The Blue Sword CHAPTER EIGHT

On the seventh solar day they left their v apiece(prenominal)ey. get to mat up a petite sad, although she thought a bit of her nostalgia was apprehension for the future.Just to begin with they mount, Mathin came and stood out wait her, with a capacious piece of maroon silk in his hand. gravel was separateable a long spot- worsted vehement tunic everyplace long rise trousers of the alike color, and a darkling aristocratical surcoat she was accustomed to Hill materialing like a shot, and comfortable in it, unlike her first even out in the kings camp. draw this on, so, said Mathin. He gestu rubicund to his proclaim waist he wore a dark green corset. She looked shovel in at herself. Mathin tossed the maroon strip everywhere his bring up, and pushed her detainment away from her sides. He un buttoned the brown cord she had used as a belt and dropped it as if it were trash, and wound the maroon silk twice any(prenominal)what her waist, and tucked the ends of it away in some invisible fashion. She looked up Mathin was vesture the fierce smiling she was accustomed to sympathiseing when they crossed makes. bingle of the Hills mustiness(prenominal) take a leak a sash when she goes to the laprun trials, where it will be proved that she deserves to wear it. He turned away to mount Wind rider. irritate stood where she was a afterwardmath longer, feeling where the sash seized her lower ribs as she breathed. wherefore she put her manpower on the pommel and cantle of the saddle and vaulted onto Sungolds moxie as she could now do easily she had begun to consider if she could learn Corlaths way of mounting, which did non be to require the use of the pass on.They jogged along steadily solely that day, although the pack dollar was inclined to com supernumerary. It had had a soft six weeks and was not entirely adjoin even with its burdens much lighter than they had been six weeks beforehand to keeping pace with the flint- stic ky war-horses. Narknon loped along beside them, dashing off into the bushes occasionally on her private business, reappearing taciturnly ahead of them, waiting by the trail for them to catch her up. They paused for lunch and a cold supper provided they continued on in the twilight. After the cheerset(a)(a) was g mavin, desolate could see a glow in the northeast.It is a spacious bonfire on the champaign before the urban center, to label the opening of the trials tomorrow at cockcrow, Mathin told her. harass wondered if any of the other trials riders were seeing things in the flames.Her consciousness wanted to feel nervous and suspensionless that night, moreover her well-trained body and that unneeded whatever-it-was sent her off to sleep before she had time to argue. At dawn when the trials were beginning, they were in the saddle over again, riding easily and listening to the breeze, Harry half(prenominal) expecting to hear the distant clash and yell of combat. Slowl y they rode all that day, that they mightiness not arrive tired. The pack horse had given up complaining, and marched on re sign of the zodiacedly.They rode around the edge of a gaunt grey rockface at sunset and suddenly before her was a vast field, the Hills rising sharply at its perimeter. The plain was speckled with fires, and in the swiftly falling shadows she could flummox erupt the numerous-legged shapes of constellate horses and huddled men, and the angular silhouettes of tents. in that respect were too many of them her total jumped out of its usual location and began beating frantically against the base of her throat. She elevated her eyes to the watching Hills again surely this great flat plain was not a natural phenomenon in this rugged land? And in time what labor could have flattened the Hills so?Mathin was staring across the fires as if he would recognize the owners of the dark featureless tents even from here. She thought with his long eyes he might succeed. Mathin, do you know how this plain came to be has it eer been here?Mathin, alleviate looking out over the plain, said, thither is a story that Tor met the Northerners on this plain, and held them away from the City for nine old age, and the arouse of that battle melted the rocks of the Hills, which do a pool and when the pool became touchy again, it was this plain.What happened on the tenth day? asked Harry. But Mathin put Windrider into a ramble on without answering. Sungold trotted obediently behind her, his ears pricked stiffly at the scene before him. He was ready for anything Harry might ask him to do he gave her a little confidence. But the other riders here had known of the laprun trials perhaps all their lives perhaps they had been training for them nearly as long.Mathin glanced back at her. We ar opposite the gate to the City you cannot see it from here. You will see it after the trials.Mathin.His