Into the Forge

Chapter 32

While the Dylvana gathered wood and cut branches from nearby pines to build a pyre for slain Lerren, the Baeron took up their dead and rode northwesterly toward the fringes of Darda Erynian-the Great Greenhall-standing some three leagues away. Loric went with them, for as he had said, "Someone should be present to sing their souls into the sky."

But it was Vail who came to Tipperton and asked that he play his silver-stringed lute at the Dylvana death rites, and so he did as the flames rose up, tears streaming down his face. And a thousand Elven voices lifted in song out on the meadow that day…

… while in the quiet green folds of Darda Erynian there sang but a single one.

Passing the corpses of two beheaded Ghuls lying beside the road, their slain Helsteeds nearby, Coron Ruar and a contingent of Elves and Baeron and two Warrows rode into Braeton nigh midday. And they were appalled by what they found therein-the innocent dead, the mutilation, the wanton destruction and slaughter-the whole wreathed in a foetor of putrefaction.

Sickened, Tipperton looked up at Phais and declared, "This is ten times over what was done at Stede, at Annory."

At Tipperton's side, Beau peered 'round. "A city of the dead, that's what this is, a terrible city of the dead."

Phais nodded, then looked down at the buccen. "Ye will see more of the like or worse ere Modru is laid by the heels."

From down nigh the road a clarion called. Phais sighed. " 'Tis the signal to assemble."

They mounted their steeds and rode back down through the streets of the slain, joining with others answering Ruar's summons. And when all had gathered, the Coron said, "We ride back to the wains, for there is little we can do here."

"Can't we even bury them or burn them?" called Beau.

Ruar shook his head. "Nay, wee one, except for our own the dead must lie where they are felled until this war is done. Then mayhap kindred or others will come and see unto the slain."

Ruar turned to Bwen. "Is there aught, Wagonleader, thou canst use among these ruins?"

"Aye, there's some bales of bush clover we can take for the steeds; a bit of grain, too."

"Then do so."

"Are we no better than Rucks and such to rob the dead?" whispered Beau to Tip aside.

"They have no use for it," sissed Tip back. "Besides, the maggot-folk are the cause of all this, not us."

Phais looked at the buccen. "Aye, Beau, Tipperton is right. Were we to slaughter merely for plunder, then would we be no better."

Beau frowned but held his tongue.

In midafternoon the Baeron came back from the woodland funeral, and they drove the remainder of the great horses with them, horses which had been corralled in Darda Erynian for safekeeping. And among those huge steeds were the lighter horses of the Elves, for their spare mounts had been corralled in the wood as well.

The next morning, with outriding scouts far in the lead, the vanguard and cavalcade and wagon train moved easterly through Rimmen Gape, leaving behind the field of slaughter, leaving behind the city of the dead, leaving behind two leaf-covered bowers in the fringes of the Great Greenhall and a circle of scorch in the mead.

And even as they rode, an Elven rider on swift steed and trailing three remounts overtook the train and the cavalcade and galloped past and away, riding in haste for the vanguard a mile or so ahead.

Tipperton, Beau, Vail, Melor, Loric, and Phais were in the rank following Ruar when the courier rode alongside the Coron's file, her horses lathered and blowing.

"The Hidden Ones, my Coron," she called, "they've driven the Horde from the ruins of Caer Lindor. The Swarm fled from Darda Erynian and Darda Stor in terror, and ere they won free of the dardas, fully half of the Spaunen were slain, ne'er to answer Modru's bugles again."

Ruar clenched a fist. "Well and good, Dara Cein. Is there aught else?"

"Nay, my Coron. Eio Wa Suk report no more."

"And Caer Lindor, it is in ruins?"

"Aye, my Coron, or so the Pyska who relayed the message say."

Ruar shook his head in regret as Cein added, "The caer betrayed is a mighty strongholt no more."

Phais turned to Tipperton and Beau. "Thy kith are avenged."

"The Hidden Ones, they should have killed them all, all the Spawn," said Tipperton, his face stormy.

"But fully five thousand lie dead, Tipperton."

"Nevertheless, these Hidden Ones, they should have pursued until all the maggot-folk were dead."

