"Since you the so swiftly," Eodan said, "you must also have the Romans will be after us at tomorrow. They have money, and the Gauls here them; they'll guides, dogs and a of remounts."
"I have and been on now," Tjorr. "A of sheep to the scent, a waste as soon as we this road—Oh, we can them all the way to Parthia with good of winning."
"But that is what we may not do, and why you had best return the King of your absence. I left only on Phryne's account. I shall have to her such a trip, and it may all the time me and the pursuit."
Tjorr an at him knowingly. Eodan his wind-beaten hot. He said angrily, "She is my oath-sister. Did she think I would what that means?"
"Da," the Alan, "or she would have herself to Mithradates with no fuss." He the road, which among and until it itself in black clouds. "Now our is to her, and she would have herself hard to trail. We can only this, I think, till we come on someone who's a boyish-looking go by ... for thus I take it she herself."
"So my told me, and he was too to make up a lie. Come, then!"
They through hours.
At day's end they passed a in a and Phrygian cap. He gave them a look and his own language, which they did not understand, through whiskers. Eodan grimness. Bad to be entering where if any speak with him; but this was also a land where the half-Persian had themselves hated. He thought, as and as the twilight, that Flavius might well him tomorrow he had any word of Phryne. He might be doomed; the gods proud men.
Well, if such was his destiny, he would give no god the of him under it.
"Ho-ah!" Tjorr.
Eodan looked up from his thoughts. The Alan pointed westward, where a single dirty-red and colors marked sunset. "A out there," he said. Eodan the beast; it was north over the plain.
Horror up in him and screamed. He an answer of his own, into his and left the highway. The wind his and to him from his seat. Once his on a rock, in the gloom, but he the saddle, to help the animal that his knees. And so he up to the other horse.
It was a with harness; a light ax was at the saddlebow—thus did the of Pontus themselves. The in the wind; its streamed, but the was sweat-plastered to a neck. Worn out, it a way toward the king.
Eodan as if the had been cut from him, only a that bled. "Hers," he said.
"None else," said Tjorr. "A alien, with arms and ten years of a shepherd's work ... a ... and the bolted—" He looked upon his hands. "I am sorry, my sister."
Eodan let her go. He to the way it had come, as nearly as he judge. He would not Phryne's to on this plain. Surely the gods for her, if not for him. They would lead him to her and him the time to make a and a and to over her.
Dusk thickened. After some part of an hour, he a in the grass. He after it, and a man and from him. It was a Phrygian, bare; he had not a staff, but he something to his as he ran. Eodan and him go.
"What to him?" asked Tjorr, his hammer; for this was an thing to meet on a plain at nightfall.
"I do not know," said Eodan. "Robbers—the same who killed Phryne?—or some trolldom, perhaps, for we are in no good country. We cannot speak with that man, so best we him alone to his weird."
They on. But it too dark to see, and Eodan would not by his oath-sister. In the the would him from where she lay. Then the Romans would come, and he would by her and till they him.
"I would like a fire," said Tjorr. He in the murk, for his horse. "The night-gangers would away."
"They will anyhow," Eodan told him. "It is not that we should be by witch-beasts."
Tjorr said, with in his tones: "I will that. You are something more than a man tonight."
"I am a man with a goal," said Eodan. "Nothing else."
"That is enough," said Tjorr. "It is more than I to be. I not touch you dawn."
Eodan rolled himself into the blanket, put his on his and in cold, darkness. The earth sick, for rain, and the rain was withheld. He if some of the Tjorr called on had been locked up in the hammer. When they died tomorrow, the rain might come; or perhaps, Eodan, the snow, for he is the rain but I am the winter.
I am the wind.
He to himself across the earth, in darkness, in darkness, with the Cimbri through the sky him. He all these for Phryne; the whole night his search for Phryne's ghost. There were many in the long grasses, for this land was very old. But none of them was hers, and none of them tell him anything of her; they only gave him his own empty whistling. He further, up over the Caucasus and then to a sea that under his lash, until he came past a bloody-breasted hound, through to the gates of hell; as he hell, calling Phryne's name, but there was no answer. Though he his black walls, no one stirred, no one spoke, the died. So he that was dead, it had long ago been deserted; and he to the upper world him. And centuries had passed while he was gone. It was again. He by the of a named Eodan, which out on the of the world where the wind was blowing; and on the he saw a little bloom, the flower of spring.
