The Horse Lord by Peter Morwood

Author:Peter Morwood [Morwood, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy, Non-Classifiable, Science Fiction, Fiction
ISBN: 9780886771782
Google: 7G8nAgAACAAJ
Amazon: 0886771781
Publisher: DAW
Published: 1983-04-14T23:00:00+00:00

"Hautmarin" Dewan cautioned, "I didn't hear you say that. And don't let—" His insincerities broke off as Kyrin shouted, pointing at the sky. She had whiled away a conversation which she could not understand by peering through a long-glass at whatever caught her attention. One such distant speck had seemed to be a gull at first, but closer scrutiny and her own suspicions revealed it to be nothing of the sort. Crossing the quarterdeck in two long strides, Aldric seized the glass and raised it to his eye, then flinched visibly and muttered something savage under his breath. "What the hell is that?" he heard ar Korentin gasp.

Aldric's mouth was dry and he could taste the acrid bitterness of fear under his tongue. So soon after Esel, he thought, and felt an ill-suppressed shiver crawl along his spine. "I can't give you a name," he answered very softly, "but I think it's looking for…" His voice was drowned by a thin whistling shriek of exhalation as the isghun passed high overhead, and En Sohra's deck blinked dark as vast wings slid across the sun. The spell-beast turned, spiralling on one wingtip with heavy, ominous grace, and came back low and fast.

It skimmed past the gallon's portside just above the waves, the banshee scream of its breath slapping back from whirling disturbed water in its wake, and for just an instant Aldric met the demon's eyes. The force of that unhuman gaze was like a blow and, horribly, there was recognition in it. Then the isghun was gone, soaring into the hard blue sky white the storm-wind of its passage flailed across both ships.

Aldric laid one hand to taiken-hilt, sickly aware of how small both he and Widowmaker were beside the monster's bulk. He was conscious too of other things; of how the hand had trembled before he clenched it tight, of how wind-blown hair and clothing stuck to skin already chilled by sweat, of how he felt more alone than ever in his life. And more afraid. Esel had at least been manlike and familiar, no matter what his shape concealed. But this …

The eijo's last rational thought was one of disbelief that anything so big could move so fast, as the isghun swept around and dived like a falcon on a mouse. Then he flung himself clear of the quarterdeck. A shadow flashed across En Sohra and there was a rending crash right at his heels which made the galion vibrate from stem to stern. Though he landed heavily and barely kept his balance, Aldric was still able to glance up in time to see what might have been his own fate.

The isghun's tail had whiplashed around the companion-ladder where he had been standing and had wrenched it clean out of the deck without apparent effort. Emitting a deep; disgusted grunt, it let the false catch drop more than three hundred feet in a slow end-over-end tumble until the stairway smashed to matchwood against Aalkh-orsfs armoured stern.

Aldric could hear

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