the rock face, “a great river ran over a mighty waterfall, right here. The river runs underground now. One day it will come back to the surface and the waterfall will start again.”
“And what will that mean?”
“What do you mean, ‘what will that mean’?”
“Oh, I don’t know, there’s usually something with these things, isn’t there? Something like the dead coming back from the Otherworld on the day the waterfall starts flowing again? Or the gods coming to the earth and smiting the tribes who have slightly different beliefs to our tribe?”
“Not with this one, I don’t think. That’s it. They just say that the waterfall will come back.”
“I see. Great story.”
Holloc scowled at her and kicked his horse to rejoin the others. Spring shook her head at herself. That had been a bit mean. After so much time with Lowa, she’d become somewhat sarcastic herself. She liked it and thought it was funny, but sometimes it upset people. It was of course their fault for not getting she was joking, they should have been cleverer, but she still didn’t like it that they were hurt. When she was queen, she decided, she’d make everyone who didn’t get sarcasm or piss taking for fun to wear seagull feathers in their hats, so you knew not to joke with them.
Former waterfall or not, there was a gang of people peering down at them from the top of the cliff. On their left and her right was a giant, with short arms and an oversized head. Spring had never seen one before, but she knew it was a wicker woman. Wooden cages were nailed together in the shape of a woman and their bars interwoven with wicker. They’d fill the wicker woman with live animals, then set light to it. It was horrible idea, and Spring couldn’t believe that it impressed the gods, but it was also kind of awe-inspiring. She couldn’t take her eyes off it. A vision flashed into her mind of Lowa, bound and helpless, trapped in the burning—
She shook her head and the image cleared. It had been like a bad daydream, not a proper vision like she’d had with the aurochs. There was nothing to be afraid of here. They were a delegation, and nobody would ever break the ancient code and attack a delegation, especially a royal one. And, besides, she knew that this place wasn’t as scary as it looked. Dug had told her all about Mallam before they’d left the south. From this direction, it looked like the most impenetrable fortress imaginable. However, come from any direction other than the south, according to Dug, and you could easily get around the cliff and the only defences were a few scrappy stone walls. The fort at Mallam, seat of Grummog, king of the Murkans, Dug had said, was all mouth and no trousers. The people from that part of Britain, Dug had added with a naughty look in his eye, were mostly the same.
“Come on, Spring!” yelled Holloc. Spring realised she’d stopped. She kicked on to catch them up.
Lowa and Miller had almost reached the track that led up the steep slope to the top of the cliff. The sixty soldiers from the Two Hundred were spread out behind them, riding in a more casual manner now they’d reached journey’s end unmolested and could look forward to a feast and a rest. Some had ambled to the stream to let their horses drink, others were dotted about while their horses pulled toothily at the clumps of grass which sprouted all around the field below the cliff, between large bushes.
Spring looked about. On their long walks, she and Dug speculated often on how the land had come to look like it did; why specific plants lived in specific places and so on. Going by the washes of gravel all around, here was a place that flooded regularly. If it did flood, it meant that the only vegetation would be that year’s growth – the grass – and no large bushes.
She opened her mouth to scream a warning exactly as the out-of-place vegetation burst apart. Four or five men and women jumped from each bush and stabbed spears into the Maidun riders. Spring watched, mouth open, as the few Maidun soldiers who’d survived the surprise attempted to rally, but were closed down and speared by the hundreds of Murkans who’d suddenly emerged.
By the cliff, Miller and Lowa were caught, pulled from their horses, spear points at their throats.