Into the fire

Chapter 29

Summer came at last, though it seemed more chill than summers before. "I wouldn't doubt that it's all the fault of Gyphon," said Beau, his back to a boulder as he watched the slope behind.

"Gyphon?" asked Linnet, keeping vigil the opposite way, Linnet now a young damman, her twentieth birthday having come just a week past on Summerday-Year's Long Day itself.

"Wull, Tip thinks it's due to Karak blowing up and sending stone dust into the sky, and Phais and Loric seemed to think that as well. If they're right, then this chill summer is due to the hand of Gyphon. It's all connected, you know."

"You keep saying that, Beau, about all things being connected."

"Well, they are. Let me tell you how events falling upon the world are like stones being cast into ponds, the consequences like waves, mixing and mingling and affecting one another-"

"Hsst!" shushed Linnet. "Ogru."

Beau and Linnet crouched low against the ridge and peered through the boulders and down. Below, a massive Troll plodded through the moonlight and across the wold. Linnet took up an arrow and set it to bowstring.

"Might as well put that aside, Linnet," said Beau. "It'd be nothing more than a pesky gallinipper to him."

"Gallinipper?'

Beau grinned. "A biting fly, Linnet. It's an old Bosky term."

Long they watched from the overlook, viewing the wold east of Eryn Ford, the ridge part of the spur of the Rimmen Mountains extending down to the Greatwood. Finally the Ogru trod 'round a flank of stone to disappear from view.

"Should we follow?" asked Linnet.

Beau shook his head and resumed his watch on the slope behind. "I think he's heading up to his Troll hole again."

For the past seven weeks, Warrows and Fox Riders had been keeping watch on the Spawn, and they knew much of their movements by now. This particular Ogru had a lair in the spur of the mountains a bit north of where Linnet and Beau now sat vigil.

As to the remainder of the Spawn, they yet sent patrols along the margins of Darda Erynian and Darda Stor, though they kept a goodly distance away from the eaves themselves.

In the early days of the vigil, acting on Galarun's request, Tynvyr had ridden to the Dylvana and asked them to join in the watch on the Spaunen, and to guide travellers past. In the meantime, Tipperton and Rynna had ridden into the Greatwood to find the Baeron and ask them to do the same.

It was as they were riding northwesterly away from The Clearing-a vast open space in the Greatwood, on the verge of which they had met with the Baeron-that Rynna and Tip had come across a vine-covered dell filled with huge broken stones-shattered, cracked, toppled and burst asunder-none were whole but one, and this a tall monolith, tilted askew, leaning against the steep valeside…

"This looks like an aggregate of Groaning Stones," said Tip.

Rynna nodded and peered into the vale, tears springing into her eyes. "Oh, Tip, so many Eio Wa Suk slain. What ever could have happened here?"

"I don't know," replied Tip, "but whatever it was, it was horribly ruinous."

Rynna sighed and tugged on the reins of her pony, the steed's head coming up from cropping grass. "Let us go away from this place, Tip. I will have one of the Fox Riders come and discover what happened here and when."

"Do only Fox Riders know how to speak with the Stones?"

"Aye, Tip. Except for other Eio Wa Suk, the Stones will listen to none but a Pysk."

And on toward the Blackwood rode the two, leaving the dell behind, their mission to the Baeron successful.

And so it was that Fox Riders and Warrows, Dylvana and Baeron, all sat watch on the eaves of the woods and escorted the few who would fare through the region safely past the Spawn.

On the ridge Beau glanced up at the waxing, gibbous moon and said, "Our relief should come soon."

Linnet nodded, but did not take her gaze from the wold below. "You were saying about stones and ponds…"

"Oh well, it's just this: events are like stones cast into water, some large, some small, some tiny. And the consequences of the events ripple outward, like waves on the water to mingle and mix with other waves, at times adding, at other times cancelling, and sometimes having no effect at all. But all the waves from all the events-from enormous to tiny-sooner or later cross one another, hence all things are connected."

Linnet glanced across at Beau, then returned her gaze to the wold below. "It's rather like my mum says."

"Your mum?"

