Balin and Columbine (A Children of the May Novella - Book 1.5b)

Chapter Eleven: Road-Kill

Though Balin and Columbine were ready to go straight away, it took Garnish another hour to load up War-Strider. The boy couldn’t bear to leave any of his things behind, and he had a lot. There were pots and pans, tartan blankets, his small library and dented armour; all of which he somehow squeezed into War-Strider’s saddlebags. When the horse was weighted down with all this stuff the poor beast looked more miserable than ever.

The final things Garnish brought from the cottage were two swords, both of which looked brand new. ‘I’ve drawn them both,’ he explained, ‘but I never managed to land a blow.’

‘Aye, I remember when you challenged me,’ said Balin.

‘And me,’ said Columbine.

‘Do you two want them?’ said Garnish. ‘I won’t need them again.’

‘Many thanks,’ said Balin. He examined the two swords, one a broadsword, one a rapier. Both gleamed in the midday sun when he drew them from their leather scabbards. He nodded appreciatively. ‘Good steel, these. You want the broadsword, I suppose?’ he said to Columbine.

She grinned. ‘I’m better with a lighter blade; the only way to fight with a broadsword is to fight stupid.’

‘And that’s more my style, is it?’

‘You said it, not me.’ She took the rapier from him and, now that both swords could be drawn, strapped it above the Dolorous Stroke, where it would come most readily to her sword hand.

‘A maid with two swords,’ said Balin. ‘Not every day you see that.’

‘That’s what they’ll call her in the stories, I reckon,’ said Garnish. ‘The storytellers love a detail like that. The Maid with Two Swords.’

Columbine shrugged on the torn pigeon-skin cloak. ‘Come on boys,’ she said. ‘We’ve tarried long enough.’

Garnish was a much better walker than he was a rider; even War-Strider seemed happy to be in his company as he told an endless stream of stories about flowers, herbs and animals; of Herne the Hunter, Will o’ the Wisp, the giants Gog and Magog, and the rest of the fantastical history of Britain. He talked non-stop as they rejoined the narrow pass through the hills, and made their way to the northern feet of the range.

Balin was thoroughly entertained by Garnish’s stories. The northerner could see that Columbine had been right to tell the boy to go back home. He was one of the cleverest boys Balin had ever met, and would surely develop a giant, unwieldy brain that would grow bigger than his tummy in time. The slates of the nameless hills would be hard on Garnish if his top-heavy head ever unbalanced him; much better the soft landings of Vellion.

The narrow pass opened out into the lush lands of western valleys. The view was one of a gentle rise and fall, a patchwork of farmers’ fields, small villages, woodlands and gleaming rivers. Balin breathed in the sweet air of the rich farmlands, felt the sun on his face and heard birdsong everywhere around him. He loved Northumbria, he really did – he had cold sea-spray in his soul – but though he would never have said it out loud, he had to admit to himself that home was a little bleak compared to this merry Eden.

Three roads led away from the end from the pass: one cutting directly east, another north-east, and a third that went directly north for a couple of miles before bending north-west towards the coast.

‘The middle road, then,’ said Balin, and before either Garnish or Columbine could reply he strode off in front of them. The last thing he wanted was the Maid of the Big Mouth trying to take control again. Balin had been doing his best to flatter her. Perhaps his ploy of offering her the broadsword to make her feel like a warrior hadn’t worked out as he’d planned, but he thought he’d probably done enough to fool her into thinking that they were on a joint quest. He had very cunningly introduced the idea that they would take Garnish back home; he hadn’t said it in so many words, but he was certain she had inferred it. In a flash of what Balin considered genius, he had realised that the lands to the north of Vellion lay on the other side of Vellion. They would have to go through Vellion to reach Garnish’s home.