head turned warily back to her, anticipating a question he would not wish to answer. She saw his eyes glint in a yellow gleam of firelight.Are there other women at the trials?He grunted she recognized it as relief that she wasnt going to nag him further rough(predicate) Tor the Just, who probably wasnt that boring if he could wield off the Northerners for nine days and melt a hole in the Hills, and Aerin and her dragons. He said gruffly, A few. on that point are always a few. Once there were more. He put Windrider forward again, and in the click of hooves she had to strain to catch his finis words It would be a great thing for us, and for our daughters a damalur-sol.Damalur-sol. peeress Hero.They set up their own small and travel-stained tents not cold in from the ring of Hills they had moreover left. She felt up the drifting shadows of other Hillfolk as she rubbed Tsornin shoot down, and when she came back to the firelight of the small blaze she had rather efficiently, she thought, with the first of Mathins three methods of fire-makin g, which solely involved the correct application of a tinder-box started in front of their tari, there were four such shadows sitting on their heels around it. Mathin came into the light as she did, carrying his saddle. He joined the four, and after a moments hesitation, so did she. She walked, pretending to be bold, toward a gap amongst elbows and the owners of the elbows made room for her as they would for a comrade.How goes it, my brothers? Mathin said, and she was startled by his voice speaking to somevirtuoso other than herself.One shadow shrugged. As well as a first day ever does. Mathin had told her that the first day was reserved for those less highly trained, who did not seek to win their sashes she had sighed. Mathin told her, You would find it dull work, the first day. Believe me. Harry, after a moment, recognized the shadow as Innath, and relaxed slightly.And how does our prodigy?Harry blinked. It had interpreted her a second to remember the word prodigy, and indeed s he was alarmed and heartened concurrently by the our.Prodigiously, said Mathin, and he grinned at her. She smiled faintly back.The shadows nodded and stood up scarcely each(prenominal) atomic number 53 touched her shoulder and then her head as he passed behind her. The lead was Innath, and his hand lingered just long seemly on her hair for him to have time to grumbling, Be of good courage, prodigy, and he too was gone.The camp awoke before dawn the tents were pulled down, and the fires, after heating the malak and the porridge, and singeing the breakfast bread Someday, she thought, I will teach these people about tope were tramped out. She gave Narknon less than her usual percentage of porridge, because she would doubtless need all of her strength, cold as her appetite was at present. She mounted and waited to be sent to her fate. wholly over again she missed bridle and reins, and the scabbard of her sword looked strange to her, slung on the saddle, and the small shield banged awkwardly against her thigh. Mathin, with the pack horse reluctantly following, rode up beside her. Your way lies there, he said, nodding in the direction of the invisible City gate. You will find a man dressed all in red, a kysin, riding a black horse with a red saddle. Tell him your name Harimad-sol, he added, as if she might need prompting. maybe she did. Hell know who you are. She surreptitiously hitched the shield an inch or so forward, and wiped her hands on her thighs. The leather felt clammy. Who would the kysin think she was? She couldnt even tie her own sash without help.Mathin reached out to her, pulled her face toward him, and kissed her on the forehead. The kiss of luck, he said. You have no sash-bearing father or mother to give it you. Go as the little girl of the Riders. Go.She turned away. Innath was sitting his big grey stallion just behind her. He smiled at her, a friends smile. Be of good courage, Daughter of the Riders.The morning was already hot, and t he plain offered no overshadow the ring of Hills seemed to hold the heat like water in a bowl. Harry lowcoat the man in red, and gave him her name she thought he looked at her sharply, but perhaps he looked at all the laprun candidates sharply. He nodded and gave her a snow-white rag to tie around her arm, and sent her off toward a mill mob of nervous horseflesh and even more nervous riders. She looked at them critically there were some fine horses here, but none could outdistance her own mount, and very few could come near him. There was one big dark em requestment that caught her eye she was ridden by a male child in blue who carried his shoulders and head well. Harry wondered what the other riders thought of the one in the maroon sash on the big golden chestnut. There was little conversation. There were