Free Rocking Horse War by Lari Don Page A

entertain his birthday guests. The second was to bring him a gift: either a rock from so deep in the ground that it was still burning, or a ball of snow so cold that it was still frozen in summer. The third task was to find and use the keystone which linked the family and their lore to the mountains. Only the old Lord knew exactly where it was hidden.
    “They both managed the first task. Tam Horsburgh made a forest dance. The trees did an Eightsome Reel, the Gay Gordons and, of course, Strip the Willow. The Lord laughed and clapped Tam on the back. Johnnie Swann made the water in the River Stane rise up and write Happy Birthday in the air. The Lord gasped and kissed him on both cheeks.”
    Pearl watched Thomas as he described these fantastic events. His face was serious, like he was reciting a list of kings or other historical facts.
    “Then they had to solve the riddle of the second task. Johnnie Swann found a deep hollow in this very pass, packed with snow which the sun had never warmed. He wrapped a lump the size of his head in layers of dried grass and leather. He ran all the way through the August sun to the castle of Landlaw Hold. At the feet of the Lord, he unwrapped a lump of snow the size of his fist. The Lord dropped the old cold snow into a horn cup, and drank it as it melted away.
    “It looked like Johnnie had won. Because my ancestor Tam couldn’t dig deep enough to find hot stones. He explored caves under the Witch’s Hump at the far end of this range, and the Rhymer in the northern peaks, but the rocks there were cold and damp, not hot. He travelled on a fishing boat to Iceland, but the molten rocks he collected there were grey and hard by the time he sailed home.
    “When he had only three days left, he galloped to the east coast and went deep into the ground of the Kingdom of Fife. He returned with a sack of black rocks. He laid the rocks on the stone floor, built a pile of sticks and parchment round them, and lit the kindling with a flint. The black rocks caught fire. He put his bare hand in the flames, grabbed a lump of coal, and threw it to his father-in -law, shouting out, ‘It is a rock from deep in the ground, and it is glowing with heat, my Lord.’ His father-in-law slapped at his smouldering cloak and laughed.”
    “He cheated,” objected Pearl.
    “That’s what Johnnie Swann said. But the Lord said the last task would decide the winner. ‘Race each other to find the keystone. Then we’ll see who is worthy to be my heir.’
    “So the next day, Tam and Johnnie kissed their wives and baby sons goodbye and raced each other up the Keystone Peak, the highest, steepest, deadliest mountain in the county.”
    Pearl glanced up at the mountain on their right, bright silver in the late morning sun.
    “Tam was taller and stronger on the slopes, running and leaping; at first he was in the lead. But Johnnie was like a spider up the ridge; he was in front as they neared the summit. Their wives watched the race from below. They didn’t see who arrived first, nor whether either man found the stone that would make the range sing.
    “All we know is that the two men fought to the death on the summit, and fell down into this pass, where they were buried for ever.”
    Thomas ended with a storyteller’s flourish, sweeping his arm round the pass.
    Pearl shook her head. “Their bodies wouldn’t have rolled all the way down here! They’d have landed on the plateau or been trapped by rocks on the slopes.”
    “Well, that’s the story we’re told. That they fell here and were buried here. But there is another end to the story. I’ve only heard it once, not from my grandfather but from my mother, the last day she ever spoke to me. It might explain how they really ended up here in the Grey Men’s Grave.
    “She told me they didn’t fall from the summit. They flew. They leapt off the summit together and wrestled in the air. They stabbed each other in the heart at the same moment, then fell from the sky,