when we went out trapping, and adapted what we found at the different locations. The most we ever carried were some metal triggering devices and those were mostly just time savers. I can show you some examples of the traps I know if you can stand to watch. I’m not just talking about different kinds of pit-traps. I know how to set a pit-trap to get a lot of people instead of just one or two, I know of snares and drop-nets that will get more than one, a couple kinds of channeling-traps, deadfalls with wood, deadfalls with rock, ankle-traps, leg- breakers, foot-piercers - “ He began rattling off the kinds of traps that could be set in such a way that wary enemy soldiers wouldn’t see them until it was far too late, and the eyes of his listeners either widened or narrowed according to the nature of the listener. The others rose to stand around him, until once again he was the center of a circle of listeners. “Trapping is just a different kind of hunting. My father said that it was hunting while absent, using the ultimate in disguise - not actually being there!”
“If we can do this - if we could lure a good number of their people out - “ Snowfire murmured to himself, as his eyes widened.
“If you can lure them out and we can channel them past the bluff, or through a couple of other places where there’s only one way to go, I can show you where and how to rig a deadfall that will block their way back!” Darian assured him. “There is one place where the river is very deep and dangerous and the path beside it is narrow, and if you can weaken one of the overhangs, we can drop a large piece of the bluff just behind them at that point. Then they’ll have to go the way we channel them.”
“And that will be a gauntlet of further traps.” Snowfire’s lips thinned with satisfaction. “It is cruel, perhaps, but have they not earned such an ordeal?”
“Yes!” Darian responded fiercely. Nodding heads showed that the others agreed with him.
“Show us!” demanded one of the others; paper and a charcoal stick appeared when Rainwind left the group and returned with them in his hands, and Snowfire conjured a mage-light to give Darian brighter and steadier illumination than firelight. Darian hunched over the first sheet, drawing a map.
“Here, here’s the village, and here’s the bluff, and here’s where the bluff goes up to the riverbed; far enough from the village that they just can’t call for help.” He sketched in the landmarks with a careful hand. “Now, if we rig a deadfall here, when it’s triggered, it’ll completely block the way back. It’s all sandstone through there; too dangerous to climb the rockpile, or at least that’s what they’ll think. Their only choice will be to climb the cliff, swim the river, or keep going.”
“What’s to stop them from swimming the river?” Wintersky asked. “Some of them did that when they attacked your village and the bridge burned.”
“Us,” said Ayshen, as he strolled into the firelight, his sharp teeth set in a grim smile. He had one of his enormous cooking knives in one hand. “Forgive me, Snowfire, but this may be the first time in my memory that there has been a combat where hertasi might be of service. We can swim like fish - how do you think we catch them, so big and so fresh? - and any clumsy human foolish enough to be in the same water with us will not live to learn his mistake.”
“Or if he does, it will not be for long,” added another hertasi in his shadow, who then ducked shyly out of sight.
“If they stay out of sight, the enemy won’t even know what’s attacking the swimmers,” Rainwind pointed out. “They’ve never been here before, for all they know, that part of the river could be inhabited by gigantic, man-killing Changed fish. They’ll have no reason to think of traps at that point,”
:I fancy we can be of service in the woods.: Tyrsell was nowhere in sight, but it was obvious he had been listening to the Council talk. :Exactly how, I am not yet sure, but certainly we will be useful in some capacity. I will have to see the territory, first.:
“If nothing else, perhaps the dyheli could drive the enemy into further traps,” offered Daystorm, a female scout. “It would be useful to have them in a panic, fleeing from the sound of many hooves. And again - it would just look like animals. It seems to me - “
“Go on,” Snowfire urged, when the other hesitated.
“Well,” she said. “It seems to me that we ought to keep things looking like it’s accident or Changed animals as long as possible. If we do that, they won’t actually be looking for traps for a while.”
“Eventually - “ Snowfire began.
“Oh, eventually, a trap will look like a trap, of course,” she admitted. “But it would be very useful to have them thinking that fate - or the Forest - has suddenly turned against them.”
“And therrre isss, of courrrssse, myssself,” Kel put in gravely, sounding quite calm - but the pinning of his eyes gave away his excitement. His wings were extended a little, as if he wanted badly to be in the air at this very moment.
“Not if they have bows,” Snowfire replied sternly. “You are hardly arrow-proof. And in the air you are a very large target, especially in the day. So was Skandranon.”
Kel’s only reply was a snort, but it was obvious that Snowfire was going to stand firm. “I am the scout-leader, and you are tacitly working under my command, Kel,” he reminded the gryphon. He didn’t add anything else, but Kel
