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precautions."
"I'll ride out in front," Hettar offered quickly.
"I don't think that's a very good idea," Wolf replied. "You tend to get
distracted when you see Murgos."
"I'll do it," Silk said. He had pulled his hood up, but water still dripped from
the end of his long, pointed nose. "I'll stay about half a mile ahead and keep
my eyes open."
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Wolf nodded. "Whistle if you see anything."
"Right." Silk started off up the ravine at a trot.
Late that afternoon, the rain began to freeze as it hit, coating the rocks and
trees with gray ice. They rounded a large outcropping of rock and found Silk
waiting for them. The stream had turned to a trickle, and the walls of the
ravine had opened out onto the steep side of a mountain. "We've got about an
hour of daylight left," the little man said. "What do you think? Should we go
on, or do you want to drop back down the ravine a bit and set up for the night?"
Mister Wolf squinted at the sky and then at the mountainside ahead. The steep
slope was covered with stunted trees, and the timberline lay not far above them.
"We have to go around this and then down the other side. It's only a couple of
miles. Let's go ahead."
Silk nodded and led out again.
They rounded the shoulder of the mountain and looked down into a deep gorge that
separated them from the peak they had crossed two days before. The rain had
slackened with the approach of evening, and Garion could see the other side of
the gorge clearly. It was not more than half a mile away, and his eyes caught a
movement near the rim. "What's that?" He pointed.
Mister Wolf brushed the ice out of his beard. "I was afraid of that."
"What?"
"It's an Algroth."
With a shudder of revulsion, Garion remembered the scaly, goatfaced apes that
had attacked them in Arendia. "Hadn't we better run?" he asked.
"It can't get to us," Wolf replied. "The gorge is at least a mile deep. The
Grolims have turned their beasts loose, though. It's something we're going to
have to watch out for." He motioned for them to continue.
Faintly, distorted by the wind that blew perpetually down the yawning gorge,
Garion could hear the barking yelps of the Algroth on the far side as it
communicated with the rest of its pack. Soon a dozen of the loathsome creatures
were scampering along the rocky rim of the gorge, barking to one another and
keeping pace with the party as they rode around the steep mountain face toward a
shallow draw on the far side. The draw led away from the gorge; after a mile,
they stopped for the night in the shelter of a grove of scrubby spruces.
It was colder the next morning and still cloudy, but the rain had stopped. They
rode on back down to the mouth of the draw and continued following the rim of
the gorge. The face on the other side fell away in a sheer, dizzying drop for
thousands of feet to the tiny-looking ribbon of the river at the bottom. The
Algroths still kept pace with them, barking and yelping and looking across with
a dreadful hunger. There were other things as well, dimly seen back among the
trees on the other side. One of them, huge and shaggy, seemed even to have a
human body, but its head was the head of a beast. A herd of swift-moving animals
galloped along the fir rim, manes and tails tossing.
"Look," Ce'Nedra exclaimed, pointing. "Wild horses."
"They're not horses," Hettar said grimly.
"They look like horses."
"They may look like it, but they aren't."
"Hrulgin," Mister Wolf said shortly.
"What's that?"
"A Hrulga is a four-legged animal-like a horse-but it has fangs instead of
teeth, and clawed feet instead of hooves."
"But that would mean-" The princess broke off, her eyes wide.
"Yes. They're meat-eaters."
She shuddered. "How dreadful."
"That gorge is getting narrower, Belgarath," Barak growled. "I'd rather not have
any of those things on the same side with us."
"We'll be all right. As I remember, it narrows down to about a hundred yards and
then widens out again. They won't be able to get across."
"I hope your memory hasn't failed you."
The sky above looked ragged, tattered by a gusty wind. Vultures soared and
circled over the gorge, and ravens flapped from tree to tree, croaking and
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squawking to one another. Aunt Pol watched the birds with a look of stern
disapproval, but said nothing.
They rode on. The gorge grew narrower, and soon they could see the brutish faces
of the Algroths on the other side clearly. When the Hrulgin, manes tossing in
the wind, opened their mouths to whinny to each other, their long, pointed teeth
were plainly visible.
Then, at the narrowest point of the gorge, a party of mail-skirted Murgos rode
out onto the opposite precipice. Their horses were lathered from hard riding,
and the Murgos themselves were gaunt-faced and travel-stained. They stopped and
waited until Garion and his friends were opposite them. At the very edge,
staring first across the gorge and then down at the river far below, stood
Brill.
"What kept you?" Silk called in a bantering tone that had a hard edge just below
the surface. "We thought perhaps you'd gotten lost."
"Not very likely, Kheldar," Brill replied. "How did you get across to that
side?"
"You go back that way about four days' ride," Silk shouted, pointing back the
way they had come. "If you look very carefully, you'll find the canyon that
leads up here. It shouldn't take you more than a day or two to find it."
One of the Murgos pulled a short bow out from beneath his left leg and set an
arrow to it. He pointed the arrow at Silk, drew back the string and released.
Silk watched the arrow calmly as it fell down into the gorge, spinning in a
long, slow-looking spiral. "Nice shot," he called.
"Don't be an idiot," Brill snapped at the Murgo with the bow. He looked back at
Silk. "I've heard a great deal about you, Kheldar," he said.
"One has developed a certain reputation," Silk replied modestly.
"One of these days I'll have to find out if you're as good as they say."
"That particular curiosity could be the first symptom of a fatal disease."
"For one of us, at least."
"I look forward to our next meeting, then," Silk told him. "I hope you'd excuse
us, my dear fellow - pressing business, you know."
"Keep an eye out behind you, Kheldar," Brill threatened. "One day I'll be
there."
"I always keep an eye out behind me, Kordoch," Silk called back, "so don't be
too surprised if I'm waiting for you. It's been wonderful chatting with you.
We'll have to do it again-soon."
The Murgo with the bow shot another arrow. It followed his first into the gorge.
Silk laughed and led the party away from the brink of the precipice. "What a
splendid fellow," he said as they rode away. He looked up at the murky sky
overhead. "And what an absolutely beautiful day."
The clouds thickened and grew black as the day wore on. The wind picked up until
it howled among the trees. Mister Wolf led them away from the gorge which
separated them from Brill and his Murgos, moving steadily toward the northeast. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]