Tostig looked beyond the man, straining to pierce the gathering darkness of the undergrowth. The warrior seemed to be alone.
The clansman stepped forward and stopped just out of reach of the Aenir's sword. Then he leaned on his staff and smiled. 'You're on Farlain land,' he said.
'The Aenir walk where they will,' Tostig replied.
'Not here, my bonny. Not ever. Now, what's it to be? Do you leave or die?'
Tostig pondered a moment. His father Asbidag had warned the army not to alienate the clans. Not yet. One mouthful at a time, that was Asbidag's way.
And yet this clansman had robbed Tostig of his prey.
'Who are you?' Tostig countered.
'Your heart has about five beats of life left in it, barbarian,' said Caswallon.
Tostig stared deeply into the sea-green eyes. Had he been sure the man was alone, he would have risked battle. But he was not sure. The man was too confident, too relaxed. No clansman alive would face an armed Aenir in such a way. Unless he had an edge. Tostig glanced once more at the trees. Archers no doubt had him in range at this moment.
'We will meet again,' he said, backing away down the slope.
Caswallon ignored him, and knelt by the bleeding youngster.
Gently he turned him to his back, checking his wounds. Satisfied they were plugged, he lifted the boy to his shoulder, gathered up his staff, entered the shadows and was gone from the sight of the Aenir.
Gaelen turned in his bed and groaned as the stitches front and back pulled at tender, bruised flesh. He opened his eyes and found himself staring at a grey cave wall. The smell of burning beechwood was in his nostrils. Carefully he moved on to his good side. He was lying on a broad bed, crafted from pine and expertly joined; over his body were two woollen blankets and a bearskin cloak. The cave was large, maybe twenty paces wide and thirty deep, and at the far end it curved into a corridor. Looking back, the boy saw that the entrance was covered with a hide curtain. Gingerly he sat up. Sombody had bandaged his side and his injured eye. Gently he probed both areas. The pain was still there, but more of a throbbing reminder of the acute agony he remembered from his long crawl.
Across from the bed, beyond a table and some chairs rough-cut from logs, was a man-made hearth skilfully chipped away at the base of a natural chimney in the cave wall. A fire was burning brightly. Beside it were chunks of beechwood, a long iron rod, and a copper shovel.
Bright sunlight shafted past the edges of the curtain and the boy's gaze was drawn to the cave entrance. Groaning as he rose, he limped across the cave, lifting the flap and looking out over the mountains beyond. He found himself gazing down into a green and gold valley dotted with stone buildings and wooden barns, sectioned fields and ribbon streams. Away to his left was a herd of shaggy long-horned cattle, and elsewhere he could see sheep and goats, and even a few horses in a paddock by a small wood. His legs began to tremble and he dropped the curtain.
Slowly he made his way to the table and sat down. Upon it was an oatmeal loaf and a jug of spring water. His stomach tightened, hunger surging within him as he tore a chunk from the loaf and poured a little water into a clay goblet.
Gaelen was confused. He had never been this far into the highlands. No lowlander had. This was forbidden territory. The clansmen were not a friendly people, and though they occasionally came into Ateris to trade, it was well-known to be folly for any city-dweller to attempt a return visit.
He tried to remember how he had come here. He seemed to recall voices as he struggled to reach the trees, but the memory was elusive and there had been so many dreams.
At the back of the cave the man called Oracle watched the boy eating and smiled. The lad was strong and wolf-tough. For the five days he had been here he had battled grimly against his wounds, never crying - even when, in his delirium, he had re-lived fear-filled moments of his young life. He had regained consciousness only twice in that time, accepting silently the warm broth that Oracle held to his lips.
'I see you are feeling better,' said the old man, stepping from the shadows.
The boy jumped and winced as the stitches pulled. Looking round, he saw a tall, frail, white-bearded man dressed in grey robes, belted at the waist with a goat-hair rope.
'Yes. Thank you.'
'What is your name?'
'Gaelen. And you?'
