thyrn insisted, adding with an uncharacteristically bold stare, ‘As you’d have been, too.’

Rhavvan gave him a dark look but did not reply to this unexpected challenge. ‘More to the point, which way are we going? North, south, where?’ he demanded, avoiding it.

‘What do you think?’ Hyrald asked him directly. Rhavvan was taken aback. It took him a moment to gather his wits. ‘I don’t fancy going back to Arvenshelm or anywhere where people know about the Death Cry, that’s for sure. Even if things have quietened down by now they could flare up in a moment. We were damned lucky to get away, to say the least.’ He stopped, but no one spoke, forcing him to continue. ‘On the other hand, you’re right, we’ve done nothing wrong and we are Arvens, this is where we belong. We can’t run for ever. Apart from anything else, I’ve no great desire to be struggling to make a new life in a strange land, if only because I’m not sure what I’m fit for – or any of us for that matter. We’ve no trade, no craft. And like you, I’ve got – I had – a good life here and I’d like it back. But…’

He concluded with an unhappy shrug.

‘There’s something else.’ It was Adren. ‘I agree that whatever Thyrn’s seeing when he Joins with Vashnar can’t be the future – we’ve all dealt with enough market fortune-tellers who didn’t manage to see their own arrest coming, to know that – but it could be something Vashnar’s thinking – perhaps something he intends to do. And, as you said, proclaiming the Death Cry confirms that he’s afraid of Thyrn - very afraid – which in turn confirms that Thyrn’s probably telling the truth as he sees it. We all know Vashnar’s a bit odd – obsessive – but it sounds to me as if he might be coming unhinged. If he is, in his position, there’s no saying what harm he might do. Perhaps that’s another reason for going back. To find out what’s going on and do something about it.’

‘What?’ Rhavvan exclaimed. ‘Trying to get back to civilization is going to be hard enough, but walking into Vashnar’s office and asking him if he’s gone insane? That’s brilliant.’

Adren flicked her thumb towards Hyrald. ‘Thyrn’s just had a sermon about not running away, about facing reality,’ she said angrily. ‘Time we all did it, I think. If Vashnar’s coming apart we’ve got a duty to do something about it. We can’t just ignore it. We are Wardens, after all.’

‘We were Wardens!’ Rhavvan burst out. ‘Or have you forgotten we’re hunted criminals now, despite doing our ‘duty’ for years!’

She bridled. ‘We’re hunted, certainly. But none of us are criminals. I’m still a Warden and not only have I had enough running and hiding, I want to know what the devil Vashnar’s up to if half the stuff that this lad has picked up from him is true. Not to mention the duty we’ve got to the people who look to us for protection.’

Rhavvan was scornful. ‘Duty again, eh? And to the people, no less! This is getting worse. I don’t know about Vashnar going crazy.’ He waved a dismissive hand. ‘Then you always were a bit on the pious side.’

Adren stepped towards him menacingly.

Hyrald moved quickly between them, arms extended to keep them apart. ‘You’re both right. Perhaps Vashnar has gone mad. Even without what Thyrn’s told us, he’s hardly acted rationally, has he? But what we can do about it, I don’t know, duty or not. And right now we still haven’t decided whether we go north or south. We…’

‘It’ll be west for a day or so, in either case,’ Endryk interrupted. ‘South directly from here will send you back the way you came, and north will see you drowned in less than half a day.’

Hyrald threw up his arms and abandoned Rhavvan and Adren. ‘I’d forgotten,’ he said, relieved by Endryk’s reminder. ‘So we don’t have to decide right away, after all. We can talk some more as we travel – and sleep on the matter.’ His manner lightened noticeably at the prospect and he smiled at Endryk. ‘If I could impose on you for one more thing – a description of the way we need to go, as far as you know it. I don’t want to do anything that would leave us at the mercy of that tide again, but we mustn’t stay here any longer. There’s no saying whether there are any more of our “colleagues” searching for us, or how long it’ll be before Oudrence reaches the first decent-sized community, or what’ll happen when he does.’

Endryk looked at him silently. Nals stood up and wandered off. Rhavvan and Adren moved further apart as he walked between them, head low, eyes watchful.

Hyrald waited, loath to press his involuntary host for a reply.

‘I’d be happy to,’ Endryk said after a long, preoccupied pause. ‘But I’ve been thinking that I could do with a change myself. I’ve been feeling restless lately. It’s been interesting, but I don’t think I’m really cut out to be a shoreman after all – that shore is frightening even when you know it. And I didn’t realize how much I missed having people to talk to.’ He looked at each of his listeners in turn. ‘Besides, I’m intrigued – about you, about what’s happening here. If you don’t mind an extra hour on your journey, I’d like to pick up some things from my cottage and then travel in your direction for a little while.’

The suggestion both surprised and disturbed Hyrald. ‘Your help would be appreciated. We’re city people, as you’ve gathered – not at our best out here, by any means. There are far too many surprises for us. But we are fugitives with the Death Cry proclaimed against us. If we’re caught, you’ll probably be fighting for your life before you get a chance to explain who you are. I don’t know what a shoreman does to survive in this place, but I doubt fighting’s one of them. I’m afraid we’re not a happy find for you and we may well be unhappier company.’

‘That’s for me to judge,’ Endryk said, with an odd smile. ‘As for the fighting…’ He opened his arms expansively. ‘A little care should avoid that. There are plenty of vantage points and hiding places even here, and there are more as we move inland. And if any of your colleagues should come after you, don’t forget, they know the country no better than you.’

Hyrald was not convinced. They owed too much to Endryk already. Whoever he was and wherever he came from, he could have no idea of the risk he was taking.

Endryk took his arm. ‘It’s time for me to move on,’ he said soberly. ‘I think I made that decision yesterday when I helped you off the shore – or it was made for me, I’m not sure. Anyway, as you rightly instructed your charge before, change is as unavoidable as its effects are incalculable. It’s my decision and I’ll take the consequences.’

His manner was quite resolute and Hyrald found he had no more arguments to offer.

Thus, shortly afterwards, he was walking beside Endryk, following his lead. The others rode behind. Nals too, joined them, though he kept well to one side like a cautious flank guard.

Endryk’s cottage surprised Hyrald. His anticipation had been coloured by the disorderly construction of the shelter in which they had spent the night. What he saw now was radically different. Two storeys high, circular in plan with a steep pitched conical roof of heavy interlocking tiles and walls of well-pointed stonework, the building was not one he would have described as a cottage. It had the feel of a miniature fortress and looked peculiarly out of place amid the rolling landscape. Though no student of architecture, Hyrald tried to think where he had seen anything like it before, but without success. It reminded him vaguely of some of the towers that decorated the Moot Palace, but none of those had the solid purposefulness that this possessed. Still less were they bright and well maintained with orderly gardens at their feet. He could not resist expressing his surprise.