Phais looked at him as if to ask how many dead would it take to satisfy his thirst for revenge, but instead she held out a hand of negation and said, "The Hidden Ones will not go beyond the bounds of their dardas."

"On occasion one or two will," said Vail.

Phais nodded. "Aye, even a handful, but not the nation itself."

Ruar called to Cein, "Ride awhile with us, and this night we will relate all that has happened since we left, and thou canst bear word back unto Birchyll."

A look of disappointment fell over Cein's features, yet she said, "I was hoping to ride with thee into battle, my Coron. Yet, as thou wilt."

That night they camped at the far side of the gape, some twenty-five miles away. And Ruar and Eilor called the scouts together and once again laid out the maps. And they were attended by Gara and Bwen as well. Another Baeran was there, too, a tall, dark-haired man. So too was Cein in attendance, to carry word back to those behind in Darda Erynian.

When all had settled in place, Ruar said, "We are at a point of choosing the route we follow from here. I have called ye all together so that scouts and war leaders alike will know." Ruar turned to the dark-haired Baeran. "Uryc has traveled within the Ring of Riamon, and so has come to give us his advice."

Eilor handed an arrow to Uryc, and the big man touched the point of the shaft to the map to illustrate: "Mineholt North is some forty leagues northerly along the Rimmen Range. Yet the land 'tween here and there is one of rolling foothills, broken at times by washouts and chasms and gullies. It will be difficult going for the wagons. If that's the way chosen, the task for the outriders will be to find the easiest route through."

Tipperton and Vail, because of their small stature, had been given places up front, and Tipperton looked up from one of his own sketches to the big map and then raised his hand.

At Uryc's nod Tip said, "Isn't there an easier way to go? A road or some such? I mean, I thought the Dwarves were crafters and traders, and it would seem unlikely they would isolate themselves without having a road."

Uryc grunted, and then touched the map with the arrow. "Aye, they are crafters and traders, yet the road they made leads east from the mineholt to Dael, and there another runs southerly to the Landover, where they go east and west to do their trading. Or from Dael they ride the flow of the Ironwater down through Bridgeton and Rhondor and past Hel's Crucible and on to the Avagon Sea."

Tip glanced at the map and then thumbed through his own scout-book sheaves to a similar sketch. "Well, then, this road up to Dael and the one across, why not use them?"

Vail reached out and her finger traced a route over Tipperton's sketch. "To do so, Tipperton, we would ride east for thirty or thirty-five leagues thus, and then north another thirty or so, and finally back this way westerly thirty more. That's three sides of a square rather than one should we go straightly north instead."

Bwen cleared her throat and then said, "Even so, wee Tippy may be right and the road a deal better, for if there are ravines standing across our way, going the longer may be shorter overall."

Gara nodded. "Indeed there is that, but there is this too: likely the roads are watched, whereas by coming at them through the foothills we will come upon the foe unawares."

Bwen looked up at Uryc. "How rough is the knd?"

The big man peered down at the map. "A deal. Yet it was in the higher land I ran my traps. Down lower it seems bisiu-better-yet I didn't travel it all."

Bwen canted her head, then turned to Gara. "Well, Chieftain, it seems it's a hundred and some miles over rough ground or three hundred and some by road. If the land is too ugly, we'll be all the later for it, but if fair, then all the better."

The discussion lasted many candlemarks longer, but finally the decision turned on the fact that they bore a greater risk of being spotted if they followed the roads, for would not Modru set his own patrols along these ways? Whereas overland, though a harder pull, they were more likely to reach their goal without alerting the Spawn.

When Tip carried his blankets to the campfire where Beau was bedded down and told him of the decision, Beau grunted and then said, "Goin' overland, eh, and not on a packed road? Well then, Tip, tell me this: with these great big wagons, heavy as they are, what'll it be like if it rains?"

For two days the wagon train rolled cross-country, the great horses drawing the heavy wains after, Dylvana and Baeron escort riding alongside and a rear guard following. Directly out front fared the cavalcade, and farther ahead by a mile or so rode the column of the vanguard, Elves and men alike, but for a lone Warrow: Beau on his pony down among the great horses. And ranging farther out still, by two leagues or three or more, fared the scouts, some to the fore, some aflank, some bringing up the rear. Tipperton and Vail now rode point.

