"Let's eat," said Mouse.
"Scared?"
"Maybe you want me to go back! Maybe you think a branded thief isn't
good enough for you! Well I can't help where I was born or what my
parents were--and you'd have a brand on your ugly face too, if you
hadn't just been lucky!"
She threw the ladle.
This time her aim was better and Ciaran didn't duck quite in time. It
clipped his ear. He sprang up, looking murderous, and started to heave
it back at her. And then, suddenly, Mouse was crying, stamping up and
down and blinking tears out of her eyes.
"All right, I'm scared! I've never been out of a city before, and
besides...." She looked out over the silent plain, to the distant
glint of Ben Beatha. "Besides," she whispered, "I keep thinking of the
stories they used to tell--about Bas the Immortal, and his androids,
and the grey beasts that served them. And about the Stone of Destiny."
* * * * *
Ciaran made a contemptuous mouth. "Legends. Old wive's tales. Songs
to give babies a pleasant shiver." A small glint of avarice came into
his grey eyes. "But the Stone of Destiny--it's a nice story, that one.
A jewel of such power that owning it gives a man rule over the whole
world...."
He squinted out across the barren plain. "Some day," he said, softly,
"maybe I'll see if that one's true."
"Oh, Kiri." Mouse came and caught his wrists in her small strong
hands. "You wouldn't. It's forbidden--and no one that's gone into the
Forbidden Plains has ever come back."
"There's always a first time." He grinned. "But I'm not going now,
Mousie. I'm too hungry."
She picked up the plate silently and ladled stew into it and set it
down. Ciaran laid his harp down and stretched--a tough, wiry little man
with legs slightly bandy and a good-natured hard face. He wore a yellow
tunic even more ragged than Mouse's.
They sat down. Ciaran ate noisily with his fingers. Mouse fished out
a hunk of meat and nibbled it moodily. A breeze came up, pushing the
sunballs around a little and bringing tatters of red fog in off the
sea. After a while Mouse said:
"Did you hear any of the talk in the market squares, Kiri?"