The Crystal Gryphon by André Norton

Author:André Norton [Norton, Andre]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Unknown
ISBN: 9780812547382
Publisher: New York : T. Doherty Associates, 1985, c1972.
Published: 1973-09-30T14:30:00+00:00

A mounted party had gone down-dale in pursuit of our people. I besought

the Flame that those fleeing had won the rugged land where their guides could lead them by routes only dalesmen knew.

Once I saw a small party return, heard women screaming for a while, and knew that some of our people had been run down. I tried to close my ears, shut off thought. This was that place of Outer Darkness come to earth, that place to which evil crawls and from which it issues forth again-and to that evil there is no end.

I tried to plan my own ending before they could turn to me for amusement. The river-could I hurl myself into the waters there? If I could edge along the chain to which my rope had been tied, surely there was a chance.

Toross - dully I wondered what had become of him. I had not seen his body with those others. Perhaps he had escaped at the last. If so, I could still find a small, unfrozen part in me that wished him well. Oddly at that thought his face was vivid in my mind, as sharp as if he stood before my eyes. Within my mail and under my jerkin something was warm. The gryphon. That unlucky bauble which had doomed me to this state. The gryphon was growing ever warmer, almost like a brand laid to my skin. From it flooded not only that heat, but something else, a strength, a belief in myself against all the evidence that reason provided for my outer eye and ear. It was like some calm voice assuring me that there was a way out, and that my delivery was at hand, though I knew this could not be. Fear became a small, far-off thing, easy to put aside. My sight was more acute, my hearing keener. My hearing - ! Even through the clamor of the camp I detected that sound. There was something coming-down-river!

How I knew this, I could not have told. But I knew I must be ready. Perhaps I was only dazed by fatigue, by my fear and despair. Yet I was as certain of this rescue as I was that I still lived and breathed. "Joisan!" A thread of whisper, but to my alerted ears so near a shout, I feared all the camp might hear it.

I was afraid to answer aloud, but I turned my head a fraction in the direction from which they had come, hoping the gesture would signal my recognition.

"Edge - this - way - " The words came from the river. "If - you - can - "

Tortuous and slow were my efforts to obey. I kept watch on all about me, my back to where that voice whispered, lest I somehow betray this hope. Now I felt wet hands reach up to mine, the swing of a knife against the rope. That fell away, my stiffened hands were caught and held; my rescuer was half in the water.

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