The Prize in the Game Read Online Free PDF Page B

said. "Time is wasting."
    As soon as they were back out in the sunshine, Inis came up to Emer quietly. "I thought you would need a knife today," he said.
    Emer bit back the first six things she wanted to say, all of which were questions. "The king has given me a sword," she said, showing him.
    "I saw," he said. "That was well done." Without another word, he turned and walked off, towards the gate of the dun, back towards the grove.
    Emer stared after him.
    "Sometimes he is just impossible," Conal said.
    "I don't understand him," Emer said.
    "To understand him, you'd have to be him, study all the branches of knowledge for twenty-one years, and at last come to the depths of the Oak Knowledge that drives people mad. And after that, he has spent half the rest of his life spread out across lots of worlds. He's my grandfather, and I've known him all my life and he has been nothing but good to me, but I wouldn't want to understand him."
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    Emer felt almost afraid of the intensity Conal was letting her see. "Come on," she said. "We ought to catch up or we'll be left with the chariot with the wobble."
    "Oh, no," Conal said. "This isn't practice. We don't use the practice chariots. We'll take my father's chariot.
    And his chariot horses. He will do that for me, and I'll make him proud of me."
    Emer looked. Amagien was up ahead talking to the king, taking no notice of them at all.
    "Thank you for asking me to be your charioteer," she said.
    "I meant it," Conal said. "Not just for today. I mean to be a great warrior. I will need a charioteer. I want you."
    "Why?" Emer asked. Then, as she saw his face fall, she added hastily, "I mean, yes, yes of course, but why
    me?"
    "Because you are brave," Conal said. He looked as if he might say more but he just shrugged, as if that was enough.
    Emer grinned, too full of words to speak any of them, then ran off after the others, with Conal running beside her.
    Finca had sent word to the stables, and both chariots had been harnessed ready. She was even here herself, fussing with the horses. Elenn was with her, still looking downcast. Ap Carbad and a great crowd of champions of Oriel were gathered around talking busily.
    Emer stole a moment to dress herself properly in one of the stalls before they set off. Nid came with her and they helped each other bind up their shifts tightly and tie back their hair.
    "My mother's upset," Nid said, frowning. "She wanted to have time to make me new clothes for when I come back, and she's only just started to warp the cloth for them never mind got them done. She doesn't care about lucky days. She says this is a scramble."
    "She'll be glad when you come back," Emer comforted her. Nid looked unsure for a moment.
    Then they went out and rejoined the others.
    The grooms handed them the reins and they mounted up. Emer put her spear into the slot for it at her side.
    Nid looked much steadier once she had horses to control. Emer's pair seemed well matched, both in color and temperament. They were dun mares, each properly mealy nosed and raring to go.
    Then King Conary raised his hand for quiet, and everyone stood together without saying anything. Amagien kept shifting his weight and scowling at Conal.
    "You stand before me children," King Conary said. "Children of my blood, children of my dun, or fosterlings of my hearth, but children all. Today you take up the arms you bear, not now in practice but for the first time in truth. Bear them well and worthily, and as long as you may bear them in honor. Go now and hunt, and carry back whatever you may kill in token that you return to me children no more, but men and women grown and champions of my household."
    Nid's mother and Leary's father were weeping openly, and Leary's mother was wiping her eyes.
    Nid's father was grinning like a man who was ridiculously proud. Amagien continued to scowl.
    Finca looked emotionless.
    Elenn was smiling distantly, like a queen painted on a wall. Emer was deeply relieved that her parents