Gate of Ivrel

Roh landed behind him, caught hold, and Vanye set heels to the black. The horse tried a quick gait, could not hold it, settled at once to a slower pace when Vanye reined back in mercy.

Morgaine would not kill Siptah. He knew that when her fury had passed, she would slow. And after a time of riding he saw her, where the road became a mere trail through an arch of trees, a pale glimmering of Siptah's rump and her white cloak in the dark.

Then he put the black to a quicker pace, and she paused and waited when she heard his coming. The black weapon was in her hand as they rode up, but she put it away.

"Roh," she said.

There was moisture on her cheeks. Vanye saw it and was glad. He nodded courtesy to her, which she returned, and then she bit her lip and leaned both hands upon the saddlebow.

"We will camp," she said, sensible and calm, the ma

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Chapter 9

Ivrel was all the horizon now, snow-crowned and perfect amid the jagged rubble of the Kath Vrej range, anomaly among mountains. The sky was blue and still stained with sunrise in the east, as much as they could see of the sky in that direction. A single star still remained high and to the left of Ivrel's cone.

It was beautiful, this place upon the north rim of Irien. It was hard to remember the evil of it.

"Another day," said Morgaine, "perhaps yet one more camp, will set us there." And when Vanye looked at her he saw no yearning in her eyes such as he had thought to see, only weariness and misery.

"Is it then Ivrel you seek?" Roh asked.

"Yes," she said. "As it always was." And she looked at him. "Chya Roh, this is the limit of Koris. We will bid you goodbye here. There is no need that you take us farther."

Roh frowned, looking up at her. "What is there that you have to gain at Ivrel?" he said. "What is it you are looking for?"

"I do not think that is here or there with us, Roh. Good-bye."

"No," he said harshly, and when she would have urged Siptah past, ignoring him: "I ask you, Morgaine kri Chya, by the welcome we gave you, I ask you. And if you ride past me I will follow you until I know what ma

"I ca

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Roh gazed up at her, no better comforted than before, and then turned his face toward Vanye. "Kinsman," he said, "will you take me up behind?"

"No," said Morgaine.

"I do not have her leave," Vanye said.

"You will slow us, Roh," said Morgaine, "and that could be trouble for us."

Roh thrust his hands into the back of his belt and scowled up at her. "Then I will follow," he said.

Morgaine turned Siptah for the northeast, and Vanye with heavy heart laid heels to his own horse, Roh trudging behind. Though they would go easily, wanting to spare the horses, they were passing beyond the bounds of Koris and of Chya, and there was no longer safety for Roh or for any man afoot. He could follow, until such time that they came under attack of beasts or men of Hjemur. Morgaine would let him die before she would let him delay her.

So must he. In a fight he dared not have his horse encumbered. In flight, his oath insisted he must keep to Morgaine's side, and he could not do that carrying double, nor risk tiring the horse before the hour of her need.

"Roh," he pleaded with his cousin, "it will be the end of you."

Roh did not answer him, but hitched his gear to a more comfortable position on his shoulder, and walked. Being Chya-reared, Roh would be able to walk for considerable distances and at considerable pace, but Roh must know also that he stood almost certainly to lose his life.

Had it been his own decision, Vanye thought, he would have ridden far ahead at full gallop, so that Roh must realize that he could not keep up and abandon this madness; but it was not his to decide. Morgaine walked her horse. That was the pace she set; and at noon rest Roh was able to overtake them and share food with them— this grace she granted without stinting; but he fell behind again when they set out.

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But for knowing where they were, the land was still fair for some considerable distance; but when pines began to take the place of lowland trees, and they climbed into snowy ground, then Vanye suffered for Roh and looked back often to see how he fared.

"Liyo,"he said then, "let me get off and walk a time, and he will ride. That can tire the horse no more."

"His choice to come was his affair," she said. "If trouble comes on us unexpectedly, I want you, not him, beside me. No. Thee will not."

"Do you not trust him, liyo? We slept in Ra-koris in his keeping, and there was chance enough for him to do us harm."

"That is so," she said, "and of men in Andur-Kursh, I trust Roh next to you; but thee knows how little trust I have to extend; and I have less of charity."

And then he fell to thinking of the night and day ahead, which he had yet to serve, and that she had said that she would die. That saddened him, so that for a time he did not think of Roh, but reckoned that there was something weighing on her mind.

She spoke of the same matter, late in the afternoon, when the horses had struck easier going along a ridge. Crusted snow cracked under them, and their breath hung in frosty puffs even in sunlight, but it was an easy place after the rocks and ice that they had passed.

"Vanye," she said, "thee will find it difficult to pass from Hjemur after I am gone. It would be best if thee had a place to go to. What will thee do?

Nhi Erij will not forgive thee for what I have done."

"I do not know what I will do," he said miserably. "There is Chya, there is still Chya, if only Roh and I both come through this alive."

"I wish thee well," she said softly.

"Must you die?" he asked her.

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Her gray eyes went strangely gentle. "If I have the choice," she said, "I shall not. But if I do, then thee is not free. Thee knows what thee has to do: kill Thiye. And perhaps then Roh might serve thee well: so I let him follow. But if I live, all the same, I shall pass the Gate of Ivrel, and in passing, close it. Then there will be an end of Thiye all the same. When Ivrel closes, all the Gates in this world must die. And without the Gates, Thiye ca

"And what of you?"

She lifted her shoulders and let them fall. "I do not know where I shall be.

Another place. Or scattered, as the men were at Kath Svejur. I shall not know until I pass the Gate where can make it take me. That is my task, to seal Gates. I shall go until there are no more— and I shall not know that, I fear, until I step out the last one and find nothing there."

He tried to grasp the thing she told him, could not imagine, and shivered.