H Warner Munn Merlins Godson

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with their might. In the pits beneath the Egg lay the things we needed to create those arms the clamps of
the arrow engines and the tormenta! The bronze clamps we could not make, owing to the death of our
smith and the lack of tin. (For even yet, we have found no tin in this land.)
But I, under the Mantle of Arthur, could enter the gates and steal those clamps out of the pits, unseen and
safely too!
So, with five Hodenosaunee, I left the ten Romans in charge, and we six went over the southern hills. At
the edge of the forest nearest the city my followers bid themselves while I donned the Mantle. The sight
of their erstwhile stern and impassive faces as they saw me fade from sight was worth remembering. I
thought they would turn and flee when they heard me speak from empty air, but though they wavered as
they would not before enemy acts or lance, they held firm and I left them there to think on the godlike
mysteries of white men and then: ways.
After nearly an hour s brisk walk, I passed by the outworks and entered through the open gates, though I
was obliged to wait a little time, for there was a coming and going of many people, as the fields were
being put in order for the planting season.
Secure hi my invisibility, I strolled amdng the buildings, many of which were newly built, showing the
damage done on the night of our escape. I spied out the strength of the city, and while I was amusing
myself by calculating the thousands of people which it contained and mentally marking the weakest spots
in the palisade which spined the back of the Woman-Snake, an accident imperiled the success of my
adventure and nearly cost me my life.
Around the corner of a building ran a little naked reddish boy, his face all one large grin at some prank he
had just played on some pursuing comrades. Head down, he hurled himself into my middle, all unseen as
I was to him, and we both went rolling.
My robe flew up above my knees, my hood came off my head and had he not been well-nigh stunned by
the impact, I must needs have killed the child or have all my trouble go for nothing.
I had barely time to scramble to my feet, adjust my robe and hood, and stand out of the way when a
shouting pack of boys came and fell upon their fellow and bore him away, dizzy and sick.
After this I had no more inclination to roam aimlessly, but made for the Egg, found the entrance to the pits
unguarded and soon came out again with three of the heavy clamps beneath my robe, which were as
much as I could handily carry.
When I arrived among my followers, I was hungry and ate a cup full of teocentli meal stirred into cold
water, which is all we carry for rations when on a journey, it being light and very nourishing, and it would
be a valuable addition to the army commissariat.
Then I returned and made two more trips with clamps and on the third trip brought the last of them and
some tin from the Rrydwen s sheathing.
It was now darkening and I knew I could not make another journey before nightfall, but wished to bring
more tin while my luck still was good. The tin was worth more than gold to us, if we could discover hi
what proportions and in what manner we were to use it with the great supplies of copper which
Myrdhinn and his men must have taken in their assault on the mines. So I tempted Fortune, and found I
could not depend upon her fickle smile, as you shall see.
Returning, I had entered the crypt in almost absolute darkness and was feeling about for the pile of sheet
tin which I knew was there, when suddenly I felt myself seized by unseen hands. I surged away, heard a
ripping and suddenly I was free, but with the Mantle of Arthur stripped from me, without even a knife to
protect myself against the armed men who crowded the place.
Luckily I was near the entrance. I dashed out, knocked over two men with torches who were hurrying to
shut the corridor gate, and was loose in the city, with the people aroused and hunting me, every gate
watched and with nothing open to me for a hiding-place.
At first I made for the river. Its high bank was lined with torch-bearers, so thickly gathered that an ant
could not have slipped through. I headed back to climb the palisade.
Sneaking in the shadows, I came to a large unlighted house of logs, toward the center of the city. Behind
me were a number of people, though not intentionally, for I knew I had not been seen. Another group
was coming toward me, a short distance away.
What was I to do? Another moment and I should be within one of the two circles of light, or be seen by
either group against the flares of the other as I tried to escape from between them.
I could not burrow into the ground or fly into the air. Then, as I looked up, an owl quitted the roof with a
screech, dazzled by the many torches, and sailed into the forest. The owl has been a bird of evil omen to
many, but I will forever bless that one!
The hint it had given me was enough. In an instant I had climbed up the chinks hi the log wall, with
toe-tips and fingertips, and was comfortably ensconced upon the roof by the time the two groups met,
conferred and went upon their separate ways.
For the moment I was safe, but my situation was most precarious. At best I could remain there only until
daylight, and there were no indications that this relentless search would die down by then.
I was thinking what would be best to do, when a man came out of the house beneath me and walked
unsurely toward a bench, groping about beneath it, till he came upon a jug of water, from which he drank
avidly as though parched with thirst. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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