it to the water. Still yelling, Gurgi ran to aid him. Prince Rhun toiled as best he could to help. The bard had already splashed into the stream, where he stood hip-deep in the current and heaved at the branches.
Llyan's tufted ears cupped forward and her whiskers twitched as her glance fell on the bard. From her throat arose not a savage roar but a bell-like, questioning cry. Eyes shining with a strange glow, she loped forward on huge padded paws. Purring loudly, the mountain cat made straight for the frantic bard.
'Great Belin!' cried Fflewddur. 'She wants me back again!'
It was then that Kaw, perched on a low branch, beat his wings and launched himself against Llyan. Squawking and croaking at the top of his voice, the crow swooped down on the astonished beast. Llyan stopped in her tracks and roared angrily. Flying at full speed, Kaw passed within a hair's breadth of Llyan's mighty head, striking out with his wings and pecking at her with his sharp beak.
Taken by surprise, Llyan fell back on her haunches and turned to face the crow. Kaw veered in a tight circle and swooped again. Llyan sprang into the air, claws unsheathed and slashing. Taran cried in dismay as a cloud of feathers floated downward, but an instant later he saw the crow still aloft and plunging again toward Llyan. Dancing in front of her like a large black hornet, Kaw jabbered impudently as though daring the beast to catch him, flapped his wings in,her face, and sped away once more. At his next dive, which brought him so close that Llyan's teeth snapped shut on one of his tail feathers, Kaw seized and tweaked a curling whisker.
Yowling furiously, forgetting the bard and the struggling companions, Llyan raced after the crow who flapped from the riverbank into the woods. Llyan followed, and her roars echoed among the trees.
With a final heave, the companions flung the raft into the river and scrambled aboard. The current snatched and spun the craft, nearly capsizing it before Taran could thrust a pole into the water. Fflewddur and Gurgi fended the raft off a threatening boulder. Prince Rhun, drenched to the skin, paddled desperately with his hands. In another moment the raft righted itself and the companions skimmed rapidly downstream.
Fflewddur, whose face had turned deathly pale, gave a sigh of relief. 'I feared she had me for sure! Believe me, I couldn't stand another bout of harping like the last one! I hope Kaw fares well,' he added anxiously.
'Kaw will find us again,' Taran assured him. 'He's clever enough to stay out of Llyan's reach until he knows we're safe. If she keeps chasing him, I'm certain she'll have the worst of the battle.'
Fflewddur nodded, then turned and glanced back over his shoulder. 'In a way,' he said, with a note of regret in his voice, 'it's the first time my music has really been? ah? in a manner of speaking, sought after. In this case, if it weren't so dangerous, I should call it downright complimentary!'
'I say,' called Prince Rhun, crouching at the front of the raft, 'I don't mean to complain after all the work you've done, but I think something's breaking loose.'
Taran, busy steering, glanced down in alarm. The hurriedly knotted vines had begun to give way. The raft shuddered in the swift current. With the pole, Taran thrust deeply for the river bottom, seeking to bring the raft to a halt. The current bore it onward and the branches bent and twisted as the water poured through the gaps. One of the vines parted, a branch ripped free, then another. Throwing aside the useless pole, Taran shouted for the companions to jump clear. Seizing Prince Rhun by the jacket, he sprang into the river.
As the water closed over his head, Prince Rhun kicked and struggled wildly. Taran tightened his grasp on the floundering Prince and fought his way to the surface. With a free hand he clung to a boulder and gained a foothold among the shifting stones. Heaving with all his strength, he dragged Rhun ashore and flung him to the bank.
Gurgi and Fflewddur had managed to catch hold of what remained of the raft and were hauling it into the shallows. Prince Rhun sat up and looked around.
'That's the closest I've ever been to drowning,' he gasped. 'I've often wondered what it was like, though now I don't think I'd care to know.'
'Drowning?' said Fflewddur, staring at the wreckage of the craft. 'Worse than that! All our labor has gone for naught.'
Taran rose wearily to his feet. 'Most of the branches can be used. We'll cut more vines and start again.'
The discouraged companions turned to the task of repairing the raft, now strewn in pieces along the bank. The work went more slowly than before, for the trees grew sparser here and vines were scarce.
The Prince of Mona had made his way to a clump of osiers, and Taran glimpsed him tugging away, trying to uproot them. The next instant, Rhun was no longer in sight.
With a shout of alarm, Taran dropped his armload of vines and ran toward the spot, calling Rhun's name.
The bard looked up. 'Not again!' he cried. 'If there were a field with one stone he'd trip over it! A Fflam is patient, but there are limits!' Nevertheless, he hurried to join Taran, who was already kneeling among the osiers.
At the spot where Rhun had been standing was a gaping hole. The Prince of Mona had vanished.
Chapter 10
The Cavern
HEEDLESS OF FFLEWDDUR'S warning shout, Taran leaped into the pit and slid quickly past a mesh of torn roots. The hole widened a little, then dropped straight. Calling for the bard to lower a length of vine, he let himself fall, then scrambled to his feet and struggled to lift up the unconscious Rhun, who was bleeding heavily from a gash at the side of his head.
The end of the vine dangled from above. Taran seized and lashed it securely under the Prince's arms, shouting for Fflewddur and Gurgi to pull him up. The vine tautened, strained? and snapped. Earth and stones showered from the raw sides of the hole.
'Beware!' Taran cried. 'The ground is giving way!'
'Afraid you're right,' Fflewddur called back. 'In that case, I think we'd better give you a hand from down there.'
Taran saw the soles of Fflewddur's boots plunge toward him. The bard landed with a grunt, and Gurgi, whose hair looked as though it had scraped away most of the dirt from the hole, tumbled after.
Prince Rhun's eyelids fluttered. 'Hullo, hullo!' he murmured. 'What happened? Those roots were surprisingly deep!'
'The land must be eaten away along the riverbank,' Taran said. 'When you pulled, the strain and weight opened up this hole. Never fear,' he added quickly, 'we'll soon have you out. Help us to turn you. Can you move at all?'
The Prince nodded, gritted his teeth, and, with the companions lifting him, began painfully clambering up the side of the pit. But he had gone no more than halfway when he lost his handhold. Taran scrambled to block his fall. Rhun clutched wildly at a root and hung poised a moment in mid-air.
The root tore free and Rhun plummeted downward. The wall of earth rumbled as the pit collapsed around them. Taran flung up his arms against the rush of soil and shale. He was thrown down, the ground cracked at his feet, fell away, and left him spinning in nothingness.
A violent shock stunned him. Loose earth filled his nose and mouth. Lungs bursting, he fought against the weight pressing the life from him. It was only then he realized he had stopped falling. His head still reeled, but he twisted and clawed his way through dirt and pebbles. He heaved himself upward, breathing once again.
Gasping and trembling, he dropped at full length on a sloping, rocky floor, in darkness so deep it seemed to suffocate him. At last regaining strength enough to lift his head, he tried vainly to peer through the shadows that filled his eyes. He called to the companions, but no answer came. His voice rang with a strange, hollow echo. In despair, he shouted once more.
'Hullo, hullo!' called another voice.
'Prince Rhun!' Taran cried. 'Where are you?m Are you safe?'
'I don't know,' answered the Prince. 'If I could see better, I could tell you better.'
Raising himself to hands and knees, Taran crawled forward. His groping fingers met a shaggy mass that stirred and whimpered.
'Terrible, oh terrible!' moaned Gurgi. 'Rumblings and crumblings fling poor Gurgi into fearsome blackness. He cannot see!'
'Great Belin,' came Fflewddur's voice out of the dark, 'I'm delighted to hear that. For a moment I thought I'd
