Free To Green Angel Tower, Volume 2 by Tad Williams Page A

told her as he fastened Homefinder’s belly strap. “Camaris says your horse is part of you, but it’s also one of God’s creatures.”
    “I’ll think about it,” she said.
    They looked one last time around the camp to make sure they had left no trace of their presence—they had buried the fire ashes and raked the bent grass with a long branch—then rode out into the disappearing day.
     
    “There’s the old forest,” Simon said, pleased. He squinted against the first dawn light. “That dark line, there.”
    “I see it.” She headed her horse off the road, aiming due north. “We will go as far toward it as we can today instead of stopping—I am going to break my own rule and ride in daylight. I’ll feel safer when we’re there.”
    “We aren’t going back to Sesuad‘ra?” Simon asked.
    “No. We’re going to Aldheorte—for a while.”
    “We’re going to the forest? Why?”
    Miriamele was looking straight ahead. She had thrown her hood back, and the sun was in her hair. “Because my uncle may send people after me. They won’t be able to find us if we’re in the woods.”
    Simon remembered all too well his experiences in the great forest. Very few of them had been pleasant. “But it takes forever to travel through there.”
    “We won’t be in the woods long. Just enough to be sure that no one finds us.”
    Simon shrugged. He had no idea where exactly she wanted to go, or why, but she had obviously been planning.
    They rode on toward the distant line of the forest.
     
    They reached the outskirts of the Aldheorte late in the afternoon. The sun had sunk toward the horizon; the grassy hills were painted with slanting light.
    Simon supposed they would stop and make camp in the thin vegetation of the forest’s outer edge—after all, they had now been riding steadily since the evening before, almost a day straight, with only a few short naps stolen along the way—but Miriamele was determined to get well in, safe from accidental discovery. They rode through the increasingly close-leaning trees until riding was no longer practical, then led the horses another quarter of a league. When the princess at last found a site that was to her liking, the forest was in the last glow of twilight ; beneath the thick tree canopy the world was all muted shades of blue.
    Simon dismounted and hurriedly started a fire. When that was crackling healthily, they made camp. Miriamele had picked the site in part because of a small streamlet that trickled nearby. As she searched for the makings of a meal, he walked the horses over to the water to drink.
    Simon, after a full day spent almost entirely in the saddle, found himself strangely wakeful, as though he had forgotten what sleep was. After he and Miriamele had fed themselves, they sat beside the fire and talked about everyday matters, although more by Miriamele’s choice than Simon’s. He had other things on his mind, and thought it strange that she should so earnestly discuss Josua and Vorzheva’s coming child and ask for more stories about the battle with Fengbald when there were so many questions still unanswered about their present journey. At last, frustrated, he held up his hand.
    “Enough of this. You said you would tell me where we are going, Miriamele.”
    She looked into the flames for a while before speaking. “That’s true, Simon. I have not been fair, I suppose, to bring you so far on trust alone. But I didn’t ask you to come with me.”
    He was hurt, but tried not to show it. “I’m here, though. So tell me—where are we going?”
    She took a deep breath, then let it out. “To Erkynland.”
    He nodded. “I guessed that. It wasn’t hard, listening to you at the Raed. But where in Erkynland? And what are we going to do there?”
    “We’re going to the Hayholt.” She looked at him intently, as if daring him to disagree.
    Aedon have mercy on us, Simon thought. Out loud, he said: “To get Bright-Nail?” Although it was madness even to