"Aye, she speaks of the great web of life, and how if you pluck a strand here, it causes movement there, some strands more important than others, for if you pluck one of those, it causes the whole web to shake violently… and if you break a strand, a part of the web will collapse, and the more important the strand, the greater the ruin it causes. And so, like your stones and ripples, perhaps events are like plucking the strands, causing the web to shudder."

"Huah!" exclaimed Beau. "Stones in water or shaking the web-they aren't all that much different."

They sat without speaking for a while, and then Beau added, "Y' know, Linnet, I think Modru hopes to sit in the center of the web like some great bloated spider and control all."

"Modru on Mithgar," said Linnet, "but Gyphon over all."

The moon fell near to setting, and a cluster of shadow came scrambling up the slope.

"Our relief is here," said Beau, and moments later a Pysk and fox came unto their side.

Speaking the few words of Fey they had been taught by Rynna-[Ogru go. Many Spawn no move.]-Beau and Linnet left the Fox Rider and fox on ward, and made their way down the slant to where the ponies were tethered.

A month passed and then another, and during this time Rynna taught the Fey language to the Warrows. When all became well enough versed in the tongue of Pysks, the Fox Riders themselves began to add words to the Warrows' store.

Summer came and went, and as autumn drew nigh, Tip and Rynna and Melli with Lark, along with Beau and Linnet, rode north to Bircehyll to be with the Dylvana on Autumnday, for Tip and Beau would step out the Elven rite again.

They found Bircehyll sparsely inhabited, for most of the Dylvana were off to war-up in the Crestan Pass and within the peaks of the Grimwall nigh. Even among those yet in Darda Erynian-now with the harvest in-many had rejoined the others patrolling the woodland eaves. Hence there were but twenty or so Dylvana at the Elvenholt proper, along with two Lian: a golden-haired Dara named Riatha, and her golden-haired brother Talar, both with eyes so pale grey as to seem a shade of silver-Talar the Elf who had survived the destruction of Atala; yet none spoke of that calamity but celebrated Autumnday instead.

All throughout the day and eve Dylvana came to hold wee Lark, she hardly bigger than a Pysk, yet no Pysk was this but a Warrowchild dammsel instead, and totally beguiling.

After the feasting, singing in procession, Elves and War-rows wound through the woods to come to a bowl-shaped vale the Dylvana called Sur Kolare-Whisper Hollow-a grassy slope facing a high stone concave wall. It was a natural amphitheater, and all sat on the sward facing toward the wall, where the performers stood on a stagelike mound cupped by the stone. There was music and singing and sagas told and odes spoken, and Tip and Rynna marvelled at the wall and noted the shape of its curve, for even the slightest whisper could be heard… especially when the performer faced completely away and spoke to the stone itself. Here Tip played his silver-stringed lute and Rynna her pennywhistle, and turn by turn they sang, to the delight of all.

Finally that eve and again singing in procession, all wound through the woods and to the crest of the hill above the Elven dwellings, where the clusters of silver birch trees thereon were sparse and widely spaced. And the Dylvana asked the two Lian-Riatha and Talar, jaian and jarin, sister and brother-to take the place of honor and lead the Elven rite of Autumnday.

And there 'neath the swelling half-moon, singing, chanting, and pacing slowly pacing, they began a ritual timeless by mortal gauge. And enveloped by moonlight and melody and harmony and descant and counterpoint, with feet soft on the sward, the Elves trod solemnly, gravely… yet their hearts were full of joy.

Step… pause… shift… pause… turn… pause… step.

Slowly, slowly, move and pause. Voices rising. Voices falling. Gliding notes from the dawn of the world itself. Harmony. Euphony. Step… pause… step. Riatha turning. Talar turning, Dylvana turning in unison. Darai passing. Alori pausing. Counterpoint. Descant. Step… pause… step…

And down among the shifting Dylvana and treading at Talar's side, Tip and Beau were lost in the ritual, Tip singing, Beau pacing-step… pause… step-just as Rynna and Linnet and Melli paced alongside golden Riatha, she of the argent eyes.

And out on the fringes and among the silver birch stood a tall figure of leaves and twigs and vines, Lark asleep in its arms, Prym singing along with the rite, a rustle of leaves in the wind.