As late afternoon drew down on the day, Beau turned to the Dylvana riding alongside. "I say, Melor, just how far do you judge we've come? I mean, I've been trying to track our progress by sighting on the cap of that mountain over there, and it seems not to have changed at all."

"The mountain moves not, for we but plod," replied the Elf. "A better measure of progress might be the number of steps thy little steed takes."

"Perhaps better, Melor, but it would be a measure dull beyond measure."

Melor laughed, then said, "Six leagues at most, my friend."

"Six leagues?"

"I gauge that to be the measure of how far we've rolled overland-seven by the end of this day."

"Seven leagues, twenty-one miles altogether. Let me see, at this rate we should reach Mineholt North in, um…"

"Twelve days of overland travel," said Melor, "two of which we've done, or will have done when we camp this eve."

Beau smiled. "Oh, well, then, that's not so bad now, is it?"

"Nay, wee one, 'tis not," replied Melor, then added: "Of course, that assumes the land remains friendly."

Far out front, ten miles or so, Tip stood on the lip of the ravine. "We can't take wagons through this."

"Aye, we cannot," said Vail, shading her eyes and peering easterly along the rim, "at least not here." She stepped to her horse. "Ride west, Tipperton, while I ride east; we'll look for a place to cross. Shouldst thou find one, turn and ride to me. I will do the same."

Tip nodded and mounted and kicked his heels into the pony's flanks.

Westerly he rode, away from Vail and up the rising land. In the near distance, the Rimmen Mountains jutted up, barring the way. "If we don't come to a place soon," Tip muttered to his pony, "the land will be entirely too steep, too rugged for the wagons to roll this way."

On he pressed and up, a mile and then another, the deep cleft to his right becoming narrower. Yet another mile beyond he came to a bluff, a perpendicular upjut in the land cloven through by the ravine. Tipperton scanned for a way up and, seeing a notch, he turned the pony leftward and rode toward the gap. Yet when he came to it, the defile he found was rubble-filled. He leaned forward and patted the pony alongside the neck. "Well, old friend, I'm not certain a goat could get up that pile of rocks, much less a wagon train."

Turning back, he rode easterly, and finally espied Vail coming toward him.

As they came together he said, "There's nothing west but a steep bluff."

Vail turned and pointed east. "Yon, a third of a league, there is a way across. 'Twill be arduous, yet the train can pass."

"What about farther down?"

"I rode a league past, and there I met Arylin riding west along the rim. She says that there is no crossing for at least three leagues farther on. Hence, the one I found is the best to be had."

Tip canted his head noncommittally and said, "Then there is nothing for it but to ride the back trail and set the guide markers."

And together they rode easterly along the rim to the place where they would start tracking back and setting the signs.

The following day, Beau said, "I see what you mean about the land becoming less friendly."

"Aye," replied Melor, his gaze sweeping across the boulder-strewn ledges. " 'Tis the Rimmens reaching out."

"But we're a distance away," protested Beau.

"Still the stone angles forth."

"It won't break the wheels, will it?"

Melor shrugged but did not otherwise reply.

They rode the rest of the day in glum silence, for the wagons behind were considerably slowed by the edges and ridges and juts in the stony terrain.

And as the sun sank into the horizon, the vanguard came to a deep and wide ravine with long slopes down in and back out.

"Oh, my," exclaimed Beau, "surely there is a better way."

Melor looked east and west. " 'Tis steeper elsewhere than here, at least as far as my eye can see."

"But what about farther down-or up, for that matter- farther than your sight?"

Melor shrugged. "The scout markers say this is best."

They waited until the train arrived, and then Bwen came striding forward. "Fyrra!" she barked, peering down the slope and across and up again. "But they don't expect us to take our wagons through that, do they?"

Ruar sighed. "The scouts believe this place is best."

"Feh! Now what would a scout know about wagons? I mean, they believe that if they can ride through a place, then a wagon surely can follow."

Gara turned to her and gestured wide east and west. "If it's worse up and down, Wagonleader, then would you have us turn back?"

