to the cyclops. 'I have heard stories that speak of such a herd living to the south of here, near the place where the great plain meets the foothills.'
Rell nodded. 'Your storytellers speak truth. There is time, if we move quickly and prepare.'
'Enough debate, then. Titch and Ergo will remain here with Merith.'
Ergo stepped forward. 'They most certainly will not, I have traveled a long way with you, Colwyn of Eirig, or Turold, or wherever you choose. Perhaps I haven't always lived up to the claims I've made for myself, and I am no seer when it comes to practicing the arcane arts, but I know a few things. That makes me valuable to a party of thickheads like this one.' For once no one took him to task.
'You once said that I had courage. It hasn't deserted me.' He looked around with an amazed expression on his homely face. 'Am I really saying all this? By Krull, the man offers a chance to back out with honor and I'm actually arguing to go with him!' Laughter burst from the assembled thieves.
But when Ergo turned to face Colwyn again, his tone had grown serious. 'It is not your decision to make, Colwyn. I've earned the right to go on with you to the end.'
'The end may be death.'
Ergo shrugged. 'So be it. I've lived a short life but a full one.' He grinned. 'I have experienced the lord of all gooseberry trifles, have consumed the supreme dish. I claim the right to go from dessert to desert.'
Colwyn nodded his approval. 'How can I resist in the face of such brilliant oratory? I concede.'
A small voice sounded from behind Ergo, and Colwyn could see the boy peeping out at him. 'I want to come, too.'
'No, Titch,' Colwyn told him. 'You're too young. Ergo may have lived a short life, but you've lived none at all. It would be wrong to throw away what you don't have.'
'I haven't been in the way. If the seer was still alive,' he hesitated, fighting back tears, 'he'd say that I should go so that I could learn. Besides, Ergo told me that you were my family now.' He looked around at them. 'All of you.'
'It's true that the boy has nowhere else to go,' Ergo pointed out.
Colwyn considered, reluctantly gave in. 'You're right again. All right, Titch, you can come, but stay clear of trouble and mind what you're told.'
'I will, sir,' the boy said solemnly.
They hurried to break camp. Merith moved to embrace Kegan.
'I know that I can't make you come back to me only,' she murmured, 'but if you survive, I ask you to consider it. I'd make you as happy as any one woman could.'
'Be damned if I don't think you're right about that,' he admitted. 'No promises, but I'll think on it.'
She smiled and kissed him. 'That's all I ask.'
The journey was not long and the canyon itself a rainbow of breathtaking shapes and colors, but there was no time for sight-seeing.
Colwyn crawled to the edge of the cliff, stopping only when he could see clearly over the edge. They had no time to waste and there must be no mistakes. Everything had to work perfectly on the first attempt, Rell warned him, or they would have to think of another way to cover the distance between the plains and the Iron Desert. The herd would not give them a second chance.
The cyclops bellied up alongside him. Below lay a narrow canyon, its water-worn tributaries twisting and curving in the moonlight, a valley of sedimentary serpents.
'You must know,' Rell whispered, 'that they can leap any barrier. But they still think and react like any horses. The surprise and shock caused by our trap should make them react without thinking. That is our only ally. If we delay in taking them and give them time to consider their situation, they'll gallop straight out of this canyon despite anything we can do to block them.'
'Everyone knows what he has to do,' Colwyn replied.
'We'll work as fast as we can, but you're still the key to our success, Rell.'
The cyclops nodded. 'Don't worry about me.'
'I don't plan to. Besides, that boy is probably doing enough worrying for all of us.'
Rell looked wistful. 'A good lad, little Titch, for a two-eye. I do not frighten him the way I do most human children.'
'He hasn't had a usual childhood. When this is concluded I have to see that some is given to him.' He would have said more but the cyclops forestalled him, raising a huge hand.
'Listen!'
A faint rumble from the far end of the canyon; a distant pounding coming closer, growing steadily louder. Hoofbeats they were, and yet somehow different, as though the wind itself fled before them. Court storytellers had often regaled the young Colwyn with fanciful, highly embroidered tales of the many wondrous creatures that roamed Krull's open plains, but being a sheltered youth he'd never had the chance to seek any out. Many times he'd sought assurance from his father that the storytellers were telling him the truth and not simply entertaining him with images drawn solely from their imaginations. His father had assured him they were not.
'The fire-mares are real, my son. As real as Turold, as real as you or I or this castle. What a cavalry we would have if they could be broken to the saddle! All our enemies would fall before us. But alas, no man has been able to master them.'
Colwyn remembered as he studied the canyon and listened to the thunder rising from within.
'What must be done?' he asked Rell.
'The leader is the key. Once she is taken and saddled, the others will follow. Our trouble rises from the fact that this is no normal herd.
'There is little to distinguish between leader and followers. They are crafty and wise and have been known to play tricks on would-be captors, such as placing their true leader not at the herd's head but in the middle.'
'Then how will you know her?'
'I will know. I told you once that there are times when one eye can see more clearly than two. This is such a time. Leave that to me and make certain the others are ready. The more noise they can make, the more confusion we can cause, the easier it will be for me to isolate the leader.'
Then there was no more time for talk, for the objects of their search suddenly appeared in the canyon. Colwyn was struck speechless by their beauty. Independence glistened in their eyes while rippling flanks and pounding legs bespoke immense strength and endurance. In size they were larger than the largest horses he'd ever seen. Truly there was much power here, for those who could make use of it.
He stared intently into the milling herd as two men rode in behind them, shouting and hooting and cracking their whips, but he could not determine which among them was the leader. It was as confusing as Rell had promised.
Was it the black one with the white markings out there in front? But according to the cyclops, position within the herd meant nothing. There—that immense older mare trotting lightly in the second rank, the one with the golden tail! Or the mottled gray nuzzling her?
Then Rell's fingers were clutching his shoulder and he rose, cupping his hands to his mouth. 'Down and at them!'
As the robbers plunged down among them, ready with ropes and saddles, the herd twisted about in disarray, searching for an exit. Oswyn threw his saddle over one mare's back so quickly that she couldn't avoid him, but both rider arid saddle held their position only long enough for the mare to send both flying to the ground.
It was the same everywhere else. One man would get a noose around a powerful neck or a bridle over a bucking head for a few seconds before they were dislodged, or another would find himself riding a broad back one second and hard ground the next.
Confused and uncertain, the herd wheeled in uneven circles around the middle of the canyon. The men continued their spirited shouting, waving their arms and trying to back their quarry still farther up the steep slopes. But the delaying action could not work forever. Before long, the leader would determine that there was more noise than threat in all the activity. Then she would take to her heels and lead the escape in spite of anything mere men could do.
Even as the herd slowed and milled about, waiting for their leader to give them direction, Colwyn was whirling the rope and its heavy noose overhead. Patiently he kept it in motion as he sought to isolate the mare Rell had selected. If he'd guessed wrongly and she wasn't the herd leader, then all the carefully coordinated effort would