Then he rested with gladness. The earth him; he its cold among a of stars. Winter came again, and summer, and winter once more, unendingly. But he had a growing....
"There is light now."
Eodan opened his eyes. The had slackened, he saw. The air a little warmer, and the wind had a wet to it. Southward, the world was murk. It must be there, he dreamily. The wind would the here evening. Strange that the this year should come from the south. But then, the land more slowly than the see ... yes, surely it did, for he had that the Taurus Mountains in that direction.
"The Mountains of the Bull," he said. "It may be an omen."
"What do you mean?" Tjorr was a in the half-light, with a of in his hands.
"We must the Mountains of the Bull to Parthia."
"If we live that long," the Alan. He off a of bread, touched it with his and it out into the dark. Perhaps some god or or here would accept the sacrifice.
"That is uncertain," Eodan. He and rolled out of his blanket. "Best we be on our way. The enemy will start at sunrise."
Tjorr him carefully. "You are a man again," he said. "A mortal, I mean. You are no more hope, and thus not the of that hope. What happened?"
"Phryne lives," said Eodan.
Tjorr for a leather bottle and out a libation. "I would name the god this is for, if you will tell me who sent you that vision," he said.
"I do not know," said Eodan. "It might have been only myself. But I of Phryne, who is wise and has too much life in her to it up needlessly. She would have that one Pontine soldier, on a single horse, would a and Romans. But who a Phrygian, some shepherd?" He laughed aloud, softly. "Do you understand? She stopped that man we saw—at point, I would guess—and him all his garments. She make her wish clear by gestures. Doubtless she him a coin; I how he something near his heart. When he had fled, she on until her was too to be of use. Then she her archer's outfit, taking the and a knife, I suppose, and on afoot."
Tjorr whooped. "Do you think so? Aye, aye—it must be! Well, let's our and catch her!" He ran after his own animal. When he had it back, he looked at Eodan for a moment in a very way.
"I am not so sure the witch-power I last night has left you, disa," he murmured. "Or that it will."
"I have no of the mage," Eodan. "I only think."
"I have a that to think is a than all others. Will you old Tjorr when they to to you?"
"You like a baby. To horse!"
They moved through the light, Eodan at a as he rode. Now Flavius was going to hunt. The Cimbrian would need this day.
The whispered; here and there a in an of wind. Mile after mile the sun, by low-flying gray, touched the Axylon, until Eodan and Tjorr in the full great circle of the horizon. A see in this land.
They a sheep flock, larger than most, but no time on its watchers. Phryne would be able to see at a distance, too; the need was to come eye-range of her. Close beyond, Eodan what must be the home of the owner or or here. It was than usual, being not of mud, but was still only a small house—windowless, surely with just one room, from a roof. There were a of little outbuildings, also of moss-chinked boulders, and some haystacks. Nothing else the emptiness, and nothing moved but a half-savage dog. The and children must be their door as the mail-coats by. Eodan a hurt; it was so to him he had to think a while he it—yes, pity. How many lives, the earth and time, were such a desolation?
A king, he thought, was more than power. He should be law. Yes, and a of all arts; a just man, who wild more with his law than his spear—though he was also the one who them how to make when was needed—so as the gods allowed, a king should be freedom.
And afterward, he wryly, when the king was dead, the people would all the past in his now name. But no, not all of it. Doubtless men two steps for every three they made; nevertheless, that third step endured, and it was the king's.
Phryne me how, he thought.
As if in answer, he saw the little from the where it had concealed. Dwarfed by hundreds of yards, she came in her Phrygian and rags; but Eodan's those yards away, and he from the and her to him.
She him close, on his cold coat. "It was not what I wanted, that you should come. It was not what I wanted."
"It was what I wanted," he said. He her until he into her eyes. "I will no reproaches. Enough that I you."
"I shall from you again," she said. "Where you make your home, there shall Hellas be."
Hoofs at their backs. Tjorr coughed. "Uh-hm! The enemy is on his way, with and remounts. And we've only two beasts. Best we while we can."
Eodan straightened. "No," he said. "I, too, have enough."