"I didn't say that," snapped Bwen. She turned and called, "Hoy, Braec!"

One of the huge men from the wagons came to her side. "Naofa Adon!" he breathed, looking at the way.

"Let's go down and across and see how we may get the train through," said Bwen.

Braec cast a skeptical eye at her, but followed Bwen down the slope.

When they returned, Bwen said, "This will be the way of it: we'll harness a team to each wagon as usual-"

"Hoy now," interrupted Beau, "I'm no expert but it seems to me, no matter how good the brakes, a regular team will not be able to hold one of these heavy wagons back on the downslope or haul it out on the far si-"

"Hush, Waldan!" barked Bwen, glaring at Beau. "Let me finish." Then her features softened. "Indeed, a normal team cannot cross unaided. They will merely be used to steer, to guide the wagon down and up. Nay, the real work will be done by six-horse teams, three stationed on each side."

"Oh," said Beau, but nothing more.

Bwen smiled. "On this side, with lines 'tween collar and wain, six horses will be hitched hindward-"

"Hindwards?" blurted Beau, then slapped a hand across his mouth.

Bwen sighed. "Hindwards, Waldan, as if set to pull a wagon by long ropes away from the slope, but while the team itself will remain on level ground they instead will slowly back and ease the wain down into the deep ravine."

Ruar nodded and said, "Ah, acting as a brake."

"You took the words right out of my mouth," muttered Beau.

Bwen glared from Ruar to Beau, and the Warrow smiled innocently up at her. She shook her head and reluctantly grinned and then continued. "Once safely in the ravine, the ropes will be cast off and the six-horse team taken to another waiting wagon. And down in the ravine, the normal pair will pull the wain to the base of the far slope, where more ropes will be attached and that wagon pulled up and out by another six-horse team above."

Bwen fell silent but Braec added, "With three teams here and three opposite, as each wain is eased down or hauled up, two teams on each side will be standing by and ready for the next. The work can go no swifter."

"Well and good," said Ruar, "on the morrow, then."

The next day, on the near side, even as each wain was eased down, two other teams were already roped to wagons and standing by. And as that wain reached the bottom and was loosed from the ropes to proceed across and the braking team led to another wagon, the next was started down. And on the far side, ropes were attached and wagons drawn upslope by the six-horse teams opposite.

Even so, but two wagons passed through the ravine each candlemark, eight wagons every four. And the sun rode up the sky and across as one by one the wagons were eased down and pulled through the bottom and then hauled back up. And as the day aged, the teams on the ravine sides were relieved often, for the work was arduous.

It took the entire day and then some to move the full hundred wains through the ravine. And as the last one was drawn up by lantern light and by the waxing light of a gibbous moon, Bwen said to Gara, "Well, Chieftain, we went all of a ravine width today. If there are many more of these in our path, the snows will be flying ere we gain Mineholt North."

Three days later under lowering skies, late in the day Tip and Vail came riding unto the encamped train, for Coron Ruar had summoned them in. Once again they were directed to the war council. When they arrived, Ruar said, "On the morrow I would have ye ride far point, for we have reached the halfway mark and Mineholt North is but twenty leagues hence. Take a remount as well as a pack-horse, for should the need arise, I would have ye unhampered by weary or lame steeds."

Tip glanced at his pony and then at a nearby steed and sighed. "I would ride my pony, Coron."

"Thou shalt do so, Tipperton. Yet shouldst thou and Dara Vail need flee in haste, thou must abandon it for a swifter mount."

Tip frowned but nodded in agreement.

"Shall any ride as courier?" asked Vail, glancing at Eiior, then back at Ruar. " 'Tween us and thee?"

"When we are nigh enough to the mineholt-say, ten leagues or so-I am of mind to send Dalon," said Eilor.

Sitting opposite in the circle, Phais looked at Loric, then cleared her throat.

"What wouldst thou say, Dara?" asked Ruar.

"Just this, Alor Ruar: Loric and I have been given the charge to see that the Waerlinga reach King Agron safely, and this mission thou hast given Sir Tipperton-"

"Hold on, now," objected Tipperton. "I asked to be a scout and a scout I'll be."