'I no longer use my name, but it pleases the Farlain to call me Oracle. If you are hungry I shall warm some broth; it is made from the liver of pigs and will give you strength.'
Oracle moved to the fire, stooping to lift a covered pot to the flames. 'It will be ready soon. How are your wounds?'
'Better.'
The old man nodded. The eye caused me the most trouble. But I think it will serve you. You will not be blind, I think. The wound in your side is not serious, the lance piercing just above the flesh of the hip. No vital organ was cut.'
'Did you bring me here?'
'No.' Using the iron rod, Oracle lifted the lid from the pot. Taking a long-handled wooden spoon from a shelf, he stirred the contents. Gaelen watched him in silence. In his youth he must have been a mighty man, thought the boy. Oracle's arms were bony now, but the wrists were thick and his frame broad. The old man's eyes were light blue under thick brows, and they glittered like water on ice. Seeing the boy staring at him, he chuckled. 'I was the Farlain Hunt Lord,' he said, grinning. 'And I was strong. I carried the Whorl boulder for forty-two paces. No man has bettered that in thirty years."
'Were my thoughts so obvious?' Gaelen asked .
'Yes,' answered the Oracle. The broth is ready."
They ate in silence, spooning the thick soup from wooden bowls and dipping chunks of oatmeal loaf into the steaming liquid.
Gaelen could not finish the broth. He apologised, but the old man shrugged.
'You've hardly eaten at all in five days, and though you are ravenous your stomach has shrunk. Give it a few moments, then try a little more.'
'Thank you.'
'You ask few questions, young Gaelen. Is it that you lack curiosity?'
The boy smiled for the first time. 'No, I just don't want any answers yet."
Oracle nodded. 'You are safe here. No one will send you back to the Aenir. You are welcome, free to do as you wish. You are not a prisoner. Now, do you have any questions?'
'How did I get here?'
'Caswallon brought you. He is a clansman, a Hunt Master.'
'Why did he save me?'
'Why does Caswallon do the things he does? I don't know. Caswallon doesn't know. He is a man of impulse. A good friend, a terrible enemy, and a fine clansman - but still a man of impulse. When he was a youth he went tracking deer. He was following a doe when he came upon it caught in a Pallides snare. Now the Farlain have no love for the Pallides, so Caswallon cut the deer loose - only to find it had an injured leg. He brought the little beast home upon his back and nursed it to health; then he released it. There's no accounting for Caswallon. Had the beast been fit he would have slain it for meat and hide.'
'And I am like that injured doe,' said Gaelen. 'Had I run into the trees unharmed, Caswallon might have killed me.'
'Yes, you are sharp, Gaelen. I like quick wits in a boy. How old are you?'
The boy shrugged. 'I don't know. Fourteen, fifteen ...'
'I'd say nearer fourteen, but it doesn't matter. A man is judged here by how he lives and not by the weight of his years.'
'Will I be allowed to stay, then? I thought only clansmen could live in the Druin mountains?"
'Indeed you can, for indeed you are,' said Oracle.
'I don't understand.'
'You are a clansman, Gaelen. Of the Farlain. You see, Caswallon invoked the Cormaach. He has made you his son.'
'Why?'
'Because he had no choice. As you said yourself, only a clansman can live here and Caswallon - like all other clansmen -cannot bring strangers into the Farlain. Therefore in the very act of rescuing you he became your guardian, responsible in law for everything you do.'
'I don't want a father,' said Gaelen. 'I get by on my own.'
'Then you will leave,' agreed Oracle, amiably. 'And Caswallon will give you a cloak, a dagger, and two gold coins for the road.'
'And if I stay?'
'Then you will move into Caswallon's house.'
Needing time to think, Gaelen broke off a piece of bread and dipped it into the now lukewarm broth.
Become a clansman? A wild warrior of the mountains? And what would it be like to have a father? Caswallon, whoever he was, wouldn't care for him. Why should he? He was just a wounded doe brought home on a whim. 'When must I decide?'
'When your wounds are fully healed.'
'How long will that be?"
'When you say they are,' said the old man.
