The Harp and the Blade by John Myers Myers Read Free Book Online Page A

me, and I felt much cheered. The hunters would almost unquestionably be glad to share with me after the kill, and I could learn from them all I so much wanted to know about the lay of the land.
    Following the course of the chase by the baying, I nodded contentedly to myself. The quarry should break into the clear shortly.
    Sooner than I expected the quarry did. It was a manhunt. Emotionless with surprise, I watched him wade through the brush and up the hill on a line that would pass me closely. He wasn’t really running any more, though he was still trying. Twice he fell.
    He had a bare sword he was using as a staff, leaning on it heavily as he plodded forward, head down. He was quite near when he first saw me and halted, swaying. He was too tired to have much of a face, but I knew what he was thinking. If I was an enemy the game was up.
    Except that he was big, brown-haired and fairly young I couldn’t tell anything about him. Maybe he was the kind of man who should be chased by dogs, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. “No enemy,” I called.
    He still didn’t move. Needing both mouth and nose for breath, he couldn’t talk, but he pointed at my horse with his empty hand.
    I cursed to myself. A fine animal like the bay could bear double for a while, but unless there was some refuge fairly near the pursuers would catch us, which included me. And if they killed him, as they presumably meant to do, it would be strange if they boggled at killing any ally they found with him.
    A moment passed, and, though with a terrible finality, his arm dropped, he remained where he was. Once he had stopped he couldn’t force himself to go on again. I saw him turn toward his pursuers, waiting.
    Miserable with indecision, I shook my head. Meanwhile the baying of the hounds had taken on a horrible quality, now that I knew what they were after. They would soon be out of the woods, too; and I had better get away from there if I didn’t want to watch the fellow torn down before my eyes. “Oh, well, Hell!” I swore bitterly.
    “Look,” I said after I’d boosted him into the saddle and scrambled up behind, “if you know any good places to go take us to the nearest!”
    I was glad that I had traveled leisurely all afternoon. The bay retained strength enough to carry us, big men both, at a good pace. I looked behind as we started and saw the first dog break out of the trees, nosing the trail. Very likely the hounds would have a difficult time figuring out what had happened to their quarry at the point where he’d mounted. They might have to wait for the men to straighten them out, which would give us a little extra time.
    My unwanted companion appeared to know where he was taking us. I would have liked to know myself, but he had no breath to spare for speech. We cut across fields toward the forest at a long tangent, and my physical discomfort as I bumped along astern of the saddle was only equaled by my uneasiness and disgruntlement. For a man who tried conscientiously to stick to his own concerns I seemed to be getting into an awful lot of trouble.
    The pack cry of the hounds had dissolved into puzzled yelps, but as I looked back for about the fifth time, riders came over the rise. They shouted at the sight of us, the dogs started whooping over the new scent, and the sight hounds rushed to the fore. The bay was doing wonderfully considering the load he was bearing, but they were perceptibly gaining. “Have you any friends close by?” I asked the man in front of me; but he shook his head.
    Reaching the forest, we skirted it while he searched for something. This turned out to be the hardly noticeable remains of a road, and we swung into it, threading through trees whose branches slapped and scraped us. The horse stumbled once and slowed to a canter. We goaded him on, but he never regained his full stride. He wouldn’t be much use to us soon.
    No doubt it wasn’t actually so very long before we emerged into another spacious