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be polite to him.
    They would both be kings and both be friends and Lagin and Oriel would never go to war. They would always fight together against Muin and Connat and Anlar and the Islesmdashespecially Page 17

    Anlar, whose king Lew ap
    Ross was a boring old windbag.
    "What's that?" Laig asked, drawing his pair to a halt. Ferdia had been so far off in his thoughts that he was surprised to find they were deep under the shade of the trees. He hadn't heard anything, but he was glad of a moment's rest. He halted beside his friends and spat, clearing his mouth of the dust of the road. He took a mouthful of water from the skin at his belt and put it back to stop himself from taking as much as he wanted and draining the skin.
    "Could it be deer?" Darag asked.
    Ferdia listened for a moment. "Sounds a lot more like horses to me," he said.
    "Better let whoever it is pass, then," Laig said, drawing his chariot over to the side.
    Darag put his head on one side as if he were listening, too. "No, let's go and find them," he said.
    Ferdia twitched the traces and the horses responded at once with a surge forward. A moment later, the other chariot came up beside him. They went forward along the track through the woods. The trees along the right side of the path were a line of planted alders, so although he had never been here before, Ferdia wasn't at all surprised when the woods widened out ahead and there was a mere on his right, full of reeds and rushes.
    What did surprise him was the sight of two other chariots, drawn up facing the water. The nearest held Nid, driving Leary, and the other was little Emer of Connat, driving Conal. Ferdia could hardly take it in that they were there at all.
    "Ah, greetings cousin," Conal said, bowing in his typical sardonic way. "Have you made a kill yet?" His eyes ran over their empty chariots. "No? What a pity." Emer laughed. Ferdia scowled.
    "I wondered if you might make it after all," Darag said in perfect good humor. "No, we have seen nothing all day. How about you?"
    "We have only been out an hour, and naturally we used our wits and made straight for the woods as the most likely source of game," Conal said. "But we have seen nothing yet worthy of our spears."
    He was also holding his spear. He didn't look as good as Darag, but only because his chariot wasn't moving.
    Conal had the sort of smooth good looks that made Ferdia want to break his nose.
    "Why are you stopped here?" Ferdia asked.
    "We were looking what birds are on the water," Nid said.
    Ferdia looked at the water. Moorhens and a handful of ducks. He enjoyed eating duck as much as anyone, but it wasn't game for a warrior; ducks were caught with nets. Anyway, they couldn't be killed now, unless someone was likely to starve to death otherwise. It was late spring; they might be nesting.
    "There's nothing," Laig said after a moment.
    "We were just looking," Leary said gruffly.
    "Well, since we have met, cousin, should we hunt together or separately?" Conal asked.
    Ferdia longed to answer that they should separate, but he looked to Darag for a response. As he turned, he
    saw them, gasped and pointed. Darag immediately turned to see, spear ready. A flight of six swans was coming down towards the mere, dark against the sky. Swans were warriors' game if speared from the sky.
    They might not be as good as a bear, but they were a lot better than a squirrel.
    His spear was in the charioteer's slot beside him. With the chariot stopped and facing towards them it was much easier than it would have been. He drew the spear, chose a swan, aimed and threw. He knew almost at once that he had missed. But even as he realized, he saw that Darag had hit. He saw another spear miss and plunge into the water. He was surprised Conal or Leary had even tried, from that angle it would be quite impossible. Darag's spear struck the Page 18

    swan cleanly, as cleanly as any such hit Ferdia had ever seen, and it fell straight down, into the water. The other swans landed,