Страница 42 из 76
Amongst these rocks each of the travellers found a sheltered spot and sat looking down across the bleak expanse below them where the moors stretched away into the distance before dropping down sharply into the valleys and clefts of more foothills and then finally levelling out into a huge plain; and although they could not see it they knew that at the far end of that plain was the ocean towards which they were heading. As they sat with the wind blowing in their faces and making their eyes water and with what seemed to be the whole world laid out beneath them they felt the power of the place fill them with strength and energy. Each of them seemed to grow inwardly until their spirit was bigger than their body and escaped the physical confines in which it had been trapped for so long to leap out into the mountain air and dance joyously in the wind. No longer did the sufferings of their bodies seem important; they seemed to be outside themselves, looking down as they soared into the sky and flew on the wind. This place was one of the Scyttels or places of power, guessed at by many, and whose existence is hinted at in legend and song, but known only to the elves and those with the power of magic. It is at the Scyttels that the elves gather for rejuvenation of their magic and at the greatest of them it is said that the Elflords are visited by Ashgaroth. Thus it was that the Lord Wychnor had chosen this copse as their starting place, for there Nab, as one with the power of magic, would be enabled to get his bearings and to follow the currents of the earth to the Elflords of the Sea and of the Mountains by means of the secret ways, or Roosdyche, which join the Scyttels one to the other.
Nab and Beth were perched together in a little rocky crevice between two enormous boulders, their bodies braced against the wind, exulting in the power of the place and the warmth of each other as they huddled close. They sat like that until the sun was high in the blue sky and then weariness overtook them and they lay down together behind the rock out of the wind and went to sleep. Nab had dropped straight off as soon as his eyes had closed but Beth had lain awake for a while thinking and staring at a sparrowhawk hovering way above them in the distance. She was marvelling at the deep contentment which she felt within herself and luxuriating in the peacefulness of it. Finally when the sparrowhawk had swooped away out of sight she turned to look at Nab lying beside her, his body moving rhythmically as he breathed the deep breath of sleep and his legs curled up into his chest with his head resting on his two hands clasped together under it for a pillow. Then smiling to herself she gently wrapped her arms around him from behind, snuggled up, against him and went off to sleep.
The rest of the animals had also gone to sleep; Sam, Brock and Perryfoot together in a little hollow behind a boulder just beneath Nab and Beth, and Warrigal perched on an old root of heather which he had found on one side of the hollow. They slept all the rest of Christmas Day and all that night, finally waking up the following dawn feeling marvellously refreshed; the cloud of sorrow which they had carried with them from Silver Wood seemed to have been blown away in the wind, leaving them with sad memories but freeing them from the claustrophobia of their earlier misery. Now they felt ready and eager to press on; they got up from the warmth of their sleeping places and, looking back fondly at their first home of the journey, they began to make their way back down from the rocks.
They had just reached the bottom of the belt of trees and were about to emerge on to the heather covered slope at the base of the little hill when, ahead of them, Warrigal stopped and, perching on a low branch moved his wings slowly up and down. That was the signal to wait and, an instant later, they saw a line of Urkku come into sight walking slowly along the flat stretch of moors at the bottom of the hill beneath them. They all held guns resting in the crooks of their arms so that they pointed out from their bodies and down to the ground. They were just like the organized slaughterers that the animals had seen coming through Silver Wood and they made those same fu
And yet, watching the magnificent creature that a second ago had been vibrant with life and grace being clubbed to death slowly over the head, it was impossible to remain totally detached and objective and Nab felt tears start from the corners of his eyes and trickle down his face.
Eventually the Urkku vanished into the far distance and the animals felt able to relax again. Warrigal flew back to them where they lay amongst the trees and they all decided to stay where they were until after Sun-High to give the Urkku plenty of time to get clear.
‘We shall rest here, then, until mid-afternoon,’ said Warrigal, ‘and then we shall have to travel through the night.’ This of course suited him and Brock but Sam and Perryfoot felt more at home in the daylight. Nab did not mind travelling by day or night as he was equally comfortable in either, but on balance it was agreed by them all that it was generally safer in the evening and at night as there were less likely to be Urkku abroad. The sky was still bright and clear and the mid-morning sun was quite warm in any shelter they could find from the cold wind. So once again they settled down behind clumps of heather and tree trunks and were soon lightly sleeping with the warmth of the sun on their eyelids.
Sam was the first to wake up in the afternoon and he roused the others. It was quite a different day to the one they had closed their eyes on. The sky was full of large ominous black clouds and the wind had died down slightly and changed direction so that it was also warmer.