In early October two Pysks-Nia and Kell-came riding their foxes through the autumnal forest, leaves golden and red and russet and brown. The cool summer past, frost had come early, and chill was in the air. Into the vale they rode, into the ward camp, where they sought out and spoke with Tynvyr for a time. Finally, Tynvyr came to Rynna and Tip-perton and said, [The Stone you found in Darda Stor among the shattered Eio Wa Suk in the broken dell, it is ancient beyond counting, and sorely does it grieve from an ancient hurt as well.]

[What happened?] asked Tip, speaking Fey.

Tynvyr shook her head. [Though yet alive it is damaged and no longer knows what befell the aggregate, and only the sorrow remains.]

[Damaged?]

[Aye. As you have seen, it had nearly been uprooted.]

Rynna looked at Tipperton. [It was tilted.] She turned to Tynvyr. [Would that do it? Tilting I mean? Damage but not slay?]

Tynvyr's eyes filled with tears. [This I do know: when one falls or is moved a distance from its source, it no longer speaks.]

Rynna turned to Tip again. [When this war is done, Tipperton, we will ask the Baeron and others to set it upright again. Mayhap that will restore it to its source and repair the damage done.]

Tipperton sighed and nodded and gazed out on the autumn woods. [Can it speak with other Stones?]

[Nia and Kell say not. It was all they could do to reach past its grief and find the Stone within. Its voice is given to soft mourning, and not to speaking afar. Mayhap, afflicted as it is, it can no longer do such.]

October faded, the leaves turning brown, yet nought else nigh Eryn Ford seemed to change-Warrows and Fox Riders keeping station, watching the maggot-folk, guiding a traveller or two past the Spawn now and again. But in the first days of November [The Rupt are on the move!] came the cry. Both Tynvyr and Rynna looked up to see Picyn come racing into the camp. Tynvyr stood and jammed two fingers into her mouth and blew, and although Rynna couldn't hear it, she knew a shrill whistle pierced the air. Picyn called out to his fox and it turned for the damman's hut, where Rynna and Tynvyr had been conferring. Up the slope raced Picyn, his fox to skid to a halt before the bower. Breathlessly he leapt down and repeated, [The Rupt are on the move!]

[How many and which way?] snapped Tynvyr.

[All, and north, and they have a dark-haired, pale-skinned man with them: a Human.]

[A surrogate,] hissed Rynna.

[And some Ghuls on Helsteeds have ridden ahead,] added Picyn, [or mayhap raced ahead is a better way to put it.]

Rynna frowned. [For those two segments to be marching north and with a surrogate, and for Ghuls to be riding ahead and swiftly, something momentous is likely afoot.] She turned to Tynvyr. [Fetch as many as you can, and send word by Eio Wa Suk for others to foregather in the woodland along their route.]

At Tynvyr's nod, Picyn leapt astride his fox and started to turn, but Rynna cried, [Wait!] Picyn turned back. [Tip-perton, what does he do?]

[He trails north, Lady Rynna, wide on their eastern flank, Nix too.]

Rynna's hand flew to her mouth. [Oh my!] But then she looked at the Fox Rider. [Thank you, Picyn. Now go, go, time is of the essence.]

Rynna once again turned to Tynvyr and said, [Raise the camp. We must hie.]

Tynvyr called her fox and mounted and rode swiftly away, rousing those in their huts 'round the perimeter of the dell.

"Aunt Melli!" cried Rynna, dashing into the bower.

At the small table the eld damman looked up from her work, Lark standing on a stool at her side looking up as well, the child's face and arms streaked with flour. "Bread, bread, bread," said Lark, holding out her white-powdered hands to show to her dam.

"What is it?" asked Melli, trying to keep her voice calm in front of the child, but her words quavered regardless.

"Bread," said Lark, looking at Melli.

Rynna snatched up her arrows. "The Spawn are on the move," she said as she fastened the quiver to her hip. "Heading north. Tipperton is on their east flank." She strung her bow and looped it over her shoulder. "With Nix." Now she took up her saddlebags and blanket roll.

"Nix? Going north and on the east flank? Riding the open wold between the maggot-folk and the mountains?"

"Yes," gritted Rynna.

"Oh my," groaned Melli, "but that means they're trapped."

