The Prize in the Game by Jo Walton

Author:Jo Walton [Walton, Jo]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Publisher: Feedbooks
Published: 2002-04-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

Connat

1. (Conal)

The Isles had been good, Lagin had been better, Muin had been wonderful, only Connat lay between him and victory. Leary and Nid's chariot rolled along ahead, Darag and Laig came behind. The road rose and fell over rolling farmland, winter-brown now. Apart from the occasional pheasant he hadn't seen any life for hours. A feeble sun shone now and then through clouds, and it hadn't rained all day. If it hadn't been for Emer's set scowl, Conal could have sung.

"What's wrong?" he asked, when the silence had stretched too long, although he already knew what was wrong. She didn't want to get to Cruachan, to see her mother, for this journey to be over.

"For someone with parents like yours, you're very reluctant to believe in parents like mine," Emer said between her teeth, her eyes on the road ahead.

"But why do you think they won't let you go back to Ardmachan for the three months left of your time there?" Conal tried hard to sound reasonable.

"You don't know how hard it was for me to get away at all," Emer said. "And it's hardly fostering, now I am of fighting age. She'll say there's no use to it."

"Well I don't think she'll be that unreasonable," Conal said, hopefully. Emer gritted her teeth. "And even if she does, whatever she says, as soon as I get home I'll talk to Conary and my parents, then I'll have Conary send me back to ask her." His mother had half-agreed before they left, after all. Speaking to Conary about it wouldn't be easy, but it would be easier than it would have been before. As for his father, well, when he got back Amagien should see that he was a boy no longer.

"And what about this stupid half arranged thing with Darag?"

"Everyone knows neither of you want that. And if… " he trailed off, not daring to say it. It was the most ill-omened thing you could do, to count on victory half way around the course. "Whatever happens, I should look like a good alliance to your mother, and it won't be more than a year you have to stay there," he said, instead.

"You don't know my mother," she muttered. "I wish I was a champion of Muin."

Conal laughed in surprised recognition. "So do I," he admitted. "I've never had such fun in my life. Even exhausted. Even covered in mud and freezing cold and starving."

"They really know how to have a good time," Emer agreed, then giggled. "It was a good time, though, it really was."

"And not only that, but unlike all the contests in the Isles and Lagin, it was a good challenge, because it was actually something that does count for being a king," Conal said.

Emer raised her eyebrows and darted a quick glance at him. "Flying Leary's breeches like a banner from the top of the palisade is something a king needs to be able to do?"

Conal laughed. "Wasn't he furious! But you know what I mean.

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