[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
urged their horses together and rode shoulder to shoulder and flank to flank.
Like all the others, I cast a longing glance behind me as we entered the wood and saw the same look of
sick apprehension on one face after another. But there was nothing for it. We clutched our weapons
more tightly and hunched lower in the saddle as if to escape notice of the tight-crowded trees.
Keeping my eyes on Myrddin and Arthur ahead of me, I remained alert to the sounds around me, but
there was little to hear; a thick mat of pine needles cushioned the horses' hooves, and the men made no
sound at all. Neither was any birdsong heard - nothing, in fact, but the incessant clicking, and the hush of
muffled breath passing into the dank, dark air.
As to the ceaseless clicking and clicking and clicking, after a time I discovered what created that
unsettling sound: the wind twitching the bare upper branches. Fitful and gusty, the wind did not penetrate
the forest at all, but continually mumbled and fretted overhead, stirring uneasily in the high treetops and
making the thin branches quiver. So close were these limbs and so entangled, they chattered against one
another in endless motion. Even this, however, did not strike the ear with any vigour, but reached us as a
faint muttering falling from high above, sinking down and down into the soft forest floor below.
The forest swallowed everything that came into it - sunlight and wind, and now the Pendragon and his
warband. Everyone who conies into a woodland wild feels something of this oppressive enclosing; it is
what causes a traveller to skirt the shadows and stay to the trail, proceeding with wary caution. What is
more, this uncanny sensation seemed to increase with every step deeper into the wood until it took on an
almost suffocating aspect, becoming a thing of towering proximity and ponderous weight.
We came upon a stream - little more than a muddy rivulet dividing the trail - and stopped to water the
horses, taking it in turn by twos, and then moving on to allow those behind to get at the water. We rode a
fair way farther, whereupon Arthur halted the columns, turned his horse, and sat looking down the long
double line of warriors. Without a word, Myrddin rode down the centre, passing between the warriors.
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'What do you see, lord?' I asked, turning in the saddle to learn what held his attention.
'It is what I am not seeing that causes me concern,' the king replied, still gazing back along the trail.
The trees along each side and the branches thickly interwoven above made of our trail a shadowy tunnel,
like the entry shaft of a cave or mine. The Cymbrogi, riding close to one another, sat their horses,
awaiting the call to move on. Owing to the dimness of the light and the narrowness of the trail, I could not
see past more than twelve or fifteen riders as I looked down the line. Yet I could discern nothing amiss.
I was about to say as much when Myrddin shouted something and came pounding back along the trail to
join us.
'Well?' said the king.
'I cannot see them,' Myrddin replied. 'They should have rejoined us by now.'
Only then did I realize what they were talking about. The fifteen or so pairs that I saw behind us were,
indeed, all that remained of the long double column. The others were not lost to the shadows - they were
gone completely. Obviously, we had become separated from the rest of the warhost. The warband led
by Bedwyr and Cador had vanished.
'Lord, allow me to ride back and find out what has happened,' I volunteered. 'No doubt meet them
before I have gone a hundred paces.'
'Very well,' Arthur agreed, 'but take Rhys with you - let him signal us when you have reached them. We
will wait for you here.'
I returned to my horse and informed Rhys of the king's command as I swung into the saddle. We passed
down the line of warriors and back along the trail. I counted thirteen pair: twenty-six warriors out of fifty,
I thought, and wondered what had become of the rest. Could twenty-four mounted warriors simply
disappear? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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urged their horses together and rode shoulder to shoulder and flank to flank.
Like all the others, I cast a longing glance behind me as we entered the wood and saw the same look of
sick apprehension on one face after another. But there was nothing for it. We clutched our weapons
more tightly and hunched lower in the saddle as if to escape notice of the tight-crowded trees.
Keeping my eyes on Myrddin and Arthur ahead of me, I remained alert to the sounds around me, but
there was little to hear; a thick mat of pine needles cushioned the horses' hooves, and the men made no
sound at all. Neither was any birdsong heard - nothing, in fact, but the incessant clicking, and the hush of
muffled breath passing into the dank, dark air.
As to the ceaseless clicking and clicking and clicking, after a time I discovered what created that
unsettling sound: the wind twitching the bare upper branches. Fitful and gusty, the wind did not penetrate
the forest at all, but continually mumbled and fretted overhead, stirring uneasily in the high treetops and
making the thin branches quiver. So close were these limbs and so entangled, they chattered against one
another in endless motion. Even this, however, did not strike the ear with any vigour, but reached us as a
faint muttering falling from high above, sinking down and down into the soft forest floor below.
The forest swallowed everything that came into it - sunlight and wind, and now the Pendragon and his
warband. Everyone who conies into a woodland wild feels something of this oppressive enclosing; it is
what causes a traveller to skirt the shadows and stay to the trail, proceeding with wary caution. What is
more, this uncanny sensation seemed to increase with every step deeper into the wood until it took on an
almost suffocating aspect, becoming a thing of towering proximity and ponderous weight.
We came upon a stream - little more than a muddy rivulet dividing the trail - and stopped to water the
horses, taking it in turn by twos, and then moving on to allow those behind to get at the water. We rode a
fair way farther, whereupon Arthur halted the columns, turned his horse, and sat looking down the long
double line of warriors. Without a word, Myrddin rode down the centre, passing between the warriors.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
'What do you see, lord?' I asked, turning in the saddle to learn what held his attention.
'It is what I am not seeing that causes me concern,' the king replied, still gazing back along the trail.
The trees along each side and the branches thickly interwoven above made of our trail a shadowy tunnel,
like the entry shaft of a cave or mine. The Cymbrogi, riding close to one another, sat their horses,
awaiting the call to move on. Owing to the dimness of the light and the narrowness of the trail, I could not
see past more than twelve or fifteen riders as I looked down the line. Yet I could discern nothing amiss.
I was about to say as much when Myrddin shouted something and came pounding back along the trail to
join us.
'Well?' said the king.
'I cannot see them,' Myrddin replied. 'They should have rejoined us by now.'
Only then did I realize what they were talking about. The fifteen or so pairs that I saw behind us were,
indeed, all that remained of the long double column. The others were not lost to the shadows - they were
gone completely. Obviously, we had become separated from the rest of the warhost. The warband led
by Bedwyr and Cador had vanished.
'Lord, allow me to ride back and find out what has happened,' I volunteered. 'No doubt meet them
before I have gone a hundred paces.'
'Very well,' Arthur agreed, 'but take Rhys with you - let him signal us when you have reached them. We
will wait for you here.'
I returned to my horse and informed Rhys of the king's command as I swung into the saddle. We passed
down the line of warriors and back along the trail. I counted thirteen pair: twenty-six warriors out of fifty,
I thought, and wondered what had become of the rest. Could twenty-four mounted warriors simply
disappear? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]