Lark looked back and forth between Melli and Rynna, anxiety coming over her tiny face.

"No, not trapped. Not trapped. Not precisely," averred Rynna, as if to assure not only Melli but herself as well. "Yet if the Foul Folk turn…"

Lark began to cry.

Rynna set down the saddlebags and bedroll and scooped her up and said, "There, there," but Lark only cried all the harder.

Despairing, Rynna turned to the eld damman. "Melli, I must go."

Melli stepped forward and took the child from Rynna and embraced her and in spite of her own tears muttered a soothing word or two, the tot inconsolable. But then Melli asked, "Do you want me to go back to the Springwater holding?"

"Perhaps it's best," said Rynna, taking up her bedroll and saddlebags again. She stepped to the door. "I'll be there as soon as I'm able."

And then she was gone.

And Lark looked up at the empty doorway and said, "Bye-bye," and she rested her head on Melli's shoulder and sobbed, Melli weeping as well.

"Why are they marching north, and in such a hurry?" asked Nix, urging his pony 'round an outcrop of rock.

Riding in the lead, Tipperton glanced back. "I don't know, Nix, but with a surrogate, and what with the Ghuls racing ahead, I think it must be urgent."

"Well, should we double back and cross at the ford? The Rissanin is somewhere ahead, you know."

"I don't think so, Nix. I mean, I don't think we should double back. I don't know where they are going but, wherever it is, we've got to keep up."

"How will we cross the river?"

"Swim, bucco, swim."

"Argh," groaned Nix. "I suspected as much."

"Oh my," exclaimed Beau. "On the wold on the eastern flank? That's not good being out in the open like that."

Linnet, riding on Rynna's left, said, "Can't they always double back and cross at Eryn Ford? I mean if it is abandoned…"

"It may not be," said Rynna. "They may have left a contingent behind. But fear not, Tip and Nix know what they are doing."

"I hope," said Beau. "I hope. -Oh, I should have been with him, not Nix."

Rynna shook her head. "Not so, Beau, for who better to take Linnet under wing than you? -as fond of her as you are."

Linnet gasped, and Rynna reached out to her cousin. "Linnet, 'tis nought but the plain and simple truth. You needed someone skilled in the ways of war to apprentice under, and since Beau cherishes you, I knew he would-" Rynna's words came to a halt, for they had reached the eaves of the darda.

"Here they come," said Farly.

In the distance out on the plain the massed Foul Folk boiled northerly.

After a while Beau said, "Lor', but look at them go."

" Tis a forced march," said Rynna. "They are in a hurry."

"I'd not like to be in their way," said Farly.

"And somewhere ahead ride Ghuls," said Linnet.

Both Rynna and Beau nodded but remained silent.

They watched moments more, and then Rynna spurred forward and out onto the wold, the others following, the four Warrows heading northerly on a course parallel to that of the distant march.

And in the dimness of Darda Erynian, enshadowed Fox Riders coursed a like route within, though Tynvyr and Picyn rode out on the wold with the Warrows.

"I do hope that you are right about Tip and Nix," said Beau.

Her eyebrow cocked, Rynna looked at him. "That they know what they are doing," explained Beau.

"L-lor', 1-lor', b-but this w-water is c-cold," said Nix, his teeth chattering, the two buccen hanging on to pony saddles and urging the little steeds through the water, the horselings drifting downstream in the current as they valiantly struggled across. "W-we should have k-kept on our c-clothes and b-boots."

"N-no," chattered Tip. "We'll n-need them w-when we get to the s-side opposite."

"If we d-don't f-freeze first," said Nix.

At last, numb and shuddering uncontrollably, they reached the far bank, both buccen staggering up out of the water and into the woods beyond.

"S-s-swift, now," said Tip, "unbundle everything, d-dry on the, the blanket, and, and g-get dressed."

But Nix needed no instruction, for even as Tip spoke, in spite of his numb fingers Nix untied the tightly wrapped all-weather cloak from 'round his blanket roll, which in itself was wrapped around his garments and weaponry and a few supplies. Quickly he dried on the blanket, and then donned his clothes, and looked up to see that Tip had done the same.

