| The Toads of Grimmerdale |
| 1 | The Toads of Grimmerdale, by Andre Norton, Chapter I The drifts of ice crusted snow were growing both taller and wider. Hertha stopped to catch her breath, ramming the butt of the hunting spear she had been using as a staff into the one before her, the smooth shaft breaking through the crust with difficulty. She frowned at the broken hole without seeing it. There was a long dagger at her belt, the short hafted spear in her mittened hand. |
| 2 | And, under her cloak, she hugged to her the all too small bundle which she had brought with her out of Horla's Hold. The other burden which she carried lay within her, and she forced herself to face squarely the fate that had been brought upon her. Now her lips firmed into a line, her chin went up. Suddenly she spat with a hiss of breath. Shame - why should she feel shame? Had Kuno expected her to whine and wail, perhaps crawl before him so he could "forgive" her, prove thus to his followers his greatness of spirit? |
| 3 | She showed her teeth as might a cornered vixen, and aimed a harder blow at the drift. There was no reason for her to feel shame, the burden in her was not of wanton seeking. Such things happened in times of war. She guessed that when matters worked so Kuno had not been backward himself in taking a woman of the enemy. It remained that her noble brother had sent her forth from Horla's Hold because she had not allowed his kitchen hags to brew some foul potion to perhaps poison her, as well as what she bore. |
| 4 | Had she so died he could have piously crossed hands at the Thunderer's Altar and spoken of Fate's will. And all would have ended neatly. In fact she might believe that perhaps that had been his true intention. For a moment Hertha was startled at the grim march of her thoughts. Kuno-Kuno was her brother! Two years ago she could not have thought so of him or any man! When yet the war had not nearer the Hold. |
| 5 | But that was long before she set out the Landendale. Before she knew the world as it was and not as she had believed it. Hertha was glad she had been able to learn her lesson quickly. The thin-skinned maid she had once been could not have fronted Kuno, could not have taken this road - She felt the warmth of anger, a sullen, glowing anger, as heating as if she carried a small brazier of coals under her cloak's edge. |
| 6 | So she went on, setting her rough boots firmly to crunch across the drift edge. Nor did she turn to look back down at that stone walled keep which had sheltered those of her blood for five generations. The sun was well westward, she must not linger on the trail. Few paths were broken now, times in number she must halt and use the spear to sound out the footing. But it was easy to keep in eye her landmarks of Mulma's Needle and the Wyvern's Wing. |
| 7 | Hertha was sure Kuno expected her to come creeping woefully back to accept his conditions. She smiled wryly. Kuno was so very certain of everything. And since he had beaten off the attack of a straggling band of the enemy trying to fight their way to the dubious safety of the coast, he had been insufferable. The Dales were free in truth. But for Kuno to act as if the victories hard won there were his alone-! It had required all the might of High Hallack, together with strange allies from the Waste, to break the invaders, to hunt and harry them back to the sea from which they had come. |
| 8 | And that had taken a score of years to do it. Trewsdale had escaped, not because of any virtue, but by chance. But because fire and sword had not riven, there was no reason to cry upon unbroken walls as gamecocks. Kuno had harried men already three-quarters beaten. She reached the divide, to plod steadily on. The wind had been at work here, and her path was free of snow. It was very old, that road, one of the reminders to be found all across the dale land that her own people were late comers. |
| 9 | Who had cut these ways for their own treading? The well weathered carvings at the foot of the Wyvern's Wing could be seen easily now. So eroded they were by time that none could trace their meaning. But men-or intelligent beings-had shaped them to a purpose. And that task must have been long in the doing. Hertha reached out her mittened fingers to stroke one of the now vague curves. She did not believe they had any virtue in themselves, though the field workers did. |
| 10 | But they marked well her road. Down slope again from this point, and now the wind's lash did not cut at her. Though again, snow drifted. Two tens of days yet to the feast of Year Turn. This was the last of the Year of the Hornet, next lay the Year of the Unicorn, which was a more fortunate sign. With the increase of snow, Hertha once more found the footing dangerous. Bits of broken crust worked in over the tops of her boots, even though she had drawn tight their top straps, and melted clamily against her foot sacks. |
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