Caradoc of the North Wind - By Allan Frewin Jones Page 0,91
there was a golden light in his eyes. ‘Mount up, Branwen – your destiny lies below – go you and seek it!’
‘That is madness,’ said Dera. ‘She will not be able to keep in the saddle in such weather.’
‘She will,’ Rhodri said with quiet assurance and command. He rested his hand on Terrwyn’s muzzle and murmured some soft words close to the horse’s head. ‘There – he will not let you fall, and he will guide you true to your enemy, Branwen.’
She stepped forward, but felt Iwan’s hand on her arm. She turned her head to look into his worried face.
‘Do not fear for me,’ she reassured him. ‘All will be well. I shall see you again before this day is done.’
He frowned. ‘I hope so with all my heart,’ he said. ‘If you do not return safely to me, I shall be very angry with you, Branwen. I may never speak to you again!’ He looked at Rhodri. ‘But if harm befalls her, be warned I’ll have harsh words for you, Druid – or whatever it is that you have become.’
‘I cannot foresee what will happen between Branwen and Herewulf Ironfist, Iwan,’ Rhodri said calmly. ‘And it is too soon for me to know what I have become.’ He turned his head slowly, looking at each of the Gwyn Braw in turn. ‘But I do know this. None of you can go with her into the blizzard – it will be the death of you – Branwen must do this alone or not at all.’
‘Then go with our blessings on you!’ said Dera, resting her hand for a moment on Branwen’s shoulder. Aberfa and Banon moved forward and briefly took her hands. Then Rhodri gave her Terrwyn’s reins and stepped aside so that she could mount up.
She paused, looking into his face. ‘Is it still you, my friend?’ she asked him.
‘It is,’ replied Rhodri. ‘But I am no longer half one thing and half another as I have been all my life, Branwen. I am complete – I am whole. I am one.’ His brows creased. ‘Beware the shield, Branwen, it can do great harm.’
She nodded, not quite sure what he meant by that, but determined to remember it.
She climbed into the saddle. Dera handed up her shield and sword.
She took one final look at her friends and companions before flicking the reins.
Terrwyn leaped forward, as though at the sound of battle horns. Branwen saw the faces of the Gwyn Braw blurring as she sped across the hill. She wished for a passing moment that she had thought to kiss Iwan one time before leaving him. Well, it was too late for such regrets, and if she came out alive from the storm, she could easily rectify her omission many times over.
Caradoc’s ferocious snowstorm raged below her, filling her vision, drowning out all thought. Fighting against a rising terror, she clung on tightly as Terrwyn cantered over the edge of the world and took her, plunging down at a full gallop, into the devouring white throat of the blizzard.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Branwen was almost blinded by the whirling maelstrom, and it took all her strength to stay in the saddle as Terrwyn forged on, galloping deeper and deeper into the chaotic heart of Caradoc’s snowstorm. As she rode, the pelting ice stung her face and hands, and she could feel it gathering in her hair and on her cloak, heavy and clinging, soaking through her clothes, weighing her down.
Above the shriek of the wind, she could hear voices – men crying out in fear, horses whinnying – the frantic tramp of hooves and the sound of running feet. And through the sheets of flying snow she saw blundering shapes – warriors stumbling this way and that, their backs stooped, their arms thrown up as they tried vainly to escape the blizzard’s angry bite.
Banon had been right – the storm didn’t know friend from foe. The winds bowled over the warriors of the Four Kingdoms of Brython as readily as it did the Saxon enemy. Branwen saw tattered banners lying on the ground – the red dragon of her own folk wallowing in the slushy mud along with many white Saxon serpents.
Bodies lay scattered in their path, sombre proof of the slaughter that had already taken place. Even at the gallop, Terrwyn avoided treading on the dead, and when the heaps of corpses grew too dense, he slowed, his head nodding as he picked his way forward.