Both Tip and Nix wiped down their ponies, using the blankets here too, the labor serving to warm the two buccen. Wringing out as much water as they could, they re-rolled their blankets 'round their meager supplies and lashed them to the saddles.

Fastening his quiver to his thigh and his bow scabbard to the saddle, Tip said, "Quick now, we've got to get ahead of the Foul Folk and track them from the fore. That way they can't trap us against the mountains. Too, by the tracks of the Helsteeds we can see whether or no the Spawn follow wherever the Ghuls have gone."

"Speaking of Ghuls, what'll we do about them?" asked Nix.

Tip shook his head. "I don't think our ponies can keep up with Helsteeds, but surely we can outpace maggot-folk afoot."

Mounting his steed, Nix said, "No, Tip, what I meant was: with Ghuls ahead, are we likely to run into a trap?"

Swinging up and astride his own pony, Tip said, "Well, bucco, we'll just have to keep a sharp eye out." With that he heeled his pony in the flanks, Nix following, and off they rode, wide to the right of the march.

"Lor'," said Beau, "are they never going to stop?"

"I think not," said Rynna. "At such a pace they think it urgent to get to wherever it is they are going."

"Hsst!" sissed Linnet. "Something or someone comes 'cross the wold."

In the twilight to the fore and left they could see a mounted force riding from the direction of Darda Erynian, the eaves of the forest now some fifteen miles to the west.

"Hai," said Beau, kicking heels into pony flanks, "come on. It's Dylvana."

Weary, eyes rimmed red, Tip looked hindward through the dawn light, a waning half-moon overhead. "They're still marching."

"If they keep this up," said Nix, "-no, what I really mean is: if we keep this up, we'll kill the ponies."

"They're tougher than you think, bucco," replied Tip, gazing to the fore. "I don't see any Ghuls, so what say we again ride far enough ahead so to dismount and walk awhile?"

"All right." Nix urged his pony into a slow canter. "But let me ask you this: where are the maggot-folk bound?"

Pony jogging, Tip reached into his saddlebag and pulled out his map sketches and unbound them from their waterproof wrappings. "I don't know their final goal, but they haven't changed direction for the last twenty miles. North-northeast they fare."

"What's to the north-northeast?"

Flipping through his sketches, Tip said, "Well, the first place of any note they'll come to is Rimmen Gape. That's where Braeton lies."

Nix canted his head and pursed his lips, then said, "Perhaps they intend to sack the town."

"No, that's not it. The town was taken by the Spawn two years ago. There is nought left to plunder."

"Two years-?"

"Aye. We came upon them in the ruins of Braeton, did the Dylvana and Baeron and Beau and I. They had murdered the citizens and pillaged the town, and we slaughtered them-Foul Folk all-and avenged the folks they had killed. As far as I know, it's an empty town."

"Oh no, Tip, not empty, but filled with ghosts instead."

"But," protested Beau, looking up at Dara Cein, "there's nothing whatsoever at Braeton. And so I ask you: why would Modru send his forces haring off that way?"

Linnet, Beau, Rynna, Farly, and Cein rode side by side in the second rank of a small cavalcade of Dylvana faring north-northeasterly across the open wold, paralleling but a mile or so west of the course set by the hard-marching maggot-folk. Except for short rests, they had not stopped since the march began yestereve, Modru's Spawn yet tramping an undeviating line.

Tynvyr and Picyn had long since ridden back unto Darda Erynian, saying that they would gather their forces along the eastern marge of the forest and lie in wait at three principal places: at the Landover Road; at Eryn Ford; and halfway between those two points. No better strategy could any devise, and so the Fox Riders had turned away from the open wold to seek the advantage of the woods.

Cein pondered awhile and then said to Beau, "As to why Modru would hie his forces northeasterly, along his march lies Rimmen Gape, a choke point where the Landover Road drives through the Rimmen Mountains. Mayhap he wants to set blockade upon that passage."

"Why would he block it now?" asked Beau. "I mean, it's been lying open for two years and more-ever since we destroyed all the Foul Folk that had ravaged Braeton."

Cein shook her head. "I do not say he intends to do so, wee one, for blockading the Rimmen Gape is but one of sundry possibilities; there are many places beyond where this force may be bound."

