Other riders came behind him, four, five, six men riding hard, shouting a slogan I could not make out against the sound of the burning tower and the snarls of Wild Will and the Armstrongs.
Wild Will pointed to me.'Kill her!'he ordered.
One man lifted his lance and moved toward me.He was neither smiling nor full of hatred.My life or death did not matter to him: killing me was merely business, like slaughtering a sheep or robbing a house.
'Robert!'I screamed.I did not run.I knew I would be saved but Robert was taking his damned time about it.I looked to the hills, right into the glare of the rising sun.Robert was tall and bold and strong as he rode straight down the slope, lance couched.
Wild Will rode to meet him, with his men at his back.Somebody drew a dag, a heavy pistol, and fired, with the crack loud amidst the drumming of hooves.None of the advancing riders fell.
And then a cloud slid across the sun and I could see again.
'Robert!'I yelled.
In my vision, I had heard my own voice.I had convinced myself that Robert had come to save me, because I had shouted for him, but it was not Robert.It was Hugh and he rode straight at Wild Will without hesitation.That was not part of my vision, or was it?I had seen that rider race down the hillside so often and had heard my own voice shout 'Robert' so often that I had convinced myself that was his identity.Now I knew it was not he.
The horses of Hugh and Wild Will slammed into each other in a frenzy of flying hooves and tossing manes.Both men discarded their lances, drew swords, and clashed again, blade to blade and face to face as Hugh's followers rode into the other Armstrongs.I saw Hugh pressed backwards as the scar-faced Armstrong used his superior experience and slashed at his thighs.Hugh defended vigorously but it was obvious that Wild Will was the better swordsman.
I ran forward, hoping to help, unsure what to do.Lifting a stone, I aimed it, ready to throw, just as Hugh pulled hard on his reins.His horse reared, flailing with its fore hooves.Wild Will pulled back a fraction, which gave Hugh sufficient space to slice upward with his sword.The point of the blade took Wild Will under the chin and drove on into his brain.He died without a word.
With the loss of their leader, all the fight went out of the Armstrongs.Some of them turned away at once, with others throwing down their weapons in surrender.As more Veitches appeared from the crest of the hill, Armstrongs' withdrawal became a rout and the valley became a scene of flying reivers and pursuing Veitches.
Hugh gave me a huge grin.'I left you in charge of the house,' he said, 'and look at the mess you made of it.'
'You saved me again,' I said as all the certainties of my images vanished.
'It seems that I also left you to be burned,' Hugh raised his voice.'Sound the horn; bring the boys back!'
The long ululation sounded across the valley, echoing from the distant hills, eerie, somehow pagan, a call from savage nature.I saw the Veitches halt their pursuit in ones and twos and small groups.
'Sound it again,' Hugh ordered, and the horn blasted out a second time, lifting the small hairs on the back of my neck.
The Veitches returned and gathered around us.I looked at them, these men who were enemies of my blood, and they looked most remarkably like the men with whom I had lived all my life.Young men and old, youths whose chins had never yet felt the scrape of a razor and men with grey beards, long faces, and broad faces, any one of them could have farmed in the Lethan Valley or fitted into the ranks of the Tweedies without comment or concern.As the riders gathered, women emerged from their hiding places to congregate near their men.
'Hugh!'somebody shouted, 'why have you called back the men?We had them on the run!'
'That is why.'Hugh pointed to the crest of the hills on the west, from where rank after rank of men emerged, so their lance points looked like a forest of naked trees.'It is a common Armstrong trick to pretend a retreat and ambush those who followed when they were scattered and in disarray.'
I watched the Armstrongs as they re-entered the valley.I had thought that this was only a raid by Wild Will and his outlaws.Now I knew that it was a full-scale attack; the Armstrongs had brought their full might to end their feud with the Veitches.
'A Tweedie!'The call came from behind us and we turned around.
'A Tweedie!A Tweedie!'My father had, at last, arrived, bringing all the manpower of the Lethan Valley with him.
'We are surrounded,' the voice was panicky.'The Tweedies have joined the Armstrongs against us!Run for your lives!'
Hugh looked at me, and for the first time since I had known him, he looked worried.'I fear we are caught between two fires,' he said.'Your people have arrived at a most inopportune moment.'
I nodded as the fear rose within me.With the Armstrongs in front, smarting at the death of Wild Will, and my own surname in the rear, determined to finish their feud, there seemed little hope for the Veitches.I took a deep breath.'Ride with me,' I said, grabbed Wild Will's loose horse and kicked toward the advancing Tweedies.
No doubt convinced that I had gone mad, Hugh joined me and we rode toward Father's men.
I halted a hundred paces in front of them and raised my hand.'Father!I would have a word before any killing starts!'
Father had indeed been busy.Judging by the numbers, he had raised every man in the Lethan Valley, from cubs barely in their teens to grey and even white-bearded men who must first have held a lance when Queen Mary was a toddling infant.At one side of him, resplendent in his yellow jack, rode the Yorling.At the other was Robert, frowning as he glowered at me.
'I see you have thrown in your lot with the enemy,' Robert said.'My fault was minor when I bedded Kate.Yours is rank betrayal.'
'This is not because of your poor choice.'I was very aware of the men lining up in front of me, ready to plunge lance and sword into Hugh and ravage his already burning valley.I turned a cold shoulder to Robert.'We can talk later,' I said, 'there are more important matters than your desires.'