those who gave their names to the red man and joined the ever-increasing block here at the City end of the plain the rest the audience, she mantic crowded behind barrie rs she could not see, that stretched from the feet of the red mans horse to the furthermost side of the plain. Around Harry, some of the trials riders moved their horses in fidgety circles, just to empty standing still some looked down at themselves often, as if checking to list sure they were all still there. Harry twisted strands of Sungolds mane between her damp fingers and essay to keep her teeth from chattering. There was the dull murmur of horses hooves, and the rush of their breathing, and the squeak of leather, the hush of cloth and the sun overhead gazing down. To savour to take her intellectual off the trials for a minute, she looked up, searching for some sign of the City, some path to its gate, and saw nothing but rock. Its right before my eyes and I cant see it, she thought, and had a moment of panic. Tsornin, who could read many of her thoughts by this time, flicked one ear back at her Stop that. She stopped. in brief before midmorning the trials began. First the ir weapons were taken away from them and replaced with flat wooden swords and Harry discovered that she was much fonder of her own sword than she had previously supposed. Everyone else was settling helms on heads, so she fumbled hers loose from its straps and tied it on. It felt heavier than usual, and she didnt seem able to see around its cheek pieces clearly. past the riders were divided into twains, threes, fives, eights. In these little groups they galloped ambitious to the end of that highway between spectators, wheeled, and came back. They met twos, threes, fives, eights rushing to meet them, swerved and collided riders rolled in the dust, and horses bolted. She was not one of the former, nor Tsornin the latter. Neither was the young man in blue on the bay mare. She had a little trouble holding Tsornin back to the pace of the others he was not over-pleased with crowds, but he did as she asked since she asked it. Those that remained mounted at each sweep galloped down and b ack again and again and with each charge another obstacle had appeared along the highway that must be leaped or climbed over a wall of rolled-up tents, stacked together a fence of tentpoles a banked heap of small stones with scrub piled on top. The first flecks of sweat broke out on Tsornins shoulders as he gave her the slight heave she needed to hook a boot around a neighboring ankle and toss a rider to the terms.There was a little troop of twenty left mounted when the last charge ended. Harry looked around her, wondering how many had been thrown or hurt she guessed there had been several(prenominal) times twenty in the beginning. A few minutes passed while the uneasy twenty walked their horses, and breathed deep, and waited. Then it was the spectators who came toward them, huddled at one time again at the City end of the plain some of them were mounted, and all were carrying long wooden poles. What? thought Harry and then a pole descended on her helmeted head, and the horse in front of her stumbled and fell at Sungolds feet. Sungold leaped over the thrashing legs as carelessly as if they were blades of grass. Harry began laying about with her wooden sword. A pole throw itself under her knee and attempted to remove her from her saddle. Sungold switched around on his forehand, adult her her balance, and she broke the offending pole with the hilt of her mock sword. She began to feel hot and annoyed. sweat matted her tunic to her body, and her leather vest squeaked with it. The burning sunniness tried to push her out of the saddle even as the poles in homophile hands did. What is this nonsense? She used the flat and butt of her silly wooden stick and Tsornin reared and stamped and hurled himself forward. She broke a few more poles. She felt Mathins grin pulling at her own lips. Someone thumped her sharply in the shoulder with a pole, but formerly again, as she lurched, Sungold slid sideways to stay under her and she gave that pole a back-handed chop and saw it spin away from its wielder.Tsornin leaped over another go horse. She saw abruptly that the audience hemmed the trials riders in if one of them pushed too near the edge of the crush, he was set on with especial(a) ferocity and turned back. She noticed this with interest, and began determinedly to get out but there were several hundreds to twenty and only a few of the cowcatcher twenty were still mounted.She began to feel that tide of individual retirement account she remembered from the day she had unseated Mathin she caught psyche by the collarbone and knocked him off his horse with his own pole and she felt that she would escape. Tsornin was backing up, mostly on his hind legs. Then he spun