Farly scowled and looked at Cein. "But Beau did ask a good question: why would Modru send his forces running to Rimmen Gape? -Assuming, of course, that's their goal."

Cein turned up a hand. "I know not the mind of Modru, nor such would I desire."

"Well, whatever his reason, wherever they are bound," said Rynna, peering at the distant march, "it must be important for him to drive his forces so."

Beau frowned in puzzlement, for with Rynna's dire words an ephemeral thought had flickered through his mind, but ere he could capture it, it was gone.

Walking, riding, and at times resting, Tip and Nix maintained a good distance between the maggot-folk and themselves. Weary were Warrows and ponies alike, their steps lagging, for they had been on the move for a day and a night and another full day and part of the second night as well, and only starlight illumed the land. Even so, in the distance ahead, the two buccen could see the notch of Rim-men Gape silhouetted against the indigo sky.

"We've got to be careful now," said Tip, stepping 'round a grassy hummock, "for if the Ghuls are nearabout, it'll be in the pass where they've stopped, or so I would think. It's a choke point, you know. Anyone coming or going along Landover Road has to pass through there."

Plodding at Tip's side, Nix looked across at him. "Who might that be? -I mean, who or what is so important that Modru would send his Ghuls ahead to lay a trap along the Landover, and his maggot-folk to follow after?"

Tip shook his head, and on they walked in the starlit shadows, leading the ponies after.

"They're still faring for Rimmen Gape," said Dara Cein, looking at the stars above. "At the pace they set, they'll come to it by dawn at the latest."

"Good," said Beau, his voice weary.

Linnet looked at the buccan. "Good?"

Beau nodded. "The Blackwood curves around and nearly reaches the slot, and if Tynvyr and Picyn have succeeded, there'll be a force of Hidden Ones nigh."

"Dylvana and Baeron, too," said Rynna, awake from her doze in the saddle.

They rode without speaking for long moments more, but finally Rynna once again asked, "What could be driving them so?"

"There," whispered Tip. "Just behind the hillocks on either side. See?"

Nix peered down where Tip pointed. "Helsteeds."

"And look just above on this side of the crests," breathed Tipperton, "Ghuls waiting and watching."

From the slopes above Braeton, the two buccen looked through the predawn light and down at the ambush set along the Landover Road.

"Some thirty or so, I tally," said Nix.

"Aye," said Tip. "The whole of the Ghuls from Eryn Ford I would imagine, but for the few escorting the surrogate."

Dawn pinked the sky.

Tip peered southerly. "Here come the maggot-folk."

Out on the wold some two or three miles distant and boiling northeasterly came the Spawn.

"Tip, look! On the road east."

Tip swung his gaze toward where Nix pointed. "Oh Adon," groaned Tip, "this is why they set ambush."

East of Braeton and riding toward Rimmen Gape came a band of Elven riders, travel-worn, drooping, wounded.

"I should have known! I should have known!" cried Tip in despair. He leaped to his feet and headed for his pony, no longer trying,to remain hidden.

"What? What is it?" appealed Nix, jumping up and following.

"It's Galarun and Aravan and the company, or what's left of it," gritted Tip. "We've got to do something."

As the buccen swung up onto the ponies, Nix turned to Tip. "Why would Modru pull his Spawn from Eryn Ford and set an ambush for these few Elves?"

"If they've succeeded in their mission, they are bearing a great token of power, a silver sword, one that'll slay Gy-phon Himself, if the rumors are true. Modru hopes to stop them."

"All right, then, what'll we do?"

Air hissed in and out through Tip's clenched teeth, and then he said, "Stampede the Helsteeds before the Ghuls can reach them and mount up to waylay Galarun."

Nix nodded. "If the ponies don't flee from the stench."

Kicking his heels into his weary steed's flanks-"You take this side; I'll take that"-Tip galloped down the slope, Nix riding after.

Down the slant they ran, toward the Helsteeds tethered on either side of the road, and even as the Ghuls started down the slope toward the scaled creatures, Tip flew past the first group, while Nix rode among them crying "Yah, yah!" And Helsteeds began to kick and bite at the darting pony and at one another, and jerk loose from their teth-erings to squeal and mill and clash.

