Sometimes a longer ridge than usual lay across their path, stretching miles and miles to east and west. Even Elyas had to agree that going around those would take them too far out of their way. He did not let them simply cross over, though. Leaving them at the base of the slope, he would creep up to the crest on his belly, peering over as cautiously as though the wolves had not scouted there ten minutes before. Waiting at the bottom of the ridge, minutes passed like hours, and the not knowing pressed on them. Egwene chewed her lip and unconsciously clicked the beads Aram had given her through her fingers. Perrin waited doggedly. His stomach twisted up in a sick knot, but he managed to keep his face calm, managed to keep the turmoil hidden inside.
The wolves will warn if there's danger. It would he wonderful if they went away, if they just vanished, but right now ... right now, they'll give warning. What is he looking for? What?
After a long search with only his eyes above the rise, Elyas always motioned them to come ahead. Every time the way ahead was clear – until the next time they found a ridge they could not go around. At the third such ridge, Perrin's stomach lurched. Sour fumes rose in his throat, and he knew if he had to wait even five minutes he would vomit. 'I ...' He swallowed. 'I'm coming, too.'
'Keep low,' was all Elyas said.
As soon as he spoke Egwene jumped down from Bela.
The fur-clad man pushed his round hat forward and peered at her from under the edge. 'You expecting to make that mare crawl?' he said dryly.
Her mouth worked, but no sound came out. Finally she shrugged, and Elyas turned away without another word and began climbing the easy slope. Perrin hurried after him.
Well short of the crest Elyas made a downward motion and a moment later flattened himself on the ground, wriggling forward the last few yards. Perrin flopped on his belly.
At the top, Elyas took off his hat before raising his head ever so slowly. Peering through a clump of thorny weeds, Perrin saw only the same rolling plain that lay behind them. The downslope was bare, though a clump of trees a hundred paces across grew in the hollow, perhaps half a mile south from the ridge. The wolves had already been through it, smelling no trace of Trollocs or Myrddraal.
East and west the land was the same as far as Perrin could see, rolling grassland and wide-scattered thickets. Nothing moved. The wolves were more than a mile ahead, out of sight; at that distance he could barely feel them. They had seen nothing when they covered this ground. What it he looking for? There's nothing there.
'We're wasting time,' he said, starting to stand, and a flock of ravens burst out of the trees below, fifty, a hundred black birds, spiraling into the sky. He froze in a crouch as they milled over the trees. The Dark One's Eyes. Did they see me? Sweat trickled down his face.
As if one thought had suddenly sparked in a hundred tiny minds, every raven broke sharply in the same direction. South. The flock disappeared over the next rise, already descending. To the east another thicket disgorged more ravens. The black mass wheeled twice and headed south.
Shaking, he lowered himself to the ground slowly. He tried to speak, but his mouth was too dry. After a minute he managed to work up some spit. 'Was that what you were afraid of? Why didn't you say something? Why didn't the wolves see them?'
'Wolves don't look up in trees much,' Elyas growled. 'And no, I wasn't looking for this. I told you, I didn't know what ...' Far to the west a black cloud rose over yet another grove and winged southward. They were too far off to make out individual birds. 'It isn't a big hunt, thank the Light. They don't know. Even after...' He turned to stare back the way they had come.
Perrin swallowed. Even after the dream, Elyas had meant. 'Not big?' he said. 'Back home you won't see that many ravens in a whole year.'
Elyas shook his head. 'In the Borderlands I've seen sweeps with a thousand ravens to the flock. Not too often – there's a bounty on ravens there – but it has happened.' He was still looking north. 'Hush, now.'
Perrin felt it, then; the effort of reaching out to the distant wolves. Elyas wanted Dapple and her companions to quit scouting ahead, to hurry back and check their backtrail. His already gaunt face tightened and thinned under the strain. The wolves were so far away Perrin could not even feel them. Hurry. Watch the sky. Hurry.
