CHAPTER 5
“Look to the horses,” George yelled to Maelgwn as he leapt down, checking that his hunting sword and knife were secure in their sheathes. Rhian had already dismounted and draped her horse’s reins around a low branch.
He could hear the stag scrambling down the steep bank some forty or fifty feet below him but he was hidden from view by the bushes clinging to the side of the ravine. Flashes of white betrayed the hounds that pursued him in full cry, the echo of their voices changing as they sank further into the deep cleft.
Before he started after them, he spared a look around. On both sides, the whippers-in had tied off their mounts as best they could and were already on the way down. Good work, he thought. Behind him he could hear the first members of the field as they arrived