And Tip galloped across the road and in among the other 'Steeds, and as he did so, he raised to his lips the black-oxen horn-Dediana's horn given to him by Linde-and blew blast after blast as he charged through the cloven-hoofed rout. And the sound of the Harlingar horn panicked the beasts, both on this side and that of the road, and squealing and grunting in alarm, they scattered.

And on the road, Lian Elves raised weary heads, and unsheathed swords and took lances in hand in the dawn.

"Krystallopyr!" whispered Aravan, gripping his spear and truenaming it, making ready for combat. Even as the horn sounded, the small, blue stone amulet at his throat grew chill with peril… as it had done so many times on the journey to Black Mountain and back. And now it and the black-oxen horn called out danger, and neither would be denied.

"Ready!" barked Galarun, sword in hand, another sword-one of silver-strapped across his back. And he motioned to Larana, and she raised an argent clarion to her lips and blew an answer to the oxen horn, the silvery notes belling clear.

The sound of a Harlingar horn rang over the wold, and Spawn hearing it hesitated. Yet the Ghuls surrounding the surrogate cried out in their foul tongue, and whips lashed about and the maggot-folk began to run through the daybreak shadows and toward the gap ahead. And then a silver note rang, but the Spawn stopped not in their race.

"That's Tip's horn!" cried Beau. "He's in trouble!" And he leaped astride his pony and spurred forward, galloping after Rynna flying across the wold, Linnet and Farly and all the Dylvana racing after. And then an Elven horn sounded in the distance ahead.

As the Helsteeds scattered before the buccen, Ghuls sprang up from their ambuscade and yawled in fury and with cruelly barbed spears in hand they ran toward the two Warrows on ponies, the corpse-folk ready to slay.

"Ride! Ride!" called Tip, and he and Nix wrenched their overtired ponies 'round to flee down the Landover Road, only to see a vanguard of Spawn scrambling across the way, two thousand others shrieking war cries and racing after.

And behind the buccen came savage Ghuls, the corpse-foe overtaking the two ponies, the little steeds stumbling in exhaustion.

Tip raised the black-oxen horn once again to his lips and blew a second time, and Rflpt quailed back from the sound, and the Ghuls slowed a step or two in their pursuit -and Lian slammed into them from the rear, lances piercing, swords riving, Aravan's truenamed spear burning wherever it struck flesh, Ghuls howling even as they died upon the dark crystallic blade. Yet Elves died too, impaled by barbed spear. But the corpse-foe could not withstand Aravan's deadly lance nor the beheading strikes of swords, and they yielded back from the Lian, no longer disputing the way.

And toward Tipperton and Nix did Galarun and company ride and toward Darda Erynian beyond.

And yet two thousand Spawn stood across the way.

A third time did Tipperton blow Dediana's horn, and lo! the call was answered from the nearby woodland as a horse-borne company of Dylvana and Baeron came charging out from the trees, while at the same time a small band of Dylvana came racing across the wold, four Warrows on ponies running alongside, arrows flying and sling bullets hurtling to slam into the Spawn.

Even as Galarun and Aravan and other Lian surrounded Tip and Nix, the Rupt reeled hindward from the charge of the Baeron and Dylvana.

"Quickly!" called Galarun. " 'Round to the right and into Darda Erynian."

None argued with his command, for all the Allies together were yet outnumbered ten to one.

Rightward they fled, running for the trees, spent ponies and weary horses faltering even as they ran, giving their all to the riders.

And Larana blew a horn cry-a signal to withdraw-and now the company of Dylvana and Baeron and the small force of Dylvana and four Warrows turned their own steeds and fled for the forest as well.

With howling Rupt on their heels, into the Blackwood they ran, past gathered shadows slipping twixt the trees, and huge yellowish mounds standing still, and tall bundles of twigs and vines and tendrils looming in the darkness and rustling as leaves in the wind. Among these and other such things they passed, the forest enshadowed a grim grey though the sun shone aslant through the brown-leafed November trees.

"Shouldn't we stop and help?" called Tip, urging his exhausted pony across a streamlet and up.

"Nay, love," replied Rynna. "As Tynvyr has often told me, we would just be in the way."