Year of the Unicorn Read Free Page A

striving to out-talk their companions. Truly a stoat had been introduced into our house of hens!
     
    "Gillan, what think you!" The Lady Marimme was all rounded lips and wide, astonished eyes. "They are coming here-they may reach here by the Hour of the Fifth Flame?"
     
    Kinsmen home from the wars, I thought. Truly something to set the Abbey a flutter. But-why the convocation lasting to this hour? The Dames would not be moved by any such guesting, not even that of a full company of horse. They would merely draw into their apportioned section of the Abbey until the men of the world had departed beyond their gates once again.
     
    "Who comes?" I then named her nearest kin. "Lord Imgry?"
     
    "He and others-the brides, Gillan, the promised brides! They march to the waste border by the north road and they will guest here this night! Gillan, it is a fearsome thing they do-Poor, poor ones! We should offer prayers in their names-"
     
    "Whyfor?" The Lady Sussia came up in her usual unhurried way. She had not the soft beauty of Marimme. But, I thought, she will be regal all her life, and eyes will follow her after other beauty fades with the years.
     
    "Whyfor?" repeated Marimme, "Whyfor? Because they ride into black evil, Sussia, and they will not come forth again!" She was indignant.
     
    It was then Sussia repeated aloud what had been something of my own thinking on the subject. "Also they may ride from evil, birdling. All of us have not soft nests nor sheltering wings about us." She must be speaking for herself. Did she indeed have some foreknowledge that the train which would guest with us this night would take her with it in the morning?
     
    "I would rather wed steel, in truth," cried Marimme, "than ride on such a marriage journey!"
     
    "You need not fear," I said then, for I guessed she spoke the truth, if somewhat wildly. Her fear was like a sickness, stretching out its shadow from her mind and heart.
     
    But over Marimme's shoulder I saw Sussia look at me oddly. Again it was as if she had foreknowledge. And in me a second time that warning of my own stirred. I could breathe in trouble as I could the aromatic smell of the leaves burned with the firelogs to freshen the hall.
     
    "Marimme, Marimme-"
     
    I think she was glad to turn from us to answer that call, to join the maids who were betrothed and so safe from alarms, as if their safety could cloak her also. But Sussia still faced me, her face locked as ever against any revealing of herself.
     
    "Watch her, as shall I this night, " she said under cover of their chatter.
     
    "Why?"
     
    "Because-she goes!"
     
    I stared at her, for the moment struck dumb with amazement. Still I knew she spoke the truth.
     
    "How-why-?" I did not finish either question for she was speaking swiftly, her hand on my arm drawing me a little away, her voice low and for my ear alone.
     
    "How do I know? I had a private message this seven night. Oh, yes, I thought that I might be chosen, there was much to warrant it. But my kinsmen have had other plans for a year, and when the suggestion was made that I might be included in the Bargain, they made sword troth for me at once. While war raged I was landless. Now that the Hounds are hurled back into the sea from whence they came, I am mistress of more than one manor, being the last of my immediate line." She smiled thinly. "Thus am I a treasure for my kin. I go to a wedding indeed this spring, but one in the Dales. As to why Marimme-beauty draws men, even when there is no dowry to fill the purse or line manor with manor. But a man who wants power can try for it in different ways. Lord Imgry has the granting of her hand. He is a man who hoards power as a captain hoards his men-until the attack trumpet. Then he will risk much to get what he wants. He has offered Marimme in return for certain favours. And the others believe that such a flower offered the Riders will sweeten the dish, since all the brides are not so choice."
     
    "She will not