Into the fire

Chapter 6

"Oh my," said Beau, as he and the others stood atop the ridge and looked down at the Swarm beringing Dendor, "to come so close only to be thwarted."

"I should have ridden down during the battle and gone in through the gates with the men," said Tipperton.

"But then we would have been trapped," said Beau.

Tip sighed. "No, Beau, I wouldn't have had you and the others risk it. I should have ridden down alone. At least I would have delivered the coin."

Beau glowered at Tipperton. "Look, bucco, d'y' think I'd've let you go it alone after coming with you all this way? Besides, I want to know what this coin's all about."

"I just want to be rid of it," replied Tip.

" Tis a heavy burden to bear, no matter its weight," said Phais.

"Yet honor permits no less," said Bekki. "Even so, with Modru's Squam besieging the city, it will be difficult to keep your pledge, Tipperton."

Tip nodded glumly. "Let us wait and see, there may be another battle. And look, no matter what Beau says, there's no need for all of us to be trapped in Dendor should the men fail to break the siege. No one else need go."

Beau cleared his throat and shook his head. "Didn't you hear what I said, Tip? I'll not let you go it alone. I mean to stick to you like a burr. But as to Phais and Loric and Bekki, now-"

Bekki growled, "I am pledged by my DelfLord to ward you on this mission, Tipperton, and ward you I will."

"Most likely if ye go without us," said Loric, "ye three will be taken for Rucha by the men and slain out of hand or by cast. But accompanied by Guardians, such as Dara Phais and I, ye and we will likely survive."

"Oh my," said Beau. "He's right, Tip. Remember what happened back at the inn. We were taken for Rucks."

"Yes, Beau, but that was at night and by frightened women. Remember, they took Phais for a Hlok, and the horses for Helsteeds. Probably in the dark they took Loric for a Hlok as well. As for Bekki, I don't know what he might have been mistaken for, mayhap a tiny Ogru."

"Kruk!" growled Bekki, but grinned.

"Even so, Tipperton," said Phais, "the vision of Humankind is poor in darkness, and if we attempt to join with the men in the night, whether afield or on the walls, they are most likely to take us for Foul Folk."

"Then we need go in the daytime," said Beau.

"Ah, but then, my friend," said Loric, "the Rupt are like to discover us for what we are."

"Barn rats," growled Beau.

"Tipperton has the right of it," said Bekki. "If the men mount another assault, it is then we slip through in the confusion."

They spent the night camped back in the hills, but sleep was a long time coming, for still the pulse of Gargon dread beat within their veins.

The following day once again they made their way to the ridge, but on this day no attack came… nor the day after… nor the one after that.

But on the fifth day there sounded a great thwackl followed by cheering shouts and the beating of the Ruptish drums. And a wave of dread flowed and ebbed. And then another thwackl and more shouting and blatting of bugles and the deep booming of drums, and another wave of dread.

The comrades reached the crest of the ridge just in time to see the arm of one of the trebuchets swing up and over and-thwackl-hurl a scatter of tumbling objects to rain down within the city.

"Oh, Loric," said Phais, turning away in abhorrence.

Even as a wave of dread flowed over the five, "What is it?" asked Beau. "What are they throw-"

But then Beau saw, and he gasped in horror, as did Tip at his side.

Corpses had been dragged through the snow to the trebu-chets, and the bodies hacked and severed and wrenched asunder. Heads, arms, legs, torsos: all were randomly laded into the trebuchet slings, and then-thwackl-cast in high arcs, body parts spinning, gyring, tumbling, to rain down onto the roofs and into the streets of Dendor city beyond.

And horns blatted and drums thundered and waves of dread rolled on.

"Oh lor', how ghastly," said Beau, tears streaming down his cheeks. thwack!

"We've got to do something," said Tip. "I mean, to just stand and watch and wait for the Dendorians to break the siege isn't enough."

"But, Tip," protested Beau, "we are just five. It isn't as if we have an army here as we did at Mineholt North-one to attack from the front while another strikes from the rear."

"That's it, Beau," said Tip, "you've hit upon it. What we need is another army, and a coordinated attack-one head-on from the city and one rear-on from, from-"

"That's just it, Tip: where are we going to get that second army?" thwack!

"Kachar," said Bekki. "We shall ride to Kachar."

Tip turned to Bekki. "Kachar?"

"The Chakkaholt nigh Kaagor Pass," said Bekki. "It is closest."

"Closer than the Allies?"