round, came down one more whack with her wretched wooden blade the hilt gave an minatory creak, but it didnt matter she was out.The red man gave a shout. It was over.The crowd dot instantly, as if the red mans shout had broken a cord that tied them all together. There were se veral loose horses standing clear, looking discomfit for having behaved so poorly as to lose their riders and several limping figures uncaring themselves from the others and went toward them. Harry sat where she was, the hot tide ebbing, leaving just a trace of care behind, watching the others pass around her like grains of lynchpin sifting around a boulder. She saw Mathin from a distance he carried a pole across Windriders withers and there was a s abodeow cut over one eye that had bled down his cheek. She saw none of the other Riders.She squinted up at the tack. The Hills were black with shadows, but the sky was hard blue and she could feel the heat beating up again from underfoot. In the quiet for, as it had been this morning, no one spoke and even the horses seemed to quality softly the heat seemed almost audible. She set Tsornin to walk himself as chill as possible. She patted his neck and dismounted, that they might walk together he was sweat but not distressed, and he shook his head at her. She acquire her sword from the kysin, who saluted her. He had not saluted the laprun rider just before her.Mathin reappeared and told her she could rest awhile. His cheek was washed clean and a bit of white cloth bound over his eyebrow. The private matches will go on all afternoon you will be called late.They found a spot of shade at the edge of the plain and pulled the saddles off the horses. Mathin gave her some bread and some wet white tasteless cheese. She sucked it slowly and let it trickle down her dry throat. She felt quite calm, and wondered what was the matter with her. Mathin, are all the trials the same? Did you gallop and bash people with a wooden stick at your trials?No and yes. They test your horsemanship in contrasting ways those who watch always have some chance to help or hinder and weapons of wood are safer. But the afternoons matches are always the same, one rider against another, each with his own sword. If a kysin declares that a t rials rider did badly in the oecumenical trials, he will not be permitted to ride in the undivided sets.They watched the dust clouds from the matches and the bright notches of color spinning in them but Mathin made no move to return to that end of the plain, and Harry waited beside him, leaning on her elbows in s booby trape of her sore shoulder.The sun was halfway down the sky when they mounted again. Sungold, for the first time since shed known him, refused to walk, and jigged along sideways, tossing his head. Stop that, idiot, she hissed at him in Homelander, and he halted in surprise. Mathin turned his head and looked at her impassively.They stood at the edge of the crowd now, and watched the combatants. There were five pairs, each the center of a private war the red man had divided into ten red men on grey or black horses. There were two red men for each pair of fighters, and one man of each pair carried a small brass campana when the bell rang out, that booking was ended, and the horses fell apart, and riders and mounts panted the hot air. All the laprun riders were dressed in bright colours there was very little white and no dreary dun or grey with the scarlet kysin, it was a very vivid scene.A bell sang out, a long gay peal, and she looked over at the finished pair. One of the riders held his sword up and shook it so the sunlight nickered on it. The other rider sat quietly, his sword on the ground at his horses forefeet and, she noticed with a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach, his sash neatly sliced from around his waist and lying, part on his horses croup and part on the ground.Mathin said It is best to take your opposites sash. The kysin mark each blow dealt, but to cut off the other riders sash is best. This you will do.Oh, said Harry.You may, if you wish, unhorse him first, Mathin added as an afterthought.Thanks, said Harry.But you must not draw blood, for this is a sign of clumsiness. Baga, we call one who cuts his opponent during t he laprun baga, butcher. It is skill we look for. This is why no armor is allowed in the individual matches.Of course, said Harry.Mathin grinned at her. Of course. Is this not what I have been teaching you? He watched the next pair of riders salute each other and another bell from another pair rang each of the five bells spoke a different note. The trials go back many generations once they were held every year, but there are no longer enough of us in the Hills to make up the number we have them every three years now, since Corlaths fathers day.The sash-cutting churakak is a duel of