Faintly Perrin caught the reply from far to the south. We come. An image flashed in his mind – wolves running, muzzles pointing into the wind of their haste, running as if wildfire raced behind, running-flashed and was gone in an instant.
Elyas slumped and drew a deep breath. Frowning, he peered over the ridge, then back to the north, and muttered under his breath.
'You think there are more ravens behind us?' Perrin asked.
'Could be,' Elyas said vaguely. 'They do it that way, sometimes. I know a place, if we can reach it by dark. We have to keep moving until full dark anyway, even if we don't get there, but we can't go as fast as I would like. Can't afford to get too close to the ravens ahead of us. But if they're behind us, too ...'
'Why dark?' Perrin said. 'What place? Somewhere safe from the ravens?'
'Safe from ravens,' Elyas said, 'but too many people know ... Ravens roost for the night. We don't have to worry about them finding us in the dark. The Light send ravens are all we have to worry about then.' With one more look over the crest, he rose and waved to Egwene to bring Bela up. 'But dark is a long way off. We have to get moving.' He started down the far slope in a shambling run, each stride barely catching him on the edge of falling. 'Move, burn you!'
Perrin moved, half running, half sliding, after him.
Egwene topped the rise behind them, kicking Bela to a trot. A grin of relief bloomed on her face when she saw them. 'What's going on?' she called, urging the shaggy mare to catch up. 'When you disappeared like that, I thought ... What happened?'
Perrin saved his breath for running until she reached them. He explained about the ravens and Elyas's safe place, but it was a disjointed story. After a strangled, 'Ravens!' she kept interrupting with questions for which, as often as not, he had no answers. Between them, he did not finish until they reached the next ridge.
Ordinarily – if anything about the journey could be called ordinary – they would have gone around this one rather than over, but Elyas insisted on scouting anyway.
'You want to just saunter right into the middle of them, boy?' was his sour comment.
Egwene stared at the crest of the ridge, licking her lips, as if she wanted to go with Elyas this time and wanted to stay where she was, too. Elyas was the only one who showed no hesitation.
Perrin wondered if the ravens ever doubled back. It would be a fine thing to reach the crest at the same time as a flock of ravens.
At the top he inched his head up until he could just see, and heaved a sigh of relief when all he saw was a copse of trees a little to the west. There were no ravens to be seen. Abruptly a fox burst out of the trees, running hard. Ravens poured from the branches after it. The beat of their wings almost drowned out a desperate whining from the fox. A black whirlwind dove and swirled around it. The fox's jaws snapped at them, but they darted in, and darted away untouched, black beaks glistening wetly. The fox turned back toward the trees, seeking the safety of its den. It ran awkwardly now, head low, fur dark and bloody, and the ravens flapped around it, mote and more of them at once, the fluttering mass thickening until it hid the fox completely. As suddenly as they had descended the ravens rose, wheeled, and vanished over the next rise to the south. A misshapen lump of torn fur marked what had been the fox.
Perrin swallowed hard. Light! They could do that to us. A hundred ravens. They could —
'Move,' Elyas growled, jumping up. He waved to Egwene to come on, and without waiting set off at a trot toward the trees. 'Move, burn you!' he called over his shoulder. 'Move!'
Egwene galloped Bela over the rise and caught them before they reached the bottom of the slope. There was no time for explanations, but her eyes picked out the fox right away. Her face went as white as snow.
Elyas reached the trees and turned there, at the edge of the copse, waving vigorously for them to hurry. Perrin tried to run faster and stumbled. Arms wind-milling, he barely caught himself short of going flat on his face. Blood and ashes! I'm running as fast as I can!
A lone raven winged out of the copse. It tilted toward them, screamed, and spun toward the south. Knowing he was already too late, Perrin fumbled his sling from around his waist. He was still trying to get a stone from his pocket to the sling when the raven abruptly folded up in mid-air and plummeted to the ground. His mouth dropped open, and then he saw the sling hanging from Egwene's hand. She grinned at him unsteadily.
'Don't stand there counting your toes!' Elyas called.