'I don't know if I want to be a clansman.'
'Reserve your judgement, Gaelen, until you know what it entails.'
That night Gaelen awoke in a cold sweat, screaming.
The old man ran from the back of the cave, where he slept on a narrow pallet bed, and sat down beside the boy. 'What is it?' he asked, stroking Gaelen's brow, pushing back the sweat-drenched hair from the boy's eyes.
The Aenir! I dreamed they had come for me and I couldn't get away.'
'Do not fear, Gaelen. They have conquered the lowlands, but they will not come here. Not yet. Believe me. You are safe."
They took the city,' said Gaelen, 'and the militia were overrun. They didn't even hold for a day.'
'You have much to learn, boy. About war. About warriors. Aye, the city fell, and before it other cities. But we don't have cities here, and we need no walls. The mountains are like a fortress, with walls that pierce the clouds. And the clansmen don't wear bright breastplates and parade at festivals, they don't march in unison. Stand a clansman against a lowlander and you will see two men, but you will not be seeing clearly. The one is like a dog, well-trained and well-fed. It looks good and it barks loud. The other is like a wolf, lean and deadly. It barks not at all. It kills. The Aenir will not come here yet. Trust me.'
When he woke Gaelen found a fresh-baked honey malt loaf, a jug of goat's milk and a bowl containing oats, dried apple and ground hazelnuts awaiting him at the table. There was no sign of Oracle.
Gaelen's side was sore and fresh blood had seeped through the linen bandages around his waist, but he pushed the pain from his mind and ate. The oats were bland and unappealing, but he found that if he crushed the honey-cake and sprinkled it over the mixture the effect was more appetising.
His stomach full, he made his way outside the cave and knelt by a slender stream that trickled over white rocks on its journey to the valley below. Scooping water to his face, he washed, careful to avoid dampening the bandage over his injured eye. He had thought to take a short walk, but even the stroll to the stream had tired him and he sat back against a smooth rock and gazed down into the valley.
It was so calm here. Set against the tranquillity of these mountain valleys the events at Ateris seemed even more horrifying. Gaelen saw again the crows settling on fat Leon, squabbling and fighting over a strip of red flesh.
The boy was not surprised by the Aenir savagery. It seemed a culmination of all that life had taught him about people. In the main, they were cruel, callous and uncaring, filled with greed and petty malice. The boy knew all about suffering. It was life. It was being frozen in winter, parched in summer, cold-soaked and trembling when it rained. It was being thrashed for the sin of hunger, abused for the curse of loneliness, tormented for being a bastard, and despised for being an orphan.
Life was not a gift to be enjoyed, it was an enemy to be battled, grimly, unremittingly.
The old man had been kind to him, but he has his reasons, thought Gaelen sourly. This Caswallon is probably paying him for his time.
Gaelen sighed. When he was strong enough he would run away to the north and find a city die Aenir had not sacked, and he would pick up his life again - stealing food and scraping a living until he was big enough, or strong enough, to take life by the throat and force it to do his bidding.
Still dreaming of the future, he fell asleep in the sunshine. Oracle found him there at noon and gently carried him inside, laying him upon the broad bed and covering him with the bearskin cloak. The fur was still thick and luxuriant, yet it was thirty years since Oracle had killed the bear. An epic battle fought on a spring day such as this ... The old man chuckled at the memory. In those days he had been Caracis, Hunt Lord of the Farlain, and a force to be considered. He had killed the bear with a short sword and dagger, suffering terrible wounds from the beast's claws. He never knew why it had attacked him; the large bears of the mountains usually avoided man, but perhaps he had strayed too close to its den, or maybe it was sick and hurting.
Whatever the cause it had reared up from the bushes, towering above him. In one flowing motion he had hurled his hunting-knife into its breast, drawn sword and dagger and leapt forward, plunging both blades through the matted fur and into the flesh beyond. The battle had been brief and bloody. The beast's great arms encircled him, its claws ripping into his back. He had released the sword and twisted at the dagger with both hands, seeking the mighty heart within the rib-cage.