Free Year of the Unicorn by Andre Norton

being taken by raiders from the port. I came here of my own choice, replacing one who dreaded it-"
     
    "Let no one else suspect that you possess the true sight. In these late years that which is not of us is mistrusted-perhaps doubly so for one who took up my cloak." He looked down into the wine in the cup as if some picture of the future might be mirrored there. "Walk softly in the night when the enemy sleeps nearby. Do I fright you with raider talk, Gillan?"
     
    "Not greatly. I do not think I need hold a mirror before you for my protection."
     
    "A mirror?"
     
    "A mirror to kill demons. Seeing themselves their fright kills or repels them. See, I am learned in the ancient lore."
     
    And this tune his laugh was no matter of study and need, but came lightly.
     
    "Perhaps I should have the mirror, my lady. But I think not, for one so fair need only look in such to learn how much she pleases."
     
    "Is this-" I was warm of cheek from such a speech as had not ever been made me before, "your camp?"
     
    "For an hour or two." Still he smiled and I knew he read my discomfiture-which added to it. But courteously he spoke now of other things.
     
    "If you look for a snug keep to sit between you and the air, or the walls of a great hall, then you will search in vain, my lady-for the while. We have now no home save the waste-"
     
    "But you go from here-that was part of the Bargain! Where then do we ride?"
     
    "North-yet farther north-and east." His hand was on his belt, fingers upon the milky gems of its buckle. "We are exiles, now we are minded to turn homeward once again."
     
    "Exiles? From what land? Overseas?" It might be true then that we were distantly of one blood.
     
    "No. Afar perhaps in space and time, but not sundered from this land. We come from a very old people, and those of High Hallack from a new. Once we had no boundaries on our far-faring. All men and women held a sway over powers which could build, or serve according to their wishes. If one wished to savour the freedom of a horse running before the wind, then one could be that horse. Or a hawk or eagle in the heavens. If one wished raiment soft and silken for one's wearing, jewels for the bedecking, under will they were his, to vanish when he tired of such. Only, to have such power and use it ever brings with it a great weariness, so that in time there is naught left to wish for, no new delight for one's eyes and heart and mind.
     
    "This then is a time of danger, when those who grow restless turn from the known to the unknown. Then may doors be opened on forbidden things and that loosed which can not be controlled. We grew older, and more weary of mind. And some of the restless and yet curious tried other ways of amusement. Indeed did they loose what they could not rule, and death, and worse then clean death, stalked the land. Men who have been brethren now looked upon their fellows with suspicion, or hate. There was killing, sword-blooding and with it another kind of killing which was worse.
     
    "Until, after one great battle there was set upon us all a bond. Those who were born among us from that time forward with a restless spirit, they must issue out of the land to which our kin withdrew and became wanderers. Not by choice-though some did choose so-but because they were deemed to be disturbing to a peace which must be kept or our breed would perish. And they must wander for a set number of years, until the stars moved into new patterns. When that was accomplished, then once more they might seek out the gate and ask for admittance. And if they could pass the testing there-then they would know again the homeland of their kind."
     
    "But the men of High Hallack say that always since they have pushed into this country have they known the Riders-"
     
    "The years of man and our years are not one and the same. But now the day comes when we may essay the gate. And whether we win or fail, we shall not let our breed die. Thus we take brides from among men,