Beau glanced about. Not a pine tree was in sight.
In late afternoon of the following day, beneath leaden grey skies they emerged from the bleak hills to see the road descending before them; down and across a short flat it ran and to the River Caire, the ice-clad waterway curving out of the north and disappearing in the south. A snow-laden stone bridge spanned from bank to bank, and the road rose up and out from the river valley beyond, where it entered a dismal tangle of forest, stark barren limbs clawing at the sky.
Reining to a halt, 'There it is,' said Tipperton. 'Drearwood, straight ahead.'
'Lor', but they named it right, they did,' said Beau, taking a deep breath. 'Dark, depressing, dismal… dreadful.'
'And deadly,' added Tipperton, glancing at Beau, 'if what we've been told is true.'
Beau swallowed. 'How far to the other side?'
Tipperton twisted about in his saddle and fished out the› map. 'Hmm. Some eighty miles or so.'
'Adon, but that's three or four days.'
'If we push the ponies, perhaps we can make it in two.'
Beau shook his head. 'The best we've done so far is twenty-five.'
'Even so,' said Tip, 'we've gone rather slow, and might be able to make forty.'
Beau cocked a skeptical eyebrow. 'It's not like we're riders from Jord, bucco, fiery steeds and all. I mean, these are just plain ponies.'
'Time will tell, Beau. Time will tell,' said Tipperton. 'But for now, I suggest we go back into the hills and find a place to camp, and start our run through Drearwood on the morrow.'
'I'll see if I can find a pine,' said Beau, 'and take care of our tracks.'
As Tip awakened Beau for his next turn at ward, he hissed, 'You'll have to use your ears, bucco, for there's no light whatsoever.'
Beau sat up and peered about in the blackness, wondering how Tip had managed to find where he was bedded. Beau yawned, then looked overhead. 'Not even a glimmer,' he muttered.
'The overcast, Beau, it's blocking the stars,' responded Tip, crawling into his own bedding. 'And tonight is the full dark of the moon.'
As Beau fumbled his way toward the boulder where he would take station, he found his heart racing with apprehension. I can't see a bloody thing, for there isn't any starlight and tonight indeed is the full dark of the moon… Oh, my, the full dark of the moon. Oh, I do hope that's not an omen of things to come.
As dawn broke to a dismal day, an overcast yet covering all, Tipperton, on the last watch and weary, his eyes gritty and raw, stood and stretched. His entire being seemed at low ebb, and he knew that Beau would feel the same; neither buccan had rested well, but instead, turn in turn-three turns each-had slept in fits and starts throughout the long, frigid night. Regretting that he had to do so, Tip stepped over to awaken Beau. 'Come on, bucco, it's time to go.'
Groaning, Beau levered himself upward.
'You get the jerky and crue, Beau. I'll tend the ponies.'
'Jerky and crue,' moaned Beau. 'Four straight days of jerky and crue, with who knows how many more days to come. Is anything else as tasteless as a crue biscuit? And jerky is called jerky 'cause it's so accursed tough that it'll jerk your teeth out by the roots just trying to gnaw off a simple bite.'
Tipperton burst out in laughter, and Beau glared up at him through red-rimmed eyes… then burst out laughing himself. 'Lor', Tip, you look like I feel-I mean, your eyes are ready to bleed to death. If I didn't know better I'd say we've both been dragged by the ankles through Hel.'
Again they both burst out in laughter.
Humor restored in spite of their weariness, the buccen watered and fed the ponies and took a meal themselves. As they ate, Tip said, 'Shortly we'll be entering Drearwood, Beau, so keep your weapons at hand. We never know when we might need to make a fight of it.'
'Weapons? I didn't bring any weapons, Tip. I'm a healer, not a fighter.'
Tip's jaw dropped open. 'No weapons! Lor', Beau, you thought I was mad for setting out on this venture, but here you are about to enter Drearwood itself and now you tell me you have no weapons?'
Beau turned up his hands and shrugged.
Tipperton blew out a puff of air. 'Not even a dagger?'
Beau shook his head. 'No, though I do have some knives.'
'Knives?'
'The ones in my healer's satchel for lancing boils and the like, and of course the one I carry for eating and whittling and skinning game and such.'
'Listen, do you know how to use any weapons? A bow, a stave, a sling, a long knife, a-'
'Say, I did use a sling when I was a stripling, though that was some years back.'
'Well, bucco,' said Tip, 'you step down to the stream and gather up some slingstones while I fashion you a proper strap.'
As Beau rummaged about in the streambed, kicking aside snow and breaking through ice and gathering suitable stones, Tipperton unthreaded a leather thong from one of the ties of a saddle cantle, then cut a swatch from the leather flap. Carefully trimming the swatch and piercing it at each end, he cut the thong into two straps and fastened one in each of the swatch holes. Then he tied a loop in one end of one of the straps, a loop sized to fit snugly over the thumb. 'There, now,' he muttered, 'a proper sling for Beau.'
Stepping down to the streambed, Tip handed the casting strap to Beau. 'Here, bucco, while I saddle the ponies and break camp, you practice hurling stones.'
'But, Tip, I had a time gathering these, and now you want me to fling them away?'
Tip threw up his hands and burst out laughing, and Beau grinned and took the sling.
As Tip strode back to the camp, behind him Beau set a stone in the looped strap and sighted on a tree trunk and whirled the sling 'round and let fly. The stone flew practv cally straight up. Beau watched it arc up and stepped hind-wards out of the way as it came down to land in the creek.
'Huah!' grunted Beau, setting another stone into the sling pocket. 'It's been awhile.' Once again he sighted on the tree trunk and whirled the sling around. The rock hurtled upward at an angle to clatter through branches as it headed somewhere far beyond.
The third one smacked straight into the ground a handful of steps ahead. 'At least they have all gone forward,' muttered Beau, loading another rock.
Upslope, Tipperton shook his head in disbelief as he saddled the second pony.
'Don't worry, Beau,' said Tipperton as they rode up out of the wooded draw and back toward the road, the pack pony trailing behind and laded with their goods, including the pine boughs Beau had cut for brooms, 'you'll get the hang of it yet.'
'Wull, I threw most of my rocks away and only managed to hit the tree trunk once. If it'd been a Ruck I'd've killed 'im dead had he been about eight feet tall.' Beau grinned ruefully as Tip laughed aloud.
Smiling, they made their way up onto the Crossland Road and turned easterly, and then their smiles vanished, for in the near distance ahead they could see the dark tangle of Drearwood lying before them. Each taking a deep breath, they glanced at one another, and then down the slope they rode and across a flat to come the verge of the Stone-arches Bridge. Tipperton held up a hand and reined to a halt, Beau stopping beside him. Turning to Beau, Tip said, 'Listen, bucco, I've been thinking it over, and you needn't go with me any farther. I mean, we've been fortunate so far, and I think-'
'Oh, Tip,' broke in Beau, 'shut your gob.' And with that, Beau spurred his pony forward onto the span.
Shaking his head ruefully, Tipperton prodded his own steed and followed Beau onto the snow-covered stone pave of the bridge.
Above the frozen River Caire they rode, to come into the land of Rhone, the wedge-shaped realm known as the Plow, bounded on one side by the River Caire and on the other by the River Tumble, the rivers to ultimately join one another in the south to form the point of the plow, the land extending all the way north to the spine of the Rigga Mountains.
The road rose up again out of the river valley to strike straight through the grim heart of Drearwood, the bane of this region most dire. Hearthtales abounded of lone travelers or small bands who had passed into the sinister tangle never to be seen again; stories came of large caravans and groups of armed warriors who had
