Robin Hobb - The Complete Tawny Man Trilogy - Fool’s Errand, The Golden Fool, Fool’s Fate

The ravine widened and became a narrow valley. Our quarry left the stream. Before we departed it, we paused briefly to refill waterskins and share out a bit of the Fool’s purloined bread and some apples. I bought a bit of Myblack’s favour with the apple core. Then we were up and off again. The long afternoon wore on. None of us had spoken much. There was little to say unless we worried out loud. Danger rode behind us as well. In either direction we were outnumbered, and I badly missed my wolf at my side.

The trail left the valley floor and wound up into the hills. The trees thinned and the terrain became rocky. The hard earth made tracking more difficult, and we went more slowly. We passed the stony foundations of a small village, long abandoned. We rode past odd hummocky formations that jutted from the boulder-strewn hillside. Lord Golden saw me looking at them and said quietly, ‘Graves.’

‘Too big,’ I protested.

‘Not for those folk. They built stone chambers to hold their dead, and often entire families were interred in them as they died.’

I looked curiously back at them. Tall dead grass waved on the mounds. If there was stone beneath that sod, it was well covered. ‘How do you know such things?’ I demanded of him.

He didn’t meet my eyes. ‘I just do, Badgerlock. Put it down to the advantages of an aristocratic education.’

‘I’ve heard tales of these sorts of places,’ Laurel put in, her voice hushed. ‘They say tall thin ghosts rise from those mounds sometimes, to capture straying children and…Oh, Eda save us. Look. The standing stone from the same tales.’

I lifted my eyes to follow her pointing finger. A shiver walked up my back.

Black and gleaming, the stone stood twice as tall as a man did. Silver veined it. No moss clung to it. The inland breezes had been kinder to it than the salt-heavy storm winds that had weathered the Witness Stones near Buckkeep. At this distance, I could not see what signs were carved into its sides, but I knew they would be there. This stone pillar was kin to the Witness Stone and to the black pillar that had once transported me to the Elderling City. I stared at it, and knew it had been cut from the same quarry that had birthed Verity’s dragon. Had magic or muscle borne it so far from that place to this?

‘Do the graves go with the stone?’ I asked Lord Golden.

‘Things that are next to each other are not always related to one another,’ he observed smoothly, and I knew he evaded my question. I turned slightly in the saddle to ask Laurel, ‘What does the legend say about the stone?’

She shrugged one shoulder and smiled, but I think the intensity of my question made her uneasy. ‘There are lots of tales, but most have the same spine.’ She drew a breath. ‘A straying child or an idle shepherd or lovers who have run away from forbidding parents come to the mounds. In most tales they sit down beside them to rest, or to find a bit of shade on a hot day. Then the ghosts rise from the mounds, and lead them to the standing stone. And they follow the ghost inside, to a different world. Some say they never come back. Some say they come back aged and old after being gone but a night, but others say the opposite: that a hundred years later, the lovers came back, hand in hand, as young as ever, to find their quarrelling parents long dead and that they are free to wed.’

I had my own opinion of such tales, but did not voice them. Once I had stepped through such a pillar, to find myself in a distant dead city. Once the black stone walls of that long-dead city had spoken to me, and the city had sprung to life around me. Monoliths and cities of black stone were the work of the Elderlings, long perished from the world. I had believed the Elderlings had been denizens of a far realm, deep in the mountains behind Kettricken’s Mountain Kingdom. Twice now I had seen evidence that they had walked these Six Duchies hills as well. But how many summers ago?

I tried to catch Lord Golden’s eye, but he stared straight ahead and it seemed to me that he hastened his horse on. I knew by the set of his mouth that any question I asked him would be answered with another question or with an evasion. I focused my efforts on Laurel.

‘It seems odd that you would hear tales of this place in Farrow.’

She gave that small shrug again. ‘The tales I heard were of a similar place in Farrow. And I told you. My mother’s family came from a place not far from the Bresinga holdings. We often visited, when she was still alive. But I’d wager that the folk around here tell the same sort of tales about those mounds and that pillar. If any folk do live around here.’

That seemed unlikely as the day wore on. The further we rode on, the wilder the country became. The horizon darkened and the storm muttered threats but came no nearer. If these valleys had ever known the plough, or these hills ever nurtured pasturing kine, they had forgotten it these many years. The earth was dry, stones thrusting out amongst the clots of dried up grasses and scrubby brush. Chirring insects and birdcalls were the only signs of animal life. The trail became more difficult to follow and perforce we went more slowly. Often I glanced back behind us. Our tracks on top of the tracks we followed would make it easier for our pursuers to catch up with us, but I could think of no alternative.

The constant hum of the insects suddenly hushed off to our left. I turned towards it, my heart in my mouth, but an instant later I felt my brother’s presence. Two breaths, and I could see him. As always I marvelled at how well the wolf could hide himself even in the scantiest of cover. As he drew closer, my gladness at seeing him turned to dismay. He trotted determinedly, head down, and his tongue hung nearly to his knees. Without a word to the others, I pulled up Myblack and dismounted, taking down my waterskin. He came to me, to drink water from my cupped hands.

How did you catch up so swiftly?

You follow tracks, going slowly to find your way. I followed my heart. Where your path has wound through these hills, mine brought me straight to you, over terrain a horse would not relish.

Oh, my brother.

No time to pity me. I came to bring you warning. You are followed. I passed those who come behind you. They stopped at the bodies. They were enraged, shouting to the skies. Their anger will delay them for a time, but when they come on, they will ride fast and furious.

Can you keep up?

I can hide, far more easily than you can. Instead of thinking of what I will do, you should think of what you should do.

There was little enough we could do. I remounted, kicked Myblack and caught up with the others. ‘We should try for more speed.’

Laurel gave me a look, but said nothing. Only a shift in Lord Golden’s posture betrayed he had heard me, but in answer Malta sprang forwards. Myblack suddenly decided she would not be outdone. She leapt forwards, and in four strides we led the way. I kept my eyes on the ground as we hurried along. It looked as if the Prince and his fellows had made for the shelter of some trees; I applauded their decision. I looked forwards to gaining the cover. I urged a bit more speed from Myblack and led us all directly into the ambush.

A mental shout from Nighteyes prompted me to rein to one side. Laurel took the arrow, dropping to the earth with a cry. The shot had been intended for me. Fury and horror blazed up in me and I rode Myblack straight at the stand of trees. My luck was that there was only one archer, and he had not had time to nock another arrow. As we passed under the downsweeping branches, I stood up in my stirrups, miraculously caught a firm hold and pulled myself up on the branch. The archer was trying to swing his arm to bring the arrow to bear on me, but the intervening small branches were hampering him. There was no time to think about consequences. I launched myself at him, springing like a wolf. We fell in a tangle of two men and the bow. A projecting branch nearly broke my shoulder without breaking our fall. It turned us in the air. We landed with the young archer on top of me.