"Aye. Kachar is but a hundred sixty miles north, whereas the Allies are twice as far or farther still, should they yet be pursuing the Horde in among the Skarpals." thwack!

"But what if Kachar itself is under siege?" asked Beau.

"I mean, it's a Dwarvenholt after all, and Modru seems to have a special grudge against your folk."

"If it is under siege," said Loric, "then we can appeal to the Jordians, can we hie through Kaagor Pass."

"Dost thou think the pass to be held by Foul Folk?" asked Phais.

Loric shrugged.

"Regardless," said Tip, "we've got to try. I mean, if we're ever to stop those monsters down there, if I'm ever to deliver this coin, then we've got to break this siege. And to do that, we need fetch an army here and now."

" 'Seek the aid of those not men to quench the fires of war…' " quoted Beau, hearking back to the mysterious rede they'd heard uttered by Dara Rael in council months past, but for whom the rede had been meant, none knew. thwack!

Beau turned to Tip. "Let's go get Bekki's Dwarves."

They backed down from the ridge, then mounted and rode to their campsite, where they gathered up their goods and laded them on the packhorses, then rode straightaway to the west. When they had gone three leagues or so, they rode back through the hills above the plains and then waited until darkness fell, and that night beneath a gibbous waxing moon they crossed the flat treeless grassland covered with winter snow, reaching the other side some twenty miles away just after cold dawn.

They rested all that day and the following night, and then started out early next morn.

On the sixth day they came to the banks of the great Argon River, here curving in from the east and running away westerly; its frozen surface stretched wide before them. Along the bank stood the remains of a burnt dock, its charred pilings frozen in the river ice. The ashen remnants of a small shack stood on the bank above.

Bekki gritted his teeth and said, "Grg have been here."

"What is this place?" asked Beau.

"The southern landing of the Kaagor Ferry," replied Loric.

"We were going to take a ferry?"

Loric canted his head. "Aye, were the river running free and had the Spaunen not destroyed all. But even were the ferry yet whole, it runs not when the river is frozen, and all must wait… or chance the ice."

Still growling, Bekki dismounted and took his axe in hand. "I will see if the ice will bear us."

"Hold," said Loric, "this is not like the other streams we've crossed, but flows wide and deep instead. I will ready a rope."

Beau turned to Tip and whispered, "Hoy, when we crossed the Crystal River we didn't test the ice."

"With the maggot-folk downstream we couldn't test it," answered Tip. "Remember how the ice knelled under hoof? Besides, some rivers may run warmer. I mean, there were places below my mill on the Wilder that never seemed to fully ice-over."

Bekki tied the line about his waist and gingerly stepped out on the ice. Then he stamped his foot. "It seems solid enough."

Walking out a ways and kneeling, he began chopping. Shards flew, and after a while Bekki looked up and said, "I am over two handspans deep and have still to break through. This will support an army. Even so, walk the animals onto the ice, while I go onward and test again…"

… It took nearly three candlemarks to cross the Argon, yet cross it they did, the ice in the cold, cold winter thick enough to bear all.

"We are yet some fifty-two miles from Kachar," said Bekki, as they mounted again. "Two days and some should see us there."

"Let us just hope that when we arrive Kachar is not under siege," said Tipperton.

Through the Silverwood they rode, so named because of the trees of silver birch within its bounds, though trembling aspen and splendid high pine were sheltered as well in the cupping mountain bowl. And when they approached the far side, Bekki slowed them all, saying, "The vale of Kachar lies just beyond, yet if there are besiegers, I hear them not."

He looked at Loric and then Phais, and both Lian shook their heads, No.

Dismounting, they walked the last several strides among the trees to the very fringe of the wood, and they looked out to see in the midmorn light…

… nought but a snow-covered dale rising to meet the dark stone of the mountains beyond.

"There," said Bekki, pointing at a dull gleam of iron embedded in a wall of stone. "There be the gates of Kachar."

"They tried to hold Kaagor Pass," said Valk, "but we drove them down and slew them all." The redheaded Delf-Lord slammed the butt of his clenched fist to the stone table. "Yet now you say Dendor is beleaguered. Elwydd, but when will it end?"

"When Modru is defeated or slain," said Loric.

Valk grunted, then said, "But as you say, with Dragons at his beck, and Ghaths, it will not be easy."

