The Prize in the Game by Jo Walton Read Free Book Online Page B

would. I'd happily give it to you and have it be you who hit the swan and you that Rhianna spoke to. It's as if everything I do has significance beyond anything I would want for it. I can't just come out and kill an animal and go back a man, something has to happen to make it special. It's as if nothing of my life belongs to me and all of it is tied to something
    else. It's as if I don't have any choices. Everything I do is ringed about with strangeness. I saw a target and went for it and I could have got Ferdia killed." He sounded completely despairing.
    "Ap Fathag saidmdash" Erner began, but Conal raised a hand and she fell silent.
    "Any of us could have done the same," Conal said. "But speaking to the gods ismdash"
    "It was because he killed the swan," Leary said. "He's the king's nephew, we all are, she would have spoken to any of us if we'd killed it. I didn't even throw, impossible shot from where I was. You missed, lost your spear. Darag hit it, we all fought the Guardian, whatever it was.
    When we did well enough against her she relented, spoke to Darag to tell him what he did so he wouldn't do it again. That's all."
    "And I'm all right," Ferdia said to Darag, as reassuringly as he could. "Really I am." Darag came nearer and embraced him wordlessly. Ferdia hugged him back, as if they were family.
    "Did we kill it?" Nid asked. "Or do we have to go and look for something else?"
    "Emer killed it, but it counts for all of us," Conal said doggedly. "The same as it would in a boar hunt."
    "No head," Leary said briefly, looking around as if hoping to find one. "Supposed to show the head in the hall."
    "They will have to take our word," Emer said.
    Conal laughed suddenly. "Yes, they will. After all, would they accuse all of us of jumping in a duck pond to muddy our clothes and making up a story about it?" He bowed to Emer and took her arm to escort her out of the water, for all the world as if they were going in to dinner.
    Ferdia shook his head at Darag. "Will they believe us?" he asked.
    "They'll have to," Darag said fiercely.
    In the end, it didn't matter, because a herd of deer crossed their path on the way out of the wood so they had venison enough to feast all King's Hall.
    2
    THE FEAST OF BEL
    5
    (CONAL)
    Conal feinted high and thrust low. Emer blocked smoothly, then signalled a stop. They both stepped back.
    The grass behind the smithy was flattened in a rough circle. They had been coming here to practice alone for half a month now. It was as private a place as there was in reach of Ardmachan. Conal had found it three years ago. The willow-bordered stream ran out of the trees and alongside the low stone smithy. This patch was one of the very few pieces of land outside the dun bare of trees and not planted with crops. The smith kept a cow, but she did not mind her pasture being trampled. And the smith didn't mind the noise, he always made enough himself. Conal had come to an arrangement with the smith. When the cow was ready, he would bring his father's great bull down to her, and this kept the smith in milk and cheese and meat, or even profit if it should be a heifer that he could trade. The smith was well pleased with this bargain, always greeted
    Page 21

    Conal kindly and sometimes even brought him out a cup of milk on hot days. Amagien knew nothing about it, but it suited Conal very well. Inside the dun, there was plenty of room for practicing. But inside the dun, there were also the others.
    "What's wrong?" Conal asked. She couldn't be tired already. She wasn't even breathing hard.
    "Nothing," she said. "Just getting my balance a moment. You're right about how different it is using the blades."
    "I'm not going to hurt you," he said. He wouldn't have agreed to it if he wasn't sufficiently confident of his control of the sword. He had always been told never to practice steel against steel, but Emer had wanted to so much, and he knew he could stop in time.
    She laughed. "Of course not." Conal felt a sudden wave of