Falcons of Narabedla by Marion Zimmer Bradley Read Free Book Online Page A

that because of some bond between the freed Dreamer and myself, I could do this. But again, something outside myself told me what to say. “That bond is broken, Karamy. Did you not break it yourself? How can I guide you then?” And for my reward I saw unsureness leap in her cat’s eyes. That shot had told. Karamy had been guessing, then!
    The answer had shaken her. But this woman was a past mistress at subtlety. She murmured “It can be forged again. That I swear.”
    Ah, but I knew how far to trust even Karamy’s oaths!
    We had dipped down into the bowl of forest and we were riding through thick woods, along a road that struggled windingly, with many curves and sharp corners. Adric knew this country; his knowledge made Mike Kenscott shiver. He had hunted here, and for no fourlegged game. As if Karamy read my thoughts I hear her low laughter. “So. My wrist aches for the feel of a falcon. We’ll hunt here again—soon, you and I!” I was partly bewildered by her words, but they gave me a shivering excitement, an insidious thrill.
    Behind me, I heard Gamine’s chanting take on a new note. The words were still indistinguishable, but the very tune screamed warning. A pulse began to twitch jerkily in my neck.
    Without any warning, the road twisted. Karamy and I spurred our horses and rounded the curve in one swift, racing burst of speed——and were fairly in the trap before we knew it.
    It was the agonized whinny of my horse, and the jolt of my body righting itself automatically from the plunging animal beneath me, that made me realize we had ridden straight on a chevaux-de-frise. I yelled, cursing, shouting to Karamy to get back, get back, but her own momentum carried her on; I saw her light body fly out of the saddle and disappear. The others, rounding the curve in a wild dash, were fairly on the barrier already, and the place was a bedlam, a scramble, with riderless horses milling in a melee of curses and the screaming of women and the threshing of feet. I was out of my saddle in an instant, thrusting Gamine’s mount back from the stabbing points fixed invisibly against the dark barrier in the road, shouting to Evarin and Idris. Evarin leaped to my side, catching at Karamy’s wild horse, while I tore madly at the barrier where the woman had been thrown. Idris bore down on me, mounted. “Go round!” he shouted. I plunged through the underbrush at the side of the road, with hasty feet twice snaked by long creepers. Past the barrier, the road lay open and deserted, and Karamy lay in a shimmer of crumpled silk, motionless. “Gamine, Evarin—” I bellowed, “No one’s here! Quick, Karamy is hurt—”
    The head and shoulders of Idris’ horse thrust through the thick brushwood. “Is she dead?” the dwarf muttered. I bent, thrusting my hand to her breasts. “Her heart’s beating. Only stunned. Get down,” I ordered. Idris scrambled, monkey-fashion, from the saddle. I lifted the woman in my arms, but she did not move or open her eyes. Idris touched my arm.
    â€œPut her on the saddle,” he suggested, and together we laid her across the pommel. Suddenly, the dwarf cried out.
    â€œWhat?” I asked sharply.
    â€œI hear—”
    I never knew what Idris heard. His head vanished, as if snatched away by a giant’s hand; a rough grip collared me, choking fingers clawed at my throat, a thousand rockets went off in my head and I lay sprawling in the brushwood, eating dust, with an elephant sitting on my chest and threatening hands gouging my throat. My last coherent thought before the breath went out of me, was—
    â€œI’m waking up!”

CHAPTER SIX
    Narayan
    But I wasn’t. When I came to—it could only have been a few seconds that I was unconscious—it was to hear Evarin snarling curses and Idris barking incoherently with rage. I heard Karamy screaming my name, and started to answer,