"As to the Draedan," said Loric, "there is a Mage at Dendor who seems to be able to combat the dread. But the renegade Drakes, anow, they are a different matter altogether. Still, in a year we have seen but one-Skail- though Lord Tain in Dael babbled 'twas Sleeth destroyed the city. Mayhap Drake forays are rare, for I deem Modru need promise them something they cherish ere they act. What this might be, I nor my companions can say, though we have speculated long."

"Perhaps Tip's got the answer," said Beau, and when Tip looked at him blankly, Beau added, "they might want the Dragonstone."

"It is lost," growled Valk, "or so I have heard."

Phais nodded. "Lost with Rwn." She glanced at Tipper-ton. "Even so, the renegade Drakes mayhap would do Modru a service for the promise of such a token."

"Still," said Bekki, "that is neither here nor there. The problem before us is to rescue Dendor."

Valk nodded. "Aye. They are a valuable trading partner to this Chakkaholt, and we have a treaty with King Agron to come to his aid at need."

"Well, they certainly need you now," blurted Beau.

Valk looked at Beau and growled, "Fear not, Waeran, we Chakka honor our pacts"-he gestured across the chamber at the flag of the Dwarvenholt: crossed silver axes on a field of black-"especially the Chakka of Kachar."

"Oh my," said Beau, flustered, "I wasn't, I didn't-" "He knows, Sir Beau," said Phais. "He knows." Valk grunted and reached for a pullcord. "It is time to call in my captains, for we have a battle to plan."

As Valk and his captains met for the second day, with Tip, Beau, Phais, Loric, and Bekki in attendance, there remained one obstacle to completing the plan.

Bekki peered down at the map, with its movable symbols denoting segments of the Swarm surrounding the walls of Dendor. Shown also were the Dwarven routes of attack, as well as the likely paths the men would take in response upon issuing from the city. Bekki grunted and looked across at Valk. "There is left but this, DelfLord: how will the men know we have come, and how will tney know the plan? Unlike Mineholt North, there is no secret entrance to Dendor, none I know of, that is." He looked across at Valk.

Valk shook his head. "There may be a tunnel, but Agron has never spoken to me of it, if so."

Silence fell as all considered the map. Finally Valk said, "All here know our chances for victory run high can we coordinate the attacks, and defeat will come knocking can we not. This then is the crux of the matter: how to let King Agron know."

The DelfLord's gaze swept about the table in challenge. "Let us delve how this may be done."

Long they spoke, considering plans and counterplans, finding strengths and weaknesses in each:

Some advocated the use of message arrows, could they get one or more archers in range, or perhaps long-range ballistas instead. But then others asked, would the messages be found? And would King Agron believe such missives aught but a ruse? Still others noted that even if he did believe, what if a message fell into the Foul Folk hands? Through a miscast arrow or a captured archer, if a message fell into the wrong hands, then all plans would be revealed, for there was no secret code between DelfLord Valk and King Agron.

They also noted that signals flashed from the ridge above could be intercepted as well.

Other plans were examined and rejected… such as searching for a secret tunnel which may or may not be there. "Huah," said Bekki. "If there were a tunnel, do you not think that Agron would have sent someone to ask for aid?"

"Worse yet," said Loric, "if there were a secret tunnel and if found by the Rupt, they would use it to invade."

Seated next to Tipperton, one of the captains, a black-haired Dwarf named Kaldi, said, "Could we not march and array ourselves along the southern ridge to let King Agron see we've come? Then mayhap when we attack from without he will sally forth from within."

Valk shook his head. "It is a worthy plan, Kaldi, and one we may come to in the end, but then there is this: with a surrogate in the Swarm, Modru would be alerted by our array and then mayhap a Drake will come. Nay, if we can, we should take them by surprise."

"Barn rats!" said Beau. "With a Swarm about the walls, it's not as if we can just walk up to the gates and knock for admittance."

Silence fell, and Dwarves about the table shook their heads and gritted their teeth in frustration. But then Tip glanced at the flag of Kachar and of a sudden said, "Wait a moment, Beau, I think you've hit upon it."

"Wha-?" began Beau, but Tip cut him off.

"Have you still got that flag of Modru's?"

Beau frowned but said, "It's still in my saddleba-"

"Good!" said Tip, smiling. "Here's what we can do: I'll take the flag and walk through the Swarm till I reach the-"

"Good grief, Tip, that's madness! They'll kill you dead!"

"No-no," said Tip. "Hear me out. You said it yourself, Beau: in the dark, Warrows can be taken for Rucks, just as we were taken for them by the folks at the inn. And since I'll be carrying a flag of the Spawn, who among them would look at me twice?"

