Taking Flight

But if he did have control over some of it, then how could any of it be so certain that Zindre could predict it? That was certainly something to think about, and think about it he did, as the little party trudged onward.

They reached Hlimora Castle perhaps two hours after noon, and the question then arose of whether to stay the night, or press on.

“The next village is Urduron Town,” Irith said.

“Well, how far is it?” Kelder asked.

Irith pursed her lips, thinking. “I don’t remember,” she admitted. “Three leagues, maybe?”

Kelder considered this. “They say a man’s normal walk will cover a league in an hour,” he said. “The sun won’t be down for about four hours yet.”

“Come on, then,” Irith said.

Naturally, Ezdral agreed with her, and that made the vote three to one. Asha protested in vain.

“Maybe you could be a horse for a little while, Irith?” she asked.

Kelder expected her to hesitate, or refuse, but Irith simply said, “All right.” She vanished, to be instantaneously replaced by the white mare.

Ezdral stared as Kelder helped Asha up onto Irith’s back; he crept nearer, and reached out to touch the horse’s flank.

She shied away and whinnied unhappily; Asha grabbed at the mane to keep her balance.

“Don’t touch,” Kelder advised the old man.

Ezdral didn’t touch Irith again, but he stared intently.

It was plain to Kelder that Ezdral’s interest was more than just an appreciation of equine grace. At first he was puzzled by the old man’s attitude; certainly Irith was a good-looking horse, but she was scarcely as attractive in this form as in human shape. For his own part, his physical interest in Irith vanished when she was in any shape but human.

Then he remembered the love spell, and realized that it didn’t distinguish on the basis of appearance-or, it seemed, even on the basis of species. Ezdral was still just as infatuated with Irith as ever, regardless of her shape. To him, in his enchanted state, the important change had not been that Irith was now a horse, but that she was now virtually naked.

That added a whole new level of repulsiveness to the spell, in Kelder’s opinion; he watched the old man lusting after the mare and felt nothing but revulsion. Even the pity he had felt for Ezdral was overwhelmed by distaste.

He was more determined than ever to see the spell broken, though-not for Ezdral’s sake, or Irith’s, or because of his prophesied role, but just because it was disgusting and unnatural.

They had gone too far to be worth turning back by the time Kelder and Irith realized that just because a man can walk a league in an hour, that doesn’t mean a sick old man, a child, and a horse can walk three leagues in three hours. They had not allowed for rest breaks, or even the occasional call of nature; they had not allowed for Ezdral’s unsteady shuffle, or the fact that the terrain here was hilly, the road carrying them up and down one slope after another.

With Asha on Irith’s back, the real hold-up was Ezdral’s pace; he was simply not interested in moving quickly. Kelder and Asha could urge him on, but with little result; he would speed up for perhaps three or four steps, then slow again.

He might have listened to Irith, but she was unable to speak while in equine form.

Kelder tried to find a solution. The obvious one would be to put Ezdral on horseback, but that was out of the question. Irith, he was sure, wouldn’t stand for two riders at once, especially not if one of them was the old man. Asha would be no faster on foot than was Ezdral-and besides, Kelder didn’t want Ezdral any closer to Irith than absolutely necessary, under the circumstances; putting him astride her back was asking for trouble.

Finally, though, he hit upon a much simpler and more satisfactory method of accelerating the pace; he simply whispered in Irith’s ear to go a little faster and not worry about Ezdral keeping up.

Ezdral gradually dropped back as the other three marched on unheeding, until finally he called out, “Hai! You’re going too fast! Wait for me!”

Kelder called back, “No; sorry, Ezdral, but we need to get to Urduron. If you can’t keep up, you can find us there.”

“Wait,” he puffed. “Irith!”

Irith neighed, but did not slow down.

Kelder glanced back every so often, and somehow, though Ezdral puffed and panted and struggled, he never fell back far enough to let Irith out of his sight.

Kelder felt slightly guilty about exploiting the love spell in such a way-but only slightly. After all, they were bringing Ezdral along to cure him, for his own good-why let him slow them up?

The distance to Urduron turned out to be somewhat more than three leagues; Kelder judged it at at least ten miles, possibly eleven, but unquestionably between three and four leagues. They finally arrived as the sun sank before them.