He decided not to burden Emmy with his plan. He was a master thief, after all, so he was perfectly capable of stealing a horse and saddle without any help – or commentary.
He fixed supper, and after they’d eaten, they curled up under his cloak and went to sleep.
‘What are you doing?’ Emmy asked with a sleepy thought as he was preparing to leave not long after midnight.
‘I thought we should get an early start and slip past that village before the people woke up. Traveling at night’s the best way I know of to avoid being seen.’
‘You don’t mind if I sleep a bit longer, do you?’
‘Not at all, Em,’ he said. ‘Just curl up in your little pouch and go back to sleep.’
She squirmed around in the hood of his cloak as he started out. Then she got settled in and purred herself back to sleep.
She woke up rather abruptly, however, when Althalus nudged his new horse into a loping canter. ‘I suppose I should have guessed,’ she murmured.
‘We are on a sort of sacred mission, aren’t we, Em?’ he replied with a tone of high-minded justification. ‘We’re going out to save the world. It’s only right and proper that the people along the way should lend a hand, isn’t it?’
‘You’ll never change, will you, Althalus?’
‘Probably not, no. Go back to sleep, Em. I’ve got everything under control now.’
Once they were mounted, they made good time, and they crossed out of Kagwher into the vast forest of Hule a couple of days after Althalus had acquired the horse.
There were villages here and there in the deep wood of Hule now, and that offended Althalus. Hule was supposed to be wild, but now grubby little men had come here to contaminate it. The villages were squalid-looking collections of rude huts squatting on muddy ground and surrounded by garbage. They weren’t much to look at, but what really offended Althalus were the tree-stumps. These wretched intruders were cutting down trees. ‘Civilization,’ he muttered in tones of deepest contempt.
‘What?’ Emmy asked.
‘They’re cutting down trees, Em.’
‘Men do that, pet.’
‘Little men, you mean. Men who are afraid of the dark and invent ways to talk about wolves without actually saying the word “wolf”. Let’s get out of here. The sight of that trash-heap makes me sick.’
They passed a few other villages on their way south, and the opinion he’d formed about the people who lived in those villages didn’t improve very much.
His humor began to improve as they rode up into the foothills of Arum. He was fairly certain that no matter how civilized man became, it was highly unlikely that they’d come up with a way to chop down mountains.
They rode some distance up into the foothills, and on the second day as evening settled over the mountains, Althalus rode back from the narrow track a ways and set up their night’s camp in a small clearing.
‘Could we have fish tonight, pet?’ Emmy asked once he had their fire going.
‘I was sort of thinking about beef.’
‘We had beef last night.’
He was about to say something, but suddenly laughed instead.
‘What’s so funny?’
‘Haven’t we had this conversation before? It seems that I can remember long talks about having the same thing six or eight days in a row.’
‘That was different.’
‘I’m sure it was,’ he gave in. ‘All right, dear, if you want fish, we’ll have fish.’
She began to purr in happy anticipation.
Althalus slept well that night, but just before dawn he awoke quite suddenly as some almost forgotten instinct warned him of approaching danger. ‘Somebody’s coming, Em,’ he jarred her awake with an urgent thought.
Her green eyes opened immediately, and he felt her send out a searching thought. Then she hissed.
‘What’s the matter?’ he demanded.
‘Pekhal! Be careful, Althalus. He’s very dangerous.’
‘Didn’t you tell me that he’s one of Ghend’s people?’
‘Ghend’s animal would come closer. There isn’t much humanity left in Pekhal. I’m sure he’ll try to kill you.’
‘Lots of people have tried that, Em.’ He rolled out from under his cloak, reaching for his bronze-tipped spear.
‘Don’t try to fight him, Althalus. He’s a total savage and very vicious. He’ll try to talk his way in close enough to reach you with his sword. I’d imagine that he’s looking for breakfast along about now.’
‘He eats people?’ Althalus exclaimed.
‘That’s one of his nicer habits.’
‘I think I remember a way to make him keep his distance,’ Althalus said with a bleak sort of grin.
There was a crashing sound back in the undergrowth, and Althalus slipped behind a tree to watch.
The man was huge, and his face was almost subhumanly brutish. He was bulling his way through the bushes, and he was swinging a large sword that obviously wasn’t made of bronze. ‘Where are you?’ he roared in a hoarse, animal-like voice.
‘I’m more or less here,’ Althalus replied. ‘I don’t think you need to come any closer.’
‘Show yourself!’
‘Why would I want to do that?’
‘I want to see you!’
‘I’m not really all that attractive.’
‘Show yourself!’ the beast roared again.
‘If you say so, neighbor,’ Althalus replied mildly. He stepped out from behind the tree, looking intently at the heavily armed savage. Then he said, ‘Dheu.’
The brute rose up off the ground with a startled oath.