"Sir Tipperton," said Phais, "if it means walking through a Swarm, Sir Beau is right. 'Tis a mad plan fraught with risk."

Beau nodded his total agreement, but Bekki looked at Tip in admiration and clenched a fist of support.

Tip held up a hand. "Oh, Phais, as I said to Beau, hear me out."

Phais sighed, but nodded.

Tip took a deep breath and said, "When I get through the ring of Swarm, I'll cross the open land between them and the city-"

"You will be seen," said one of the captains.

Bekki shook his head and said, "He is a Waeran," as if that explained all.

"Even so," said Valk, "I would hear the whole, for he is not yet done." He gestured for Tip to continue.

Tip nodded and said, "I'll cross the land between and-"

"And what?" cried Beau. "Knock on the gate?"

Tipperton nodded. "Exactly so, Beau. Knock on the gate."

"But they'll quill you with crossbow bolts," declared Beau. "I mean, you said it yourself, you'll be taken for a Ruck."

"No, Beau, by that time I will have shed Modru's flag and will instead show the flag of Kachar." He gestured at the black flag with its crossed silver axes. "Surely they will know it, eh?" He turned to Valk.

Grudgingly the DelfLord nodded. "Even so, Waeran, you are not Chakka. They will not admit you, thinking it a trick of Modru."

"No," said Tip. "I am not 'Chakka,' but then I've got this." With these words Tip reached down the collar of his shirt and drew out the coin on a thong.

"Ha!" snorted Kaldi, next to Tip, the Dwarf leaning over the better to see. "Do you think they will accept an all but worthless toll?"

Tip looked at Kaldi and said, "If we are right, Captain Kaldi, Agron will certainly accept this coin."

Valk looked at Tipperton. "I do not understand."

Tip sighed. "DelfLord, let me tell you about a night in the Wilderland, when I was awakened in my mill by a battle to the death on my doorstone…"

Finally the coin came back 'round the table to Tip. As he slipped the thong over his head, an elderly Dwarf across the table said, "It is a Gjeenian penny-an alloy of tin and chod-mayhap the most worthless coin in all of Mithgar."

"Gjeenian?" said Tip, looking across at the Dwarf.

"From Gjeen, an island in the Avagon Sea off the coast of the Karoo. How it bears on your mission, I cannot say."

Tip frowned and peered at the coin and mumbled, "Knowing where it comes from doesn't enlighten me one whit."

He looked at Loric, who turned up his hands and shrugged.

"All of this talk about where a coin comes from and its worth doesn't matter a hill of beans," said Beau. "What matters is this harebrained scheme of Tip's-I mean, him marching through a Swarm of maggot-folk who will kill him dead… and then sneaking across the land in between warring armies to the walls, where the men above will kill him dead… and then knocking politely as if you please on the doors of Dendor, where the guards on the gate will kill him dead."

Silence fell, and after a moment Tip asked, "Have you a better plan, Beau? If so, I'm sure we'd all like to hear it."

"Oh, Tip, of course I don't have a better plan. It's just that I'm worried sick that, Foul Folk or men, one or the other will kill you dead."

The circle of captains discussed the merits of Tipperton's "harebrained scheme," until finally Valk called for quiet. He glanced 'round the table, his gaze settling on Tipperton last. Valk smiled. "Once long past when faced with a perilous choice Breakdeath Durek said, 'The gamble is great, the stakes are high, yet he who dares, wins.' Sir Tipperton, I accept this mad plan of yours."

Tipperton exhaled pent breath.

"And a Waeran must do this thing," Valk continued, "for none else might pass as a Ruck, albeit a small one, and none will be better at stealing across land between, and with a flag of Kachar to keep him from getting slain out of hand and the coin as a means of admittance, well then, who better than Sir Tipperton?"

"What about me?" asked Beau.

"Oh no, Beau," objected Tip. "It's my mad plan and I should bear the risk."

Beau looked at Bekki. "It is his right," said the Dwarf.

"Wull then, I'll just go with him," replied Beau.

Phais shook her head. "Nay, Sir Beau. Fortune favors one alone, but not two."

"But I went through Drearwood with Tip, and it was just as dangerous."

"Aye, perhaps just as dangerous, yet 'twas not the same. There in Dhruousdarda ye twain needed pass through nought but trees while avoiding scattered Rupt and lone dire creatures of that wood. But in this Tip must walk through the heart of a Swarm and cross from its fringe to the walls of Dendor and then seek admittance. One alone has a better chance than two together of getting through the Swarm, and two together represent more of a threat to the men on the gate than a single one alone."

