Challenge of the clans Read Online Free

may as well go ahead."
    Crimall snorted. "I might have known you'd side with him. So I'll say no more to either of you!"
    He fell into a hostile silence and they rode along

    peacefuUy for some time. The day had dawned fainriy, the sun heavily cloaked by thick, gray overcast like rippling folds of coarse wool. But the rain the dark clouds threatened held oflP, and the earth was dry and firm beneath the thick-furred hooves of their horses, so the powerfully muscled animals were easily able to keep up a rapid pace.
    Then, so suddenly it seemed as if the overcast had plunged upon them, the party found themselves engulfed in fog. The large-bodied warriors wrapp)ed in their bright cloaks became like phantoms in the eerie gra\Tiess. And the fog heightened this eflFect by swallowing all noise, muffling even the horses' clopping so that the company seemed to float along.
    The warriors now peered about them constantly as tliey rode. They felt oppressed, uneasy with the gray shroud upon them. They disliked the look of the bare trees that loomed up ever thicker around them like a host of black skeletons interlacing the bony fingers of their branches in an uneven web that caught and held drifting patches of the fog.
    And there was another sensation, too, that crept upon them with the increasing dampness. It was a peculiar feeling of weariness, of weakness, as if the effort to press ahead through the clinging stuff was somehow draining their strength.
    Cumhal seemed the only one unconcerned with the strange conditions, so intent was he on reaching his wife's side. But Crimall was far from unconcerned. And when the twisted stump of a rotting tree trunk appeared suddenly, like something leaping toward him fi*om the fog, he yelped in surprise and then spoke out angrily.
    'That is enough! I say that it's time for us to stop and let this pass. Some harm will surely come to us if we continue traveling blindly this way."
    "It's only a bit of fog," his brother replied. "It's not likely to cause us much harm unless you ride into a tree while you're so busy peering about. "
    "There's more in this than you think," Crimall insisted. "It's not natural, I tell you. I can smell it. And I can feel it too!"

    "It's only the wear of riding through the night that's made you feel this way," Cumhal said. "Better to ride on through this. The sooner we reach home, the sooner we can rest."
    Again, Crimall fell silent, but he continued to stare about him, trying to guess at the dim shapes that came and went and almost seemed to flitter around them in the fog.
    Soon the impression came to him that he had seen before some of the trees they were passing. This was a foolish notion, he told himself Still, the fancy came into his head that the trees were really shifting about, waiting for them to pass and then lifting their roots to scamper on and join their fellows ahead.
    There was surely no question that the number of trees was increasing, the woods growing denser, the trunks closer together, as if the trees were gathering to hem them in.
    And then there was a line of them ahead so thick that they nearly formed a stockade wall, the trunks so close that the horses would barely be able to squeeze between them. The party reined in, peering at them with curiosity.
    "What's happened?" said Cumhal. "There's no forest like this on our way." He gazed about him in growing bewilderment. "They're as thick on both sides as well! Where are we?"
    "We should be in the woods of Cnucha, near to Ath Cliath," said his brother.
    "It can't be so!" Cumhal said. "I don't know this place at all. Can we have strayed?"
    "Look there!" cried a warrior in a warning tone, pointing back the way they had come.
    Behind them figures were visible, like shadows moving in the fog, growing as they came steadily nearer.
    Several of the warriors pulled back their cloaks and put hand to sword or spears. They watched intently as the forms became darker, clearer, finally resolving into a band of