Phais held out a hand to stop his words. "I am not objecting to thee riding far point, Tipperton. Instead I am saying that thee should be accompanied by Alor Loric or me."

Tip glanced at Vail, and Phais said, "Dara Vail as well."

Tip looked at Beau. "What about-?"

"I say, I could be a scout, too," piped up Beau.

Ruar shook his head. "Nay, I'll not send ye both. Should ill befall one, the other must survive to carry on."

Beau frowned, and Phais said, "If thou wilt have me, Sir Beau, I will stay at thy side."

"And I shall ride with Sir Tipperton," said Loric.

"But that means you and Lady Phais will be separated," said Tip.

Loric shrugged and said, "Such is war."

The rain began that night, with lightning and the rumble of thunder in the mountains to the west, and the dawn came grey and dismal, with water yet falling down. And as Vail and Tip and Loric saddled their mounts and two remounts and laded a packhorse as well, Beau came splat-ting through the puddles, Phais at his side.

Tip started to reach for the thong and coin, but Beau shook his head. "I told you once and I'll tell you again, I'll not take the coin. It's up to you to remain safe and deliver it yourself. So you take care, bucco, and that's an order."

Tip grinned and shook his head. "Well then, my friend, perhaps you should take my lute and keep it safe in a wagon."

Again Beau shook his head. "Look, Lady Jaith gave you that and told you bards always carry their lutes and such wherever they go, and if having it with you will make you more cautious, well then, I'm all for it. Besides, it hardly takes up any space."

"Beau, you would have me creeping about and jumping at my own shadow, yet in this mission there may come a time when boldness is called for and not timidity."

"Well, bucco, if you're going to be bold, then do it timidly," said Beau, and looked up in surprise as Vail and Loric and Phais burst into laughter.

And finally all was ready, and Tip and Beau embraced; then Tipperton mounted his pony and followed Vail away, the buccan pulling the packhorse behind. Phais and Loric held one another tightly and kissed gentle and long; then Loric mounted and reined his steed about and, drawing a swift remount after, he followed Vail and Tipperton away into the blowing rain, while still in the mountains thunder rolled.

And Phais and Beau watched them go, and when they were gone into the blowing grey, the buccan reached up and took the Dara's hand and together they walked back along the train as the rain fell down and down.

On this day of unremitting rainfall, the wain drivers deliberately spread the train laterally wide, such that none followed directly in the tracks of another. Even so, in the rain-softened ground and in spite of the wide rims on the wheels, wains became mired, and extra of the massive horses were hitched to bogged-down wagons to haul them free. Still, progress was slow, and when evening came they had gone but six miles altogether, and the last wagons came to the encampment long after the first.

The rain continued to fall, and as Beau sat under a canvas awning strung between his hospital wagon and two poles-"Huah. And here all along I thought armies swift across the land. But we've been at it, what, eight days now? Yes, eight days since we started overland, and we've gone but some seventy miles-"

"A third of a league short of twenty-three," amended Phais.

"Right, then, sixty-eight miles. And so I ask you, are armies always this slow?"

"They are when they drag a great train behind," said Melon Phais nodded in agreement, then said, "Yet I have heard from Loric that the Vanadurin-"

"Who?" asked Beau.

"The Vanadurin, riders from the Steppes of Jord."

"Oh."

"Loric says that they can cover enormous distances in a remarkably short time."

"Like what?"

Phais looked down at the buccan. "On open plains, fifty miles a day for days on end, without remounts."

"Fifty-?"

"I have heard it, too," interjected Melor. "Something to do with varying the gait. It's called a long-ride, I believe."

"Aye," agreed Phais. "Loric says that they have superb horses as well, and they keep them in fine trim-rich grass and choice grain, good water, and they ride them into splendid fitness and school them well in the ways of war."

"Fifty miles a day," said Beau, yet dwelling on the figure given by Phais. "And we go, what, ten?" He looked up at Melor and grinned. "We need a new army, eh what?"

Far out front, another twenty-five miles or so, Tip looked with dismay at another ravine, this one with a raging stream racing through. "Oh, my, they'll never get the wagons across at this rate."

