Heroics by George Alec Effinger

Author:George Alec Effinger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 1979-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Clean. Really Clean

Galloping at full speed through a forest is inadvisable. This was a fact that Irene learned through experience. She had been learning quite a bit lately through experience and, though it was tougher, she appreciated every bit of new knowledge. Now she knew that galloping through a forest made the low-hanging branches jump at her much faster.

When she slowed the great horse down, she caught her own breath. She began to relax a little, but not completely. The memory of what she had seen, what was happening at Maldon when she fled, and—what she knew from the booklet—what was going to occur made her uneasy. Guilt surged through her and almost made her break down completely. She had learned by heart some of the speeches of Byrhtnoth's most loyal heorthwerod lieutenants, ones they had spoken as they fought on hopelessly, finally, while they were dying. One of the eldest of these men, at the very end, called on the few remaining Anglo-Saxon English with words that would keep their emotional significance forever: "Our will shall be the harder, heart the fiercer, courage the greater, as our strength lessens."

Escaping on Byrhtnoth's beautiful white horse, Irene felt almost like goading the beast to full gallop again and meeting one of those low-hanging branches as soon as Fate decided. But she did not. She had not fled the battlefield to throw her life away so easily. She walked the horse among the trees, searching for a path that led anywhere.

As dusk drew on, Irene was startled to see a small wooden sign on a post. She stopped the horse beside it and read the words.

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