Tears came to Beau's eyes, but he nodded bitterly.

"It is decided, then," said DelfLord Valk. He turned to Tipperton. "Hear me now: two things can occur with your mission: it may fail; it may succeed.

"Should it fail; then when we arrive we will array ourselves on the ridge south of the city for a day and attack the next, and that should give Agron enough time to see us and set his forces to attack when we do, though it will also give Modru enough time through his surrogate to see us as well and to act, all surprise being lost.

"Ah, but should your mission succeed… You have seen and know our plan and you must convey it to Agron. Tell him I come with three thousand Chakka no more than a week after you. Have him each night and dawn loose fire arrows from above the four gates, signifying that all is ready. Just ere the dawn the day of attack, we will loose one fire arrow in return and then in the darkness ride down to war and attack with the coming of the sun. Let Agron's men come forth at that time, and together we shall win." As Tipperton nodded, Valk raised his axe. "Chakka shok! Chakka cor!" his voice rang.

Chakka shok! Chakka cor! responded the captains all 'round.

The DelfLord then looked at Tip and said, "Sir Tipperton Thistledown, may the smiling face of Fortune be turned your way, and may Elwydd watch over you." Valk grasped the helve of his axe nigh the head and held it before him and slapped a hand to the blade and called out, "Shok Chakka amonu!" and so did all the captains as well.

Tip glanced up at Loric, and the Alor said, "The axes of the Dwarves are with you."

Eleven days later, in the early March evening as the sun sank low in the west, once again the comrades stood among the trees atop the ridge overlooking Dendor. Still the Swarm ringed 'round the city below.

"It looks thinnest near the south gate," said Loric, pointing straight ahead.

"Then that's where I'll go," said Tipperton, his heart hammering, for not only was he about to set out on a mission dire, somewhere below a fear-casting Gargon stalked among the Swarm.

Phais gestured at the remains of remote winter sun sliding below the horizon, all but its upper limb now gone, the thin arc of a crescent moon sinking down just above. "When the sun disappears and the moon sets, then thou must go, for dark night will be full upon the land."

Tip nodded and looked at Beau, and that buccan's face was drawn. "Cheer up, bucco," said Tip, as he folded the flag of Kachar and stuffed it under his jacket. "We'll see each other after."

"Oh, Tip, it seems you are always going off into danger, while I but do hang back."

The last of the sun disappeared, and the fingernail moon edged down.

"Huah!" barked Tip. "Who walked with me through Drearwood, eh? Was it you or some stranger instead? Some stranger who saved me from that strangling Hlok, hit him in the head with a rock? And who came rushing to my aid at Annory? A stranger still? And who-?"

"Look, bucco, I know we are both in it up to our necks, but this time it seems more, more-"

"Harebrained?"

Beau laughed in spite of himself. "Well, perhaps not harebrained, but dangerous nonetheless."

"I know, Beau, and that's why I'll be all the more careful."

As the moon itself slid into the land Bekki glanced through the twilight at Tip. "There may come a time when boldness will better serve."

Tip nodded, but Beau said, "If it comes to needing to being bold, Tip, remember what I once told you."

Tip raised an eyebrow, and Beau grinned, and said, "If you're going to be bold, then do it timidly."

Tip smiled, remembering, and while the moon sank below the horizon, he said, "With that Gargon down there, I'll be way beyend timidity and into stark terror instead."

A look of distress crossed Beau's face. "Oh, don't say that, Tip. I mean this mission is bad enough without throwing in a Gargon, too."

"Well, we can't very well throw him out, now can we?"

Now the moon was gone altogether, the night lit by remote frigid stars in a cold crystal sky above.

Phais knelt and embraced Tip. "Fare well, my friend." She kissed him on the cheek.

Loric, too, embraced the buccan, as did Bekki, much to Tip's surprise.

Last of all, Beau gave him a hug, tears running down. "Hear me, Tipperton, you take care," he managed to choke out.

"You, too, Beau. You too," replied Tip, his own voice trembling.

Loric handed the buccan a pole, Modru's standard atop, and, with his heart thudding in dread, Tip took a deep breath and said, "Well, I'm off."

Bearing a ring of fire on black, and bearing their hopes as well, the wee Warrow set off afoot down through the winter snow.

Ahead lay the gates of Dendor.

Ahead lay a deadly Swarm.