Loric stood and glanced at Vail. "They are yet two or three days behind, given the softness of the soil."

"Mire, you mean," growled Tip. "A regular Muddy Flats."

"Muddy Flats?" asked Vail.

"A crossing along the Wilder River: a ford when the banks are dry, a quag when it rains."

Loric gestured southward. "The land behind is not quite as bad as you would have it, Tipperton. Even so, by the time the train arrives, this river will yet be raging, for it comes down from the Rimmens, where the bulk of the storm fell, and will take days to run dry again."

"On the morrow we will look for a crossing place, a ford," said Vail, "and wait for outriders to come and show them what we've found and let them bear word back to the train."

"But what if there's no crossing?" asked Tip. "What then?"

"Then we and the train will wait together for the water to subside and cross as we did at the last gulch."

Tipperton growled in frustration.

Loric scanned about. "Let us look for a place to set camp out of this weather."

And so they mounted up and rode toward the mountains, where perhaps they would find a cave, a woodland, an overhang.

The rain let up during the night and by next morning was reduced to a blowing mizzle. And when the wagon train set out, the wains well separated laterally, the cavalcade and vanguard rode even farther wide. As Bwen had barked at Ruar, "It's troublesome enough rolling across these drenched hills without having you churning it up ahead."

And once again the spare great horses were harnessed in six-horse teams to hale any mired wagons free. And ere they had gone half a mile the first of the wains became bogged.

Above the roar, Tip shouted, "Lor', I think I could jump my pony over this." He looked across the gap of the narrow stone gorge, no more than twenty feet wide. Fifty feet below, a rage of water thundered through the long, narrow slot.

Loric turned to Vail and called, "Can we find timber, this is the place to cross."

"A bridge, you mean?" shouted Tip.

"Aye. The timbers will have to be sturdy."

Vail peered 'round. "There is none heavy enough easterly. Mayhap among the valleys of the Rimmens we will find a stand."

"Trees need water to grow tall," called Tipperton. "And if this stream flows each time it rains, then somewhere near the headwaters is where I'd look."

Loric grinned down at the Waerling and nodded. And the trio mounted and rode westerly up the land.

Nigh mid of day the mizzle stopped, and Beau looked up in gratitude and cast back his hood. And as the day wore on, the grey skies lightened and were finally riven with slashes of blue, and when the train came to a halt for the evening, puffy white clouds drifted overhead.

Even so, through the soggy land the train had covered only five miles in all.

As they ate, Phais said, " 'Tis Autumnday this day, when dark and light are in balance. A night we celebrate."

From across the fire, Melor looked up and nodded, but Beau at her side blanched. "Oh, my, but what a sinister thought."

Phais looked sideways at him in puzzlement. "Sinister?"

"Oh, Lady Phais, it's just that from now on, the dark will outweigh the light. I do hope it's not an omen of things to come."

Phais reached over and hugged the buccan to her. "Fear not, wee one, for it marks but the change of seasons and the celebration of harvest."

Beau nodded, but the frown between his eyes slackened not.

That night the Baeron watched in wonder as a thousand Dylvana and one Lian stepped out the stately rite of Autumnday. And down among the gliding Elves, the pausing Elves, the turning, chanting Elves, there paced and paused and turned and glided one wee Warrow as well.

And some twenty miles farther on, in a stand of tall pine cupped in a mountain vale, three others stepped out the ritual 'neath the three-quarter waning moon.

"Abridge?"

"Aye, Lady Bwen," replied Ruar, "if within these wains there is the wherewithal to construct such."

"Oh, we have the axes and saws, right enough."

Ruar turned to Gara. "Thy horses are better suited to drag the timbers unto the narrows."

Gara nodded. "I will gather a company and we will follow Lady Vail back unto the stand." He turned to Bwen. "By the time you reach the gorge, the bridge should be in place."

Bwen scratched her head and glanced at the sun overhead, then patted the side of the mired wain at hand. "Make it sturdy, Chieftain. Make it sturdy."

Within six candlemarks, and following Vail, two hundred Baeron rode out, the company bearing axes and saws and awls and augers and ropes as well as other tools.

