turned along it, splashing thigh-deep through the ford. Presently the distance
cleared, and Yr Widdfa frowned down on me from the north, with mist still scarfing its lower glens. I knew where I was now, and turned aside into the steep hazel woods that flanked the lesser
heights.
Once I stopped to vomit; but I had not eaten that morning, and though I seemed to be retching my heart up, nothing came but a little sour slime. I spat it into the heather, and went on. Cabal
ate grass in an urgent and indiscriminate way very different from his usual careful choosing, and was sick also, throwing up all that was in him with the ease of a dog. It would have been the
drugged sweetmeat she gave him last night. I have wondered, in after years, why she did not poison him and be done with it, especially since she must have seen that I loved the dog. But I suppose
her hatred was so focused on me that she had none to spare. Maybe she even feared to lessen its power by dissipating it.
A long while after noon, I struck the hill track from Dynas Pharaon, and came dropping over the last hill shoulder into the head of Nant Ffrancon. Among the first birch and rowan trees I
checked, and stood looking down. The valley lay outstretched below me, sheltered under the dark hills. I saw the greenness of it freckled with the grazing horse herds, smoke rising from the
clustered bothies in the alder-fringed loop of the stream. It was all as it had been yesterday, when I turned here to look back; and the sight steadied me with its message that whatever happened to
a man or a thousand men, life went on. Something in me deep down below the light of reason had been dreading to find the valley blasted and sickness already rife among the horse herds. But that was
foolishness; I was not the High King that my doing should bring evil on the land. The doom was for myself alone, and I knew already that it was sure. However unknowingly, I had sinned the Ancient
Sin, the Great Sin from Which there is no escaping. I had sown a seed, and I knew that the tree which sprang from it would bear the death apple. The taste of vomit was in my very soul, and a shadow
lay between me and the sun.
Cabal, who had been waiting beside me with the patience of his kind until I should be ready to go on again, suddenly pricked his ears and looked away down the track. A moment he stood alert, his
muzzle raised into the little wind that came up from Nant Ffrancon; then he flung up his head and gave a single bell-deep bay. From below among the birch woods was a boy’s voice calling,
long-drawn and joyful. ‘Artos! My Lord Arto-os!’
I cupped my hands about my mouth and called back. ‘Aiee! I am here!’ and with Cabal leaping ahead of me, I went on downhill.
Below me two figures came into view where the track rounded the shoulder of the birch-clad outcrop, and stood looking up; and I saw that they were Hunno and young Flavian. The old horse master
flung up an arm in greeting, and Flavian, outstripping him, came springing eager as a young hound up the track to meet me. ‘Sa sa! It is good to see you safe! We thought that you might be
somewhere on this track.’ He was shouting as he came within word range. ‘Did you find shelter for the night? Did you—’ He reached me and I suppose saw my face, and his voice
stammered and fell away. We looked at each other in silence while old Hunno climbed toward us; and then he said, ‘Sir – what is it? Are you hurt?’
I shook my head. ‘No, I – I am well enough. I have dreamed evil dreams in the night, that is all.’
chapter four
The Horses of a Dream
I CAME DOWN FROM ARFON, HAVING SETTLED WITH H UNNO all things as to the new grazing grounds, and gathered the few fourteen and
fifteen hand mares that I could find among my own horses. Having gathered also the best part of a score of tribesmen to swell the number of the Companions – fiery youngsters with small idea
of obeying orders, but maybe I and the men they would
cleared, and Yr Widdfa frowned down on me from the north, with mist still scarfing its lower glens. I knew where I was now, and turned aside into the steep hazel woods that flanked the lesser
heights.
Once I stopped to vomit; but I had not eaten that morning, and though I seemed to be retching my heart up, nothing came but a little sour slime. I spat it into the heather, and went on. Cabal
ate grass in an urgent and indiscriminate way very different from his usual careful choosing, and was sick also, throwing up all that was in him with the ease of a dog. It would have been the
drugged sweetmeat she gave him last night. I have wondered, in after years, why she did not poison him and be done with it, especially since she must have seen that I loved the dog. But I suppose
her hatred was so focused on me that she had none to spare. Maybe she even feared to lessen its power by dissipating it.
A long while after noon, I struck the hill track from Dynas Pharaon, and came dropping over the last hill shoulder into the head of Nant Ffrancon. Among the first birch and rowan trees I
checked, and stood looking down. The valley lay outstretched below me, sheltered under the dark hills. I saw the greenness of it freckled with the grazing horse herds, smoke rising from the
clustered bothies in the alder-fringed loop of the stream. It was all as it had been yesterday, when I turned here to look back; and the sight steadied me with its message that whatever happened to
a man or a thousand men, life went on. Something in me deep down below the light of reason had been dreading to find the valley blasted and sickness already rife among the horse herds. But that was
foolishness; I was not the High King that my doing should bring evil on the land. The doom was for myself alone, and I knew already that it was sure. However unknowingly, I had sinned the Ancient
Sin, the Great Sin from Which there is no escaping. I had sown a seed, and I knew that the tree which sprang from it would bear the death apple. The taste of vomit was in my very soul, and a shadow
lay between me and the sun.
Cabal, who had been waiting beside me with the patience of his kind until I should be ready to go on again, suddenly pricked his ears and looked away down the track. A moment he stood alert, his
muzzle raised into the little wind that came up from Nant Ffrancon; then he flung up his head and gave a single bell-deep bay. From below among the birch woods was a boy’s voice calling,
long-drawn and joyful. ‘Artos! My Lord Arto-os!’
I cupped my hands about my mouth and called back. ‘Aiee! I am here!’ and with Cabal leaping ahead of me, I went on downhill.
Below me two figures came into view where the track rounded the shoulder of the birch-clad outcrop, and stood looking up; and I saw that they were Hunno and young Flavian. The old horse master
flung up an arm in greeting, and Flavian, outstripping him, came springing eager as a young hound up the track to meet me. ‘Sa sa! It is good to see you safe! We thought that you might be
somewhere on this track.’ He was shouting as he came within word range. ‘Did you find shelter for the night? Did you—’ He reached me and I suppose saw my face, and his voice
stammered and fell away. We looked at each other in silence while old Hunno climbed toward us; and then he said, ‘Sir – what is it? Are you hurt?’
I shook my head. ‘No, I – I am well enough. I have dreamed evil dreams in the night, that is all.’
chapter four
The Horses of a Dream
I CAME DOWN FROM ARFON, HAVING SETTLED WITH H UNNO all things as to the new grazing grounds, and gathered the few fourteen and
fifteen hand mares that I could find among my own horses. Having gathered also the best part of a score of tribesmen to swell the number of the Companions – fiery youngsters with small idea
of obeying orders, but maybe I and the men they would
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