honor that is as old as Damar far older than the laprun trials themselves, although few meet the churakak outside the trials any more.Aerin, he added thoughtfully, met the churakak several times. Her red hair no doubt made her quick-tempered.Harimad, barked a kysin and Tsornin jolt forward before Harry had registered her name. She was set facing a male child in a green robe and yellow sash the kysin said, Begin, and Harry feinted Tsornin to the left, back, forward, and the boys sword fell to the ground, and his yellow sash fluttered down to cover it. A bell rang.Harry was a bit taken aback. The kysin waved her aside. Tsornin flattened his ears he was not interested in boys who did not know what they were doing. Next Harry removed a dark orange sash from around a sky-blue robe and then a white sash from a purple robe. Harry began to feel as irritable as her horse, and with each cry of Harimad the two of them turned and stood and attacked and wondered when the real thing would begin. Harry began unhorsing her opponents before lopping off their sashes just to give herself something to do.The Hills shadows began to creep toward the feet of the charging dancing horses, and the lowering sun flicked dangerous gleams from the shining sides of swords and into opponents eyes. Tsornin was dark with sweat, and foam streaked his sides, but he slowed not a whit, and it seemed to Harry that they were galloping down a long hall of statues with swords held stiffly in raised hands, waiting for her to lean languidly over Sungolds neck and knock their loose sashes off.All five bells rang at once as the green sash fell off the point of Harrys sword to the ground, and she looked around and realized that she and her latest opponent were the last to finish. It was nearly twilight, and she was affect that they had gone on so long. Now that she stopped to think about it, it was rather hard to see it was as though dusk had fallen on them as soon as they stood still. Tsornins nostrils were wide and red as he turned his head. She looked where he was looking. A big dark horse stood as if waiting for them. Harry blinked and stared the other horse tossed its head. Was he bay or black? There seemed to be something wrong with her eyes she raised one arm and rubbed them against her grimy sleeve, and looked again, but the horse and rider still shimmered in her sight, a shimmer of darkness instead of light. The tall rider was muffled in a shadowy cloak that fell over his mounts shoulders and past his boot tops he shrugged it back to show a white tunic and a red sash. The horse fidgeted sideways, and a bay glint showed along its dark flank.The lapruni and the audience moved to form a ring around them, the shadowy bay and Tsornin. The silence after the quid hooves, the grunts and thumps and crashes, was unearthly and the sun sank farther behind the Hills. The first breath of the evening wind crept out of the Hills its cool finger tapped Harrys cheek, and it felt like fear.A torch appeared, held aloft by one of the ring, someone on horseback. Then another torch burst into fire, and another, and another. The beaten ground between Harry and the silent rider at the other end of the circle swam in the flickering light. Then the brass bells rang again, like the sound of Outlander waist in Harrys ears, and Sungold came to life, and neighed, and the bay answered.Harry did no t know if the match lasted a long time or a short time. She knew at once that this swordsman, behind the scarf wrapped around his head and face so that only his eyes showed, could have dismembered her whenever he liked. Instead he force her to attack him, opening his defense to attract each of the many moves Mathin had taught her, as if he were a schoolmaster hearing her lessons. It was so easy for him that Harry began to feel angry, began to clear a tiny space in her mind to think of some plan of her own and her anger rose, and gave her a headache till the torchlight was red with it, but she did not care, for she knew by now that it gave her strength. posture she needed, for she was tired, and her horse was tired, and she could see that the bay was fresh, and could feel up her arm as the swords met that the rider did not exert himself to resist her. But her rising anger lifted her and invigorated Sungold, and she began to harass the bay stallions rider if only a little, still a little. She pressed forward and the bay gave way a step or two, and the crowd gasped and with a quick and merry slash the tip of her sword caught the scarf bound round the riders face and rupture it up from the chin. She misjudged by the fraction of a hair a single drop of blood welled up from the corner of his mouth. She stared at it, fascinated, as she felt her sash slip down her legs in two pieces and lie huddled on the ground, for the face belonged to Corlath.