By that evening the train had moved only another six miles in spite of the heat of the sun.

And the next day they moved another seven miles altogether.

The following day they moved seven miles again, hindered primarily by stony, rugged terrain rather than by soggy land. And when evening came, they had reached the gorge.

A bridge awaited them there.

"Coo," breathed Beau, standing with Tipperton, surveying the span.

Great logs, nigh forty feet long and bound together with ropes and crossbeams, bridged the gap. All was pinned with long, heavy pegs driven through augered holes. Atop the logs and pinned as well was rough-hewn planking thwartwise. Shallow ramps led up and onto the bridge on the near side and down and off opposite. Some fourteen feet wide was the bridge, with no side rails whatsoever.

And a torrent of water yet raced through the ravine below.

"Lor'," called Beau above the rush, "how did you do it so fast?"

Tip smiled. "With two hundred of these great huge Baeron plying axes and saws and other such, how could we not?"

"How did you get it across?"

"Easy, Beau: up at the headwaters it was shallow enough for some of the Baeron to go over on their tall horses, and they simply rode back down on the far side. Then with ropes and those same huge horses, they spanned the ravine one log at a time. After that it was easy. -Well, easy for the Baeron. If it'd been Warrows, we'd still be up there in the valley cutting wood."

The next morning turn in turn the wagons rolled onto the span and across, hooves clopping and wheels rumbling on the rough-hewn planks, the great timbers groaning and creaking under the weight of horse and wain and cargo and driver. One by one they passed across as two Warrows watched, Tip and Beau on the far side, having crossed over with the vanguard. The remainder of the cavalcade and the train escort came between wain crossings, while the rear guard and trailing scouts waited to come last of all.

The great placid horses of the Baeron seemed not at all disturbed by the narrow span above the long drop, but when Tipperton on his pony had crossed, he had ridden as close to the center of the bridge as he could, and while on the span had refused to look down.

And now as he and Beau stood side by side and watched, Beau gestured down into the depths below, where water yet ran, though less wild. "Well, here's another ravine we've managed to foil. Let's hope there's no more in the miles between here and our goal."

"I hope so, too, Beau. There's ten leagues left to go, thirty miles to Mineholt North. Vail and Loric and I should be within sight of the Dwarvenholt before this day is done, or by early next morn at the latest."

"Hmm," mused Beau. "At the rate the train has been moving, it'll be winter before we come."

"Winter?" blurted Tipperton.

Beau smiled. "Well, maybe not winter, but three or four days at least."

In that moment Loric and Vail came riding unto the Waerlings, the Lian and Dylvana trailing a packhorse and two remounts. "We must hie, Tipperton," said Loric.

Tip mounted his pony and took the tether of the pack-horse. He turned to Beau and drew in a deep breath and blew it out. "So long, Beau, I'll see you in three or four days, eh?"

"You take care, bucco."

With a salute, Tip wheeled his steed, and together with Loric and Vail rode away north. In moments, it seemed, the trio passed the rolling wagons and then elements of the cavalcade and finally the vanguard farther on to disappear beyond the shoulder of a small tor.

Beau sighed and turned to mount his pony, only to find Phais waiting and watching as well.

"Hist," whispered Loric. "I hear movement below."

A quarter moon stood overhead, and by its light and that of the stars Tip looked down the eastern slope.

They had ridden some twenty-two miles through rugged land, and when night had fallen they made a fireless camp atop a hillock some eight miles short of the mineholt.

And now a faint ching of armor and clop of hooves could be heard in the long, twisting draw below.

"Muzzle the steeds," hissed Vail. And they scurried to the animals and whispered soothing murmurs, Tip's pony accepting strokes and soft sounds as if they were its due.

But of a sudden the packhorse jerked up its head and nickered.

The movement below juddered to a halt.

"Weapons," sissed Loric, drawing his sword, while both Tipperton and Vail took bow in hand and nocked arrows.

"Be ready to flee," whispered Vail.

Back toward the overlook they crept.

And Tip's heart leapt into his throat and he softly groaned, for below a full mounted column, armed and ready, twined beyond seeing through the draw and stood quietly, as if listening.