ride up the Quadran Road and over.'
'Can we make it all the way across in one day?' asked Tip, remembering Talarin's maps. 'I mean, it's forty or fifty miles, isn't it?'
Loric shook his head. 'Nay. Thou art thinking of the way under, for Gildor says the winding way he went passes 'neath Aevor Mountain to the south and Coron in the north. The way over is shorter, for it crosses the col between those same two peaks. Even so, it will press the horses to go up and back down in one day, yet we can relieve them by walking much of the way, and by going lesser distances in the following days.'
'Then where? I mean, after we get across.'
'After that we must cross the Argon River, and to do so we have two choices: six or seven days east and south lies the ferry at Olorin Isle; ten or eleven days northward lies Landover Road Ford.'
Phais shook her head. 'Not north, Alor Loric, for not only does that way lie alongside the Grimwall, where Spaunen dwell, but since Crestan Pass is held by the Foul Folk, mayhap they hold the ford as well; recall, but twenty leagues lie between the two. Rather would I cross at Olorin, for it is more likely to be free, standing as it does nigh the marges of Darda Galion.'
Now it was Loric who shook his head. 'But the ford itself lies on the marge of Darda Erynian and is not likely to be in the hands of the foe. And didst thou forget, Dara, our other choice, the ferry, is plied by Rivermen.'
'Nay, Alor, I did not forget.'
Beau looked up from his mian. 'Rivermen?'
'Aye,' replied Loric.
'I mean, is it bad that Rivermen ply a ferry?'
Loric shrugged. 'Mayhap, for apast the Rivermen on Great Isle acted as guardians of the Argon, and for this protection they exacted tolls from merchants who plied the flowing tradeway. Yet the Rivermen turned to piracy- some say at the behest of Gyphon or one of His acolytes- slaying the merchants and looting the cargo, making it appear to be boating accidents in the rocky straits of the Race, a dangerous narrows downriver. To give truth to this lie, much of the wreckage and cargo would be set adrift, to be salvaged by their ferrymen kindred on Olorin Isle, a goodly way below the Race. The woodsmen of the Argon Vales, the Baeron, discovered the piracy of those on Great Isle and banded together and destroyed their fortress, slaying many of the pirates, perhaps all, though some may have escaped.
'Yet far downstream the Rivermen on Olorin Isle claimed innocence, saying that they knew nothing of what their kindred did upriver, and maintaining that whatever flotsam and jetsam was salvaged from the wrecks in the narrows, the ferrymen came by it honestly. Nought could be proved otherwise.
'Even so, after the destruction of the fortress upriver, and the subsequent loss of drifting salvage, many of the Rivermen on Olorin Isle went to live elsewhere. Only a few families remained behind to ply the ferry.'
'And you think they were guilty,' declared Beau, '-all the Rivermen, I mean.'
'Aye,' replied Loric.
'Well then, why did they go unpunished?'
'Suspicion alone is not proof.'
Tip turned to Phais. 'And yet you want us to go by the ferry?'
Phais nodded. 'Those events are long past, and the Rivermen alive today are not those who committed the acts.'
'That notwithstanding, Dara,' said Loric, 'back then they were Gyphon's puppets, or so I do believe. And in these dire times Rivermen may be His puppets still.'
Phais turned up her hands. 'Nevertheless, Alor Loric, the ferry seems safer than riding alongside the Grimwall all the way north to Landover Road Ford, even though the ford itself may be free of the foe.'
Loric frowned in thought, then grinned and said, 'Aye, it does at that.'
Beau expelled a great breath. 'Well, I'm glad that's settled. Tomorrow we go to the foot of Quadran Pass. The next day we cross over and, following that, make for the ferry.'
Twilight turned to night, and Tip walked up to the rim of the hollow to stand his turn at watch. Yet upon reaching there he immediately spun about and ran down again, hissing, 'Loric, Phais, Beau-fire in the Grimwall.'
To the rim they all rushed, and far to the east and on the slopes of a great mountain, a long ribbon of fire shone, twisting its way up the stone.
Loric groaned and Beau asked, 'What is it? A forest aflame? What?'
Phais sighed. 'Nay, Sir Beau. I ween 'tis instead the missing Horde.'
'The Horde?'
'Aye, for 'tis campfires and torchlight we see. They are encamped along the Quadran Road.'
'But couldn't it be the Dwarves instead?' protested Tip, grasping at straws. 'I mean, after all, it is the Quadran, and Dwarves dwell below.'
Loric shook his head. 'Nay. Were it the Drimma of Drimmen-deeve, then 'twould not be torches we see, but Drimmen lanterns instead.'
'I don't understand.'
'Their lanterns illume with a blue-green glow.' said Phais. 'Yet among the brighter lights of the campfires we see on yon slopes of Coron Mountain are minor glints- the ruddy light of brands, favored by the Foul Folk.'
'Oh, no,' groaned Tip. 'This means we have to go farther south.'
'Not necessarily,' said Beau. 'I mean, they could merely be crossing over.'
'The light moves not,' growled Loric.
'Well, crossing over on the morrow, then.'
'Nay, Sir Beau,' said Phais. 'I agree with Loric. They are encamped. Too, if they intended to cross over, then they would have done so long past, for they left Dhruous-darda in mid April and now it is mid May. I agree with Sir Tipperton; south we must go.'
'To Gunar Slot?' asked Beau.
'Nay, not that pass but to the Dusk Door instead, and seek permission from the Drimma to go the way under.'
Now both Tip and Beau groaned.
To the east and south they rode, faring across the open moors. And as they went the land began to rise, for they were bordering upon the foothills of the Grimwall. Four candlemarks they rode, and then four more, heading for the distant vale that would in turn lead them to the western entrance into Drimmen-deeve.
And they rode at a goodly clip, yet at a varying gait, for they must needs husband the strength of the steeds, for the entrance to the vale of Dusk Door lay some fifteen or twenty leagues southeastward-forty-five to sixty miles away-or so Loric said.
'More than one day altogether,' groaned Tip.
'Aye,' replied Loric. 'We must camp tonight.'
'I just hope no Vulgs are about,' muttered Beau to himself, his hand touching the pocket holding the silver container of gwynthyme.
Through the hills they wended, ever bearing southeastward, and the land grew rougher as they went, and now and again they could glimpse Quadran Road wending upward over the pass, and although the Warrows could but vaguely make out movement thereon, both Loric and Phais with their keener sight assured them that it was indeed a Horde. And onward the foursome rode.
'I say,' piped up Beau as through a slot in the foothills he again glimpsed the Quadran Road, 'isn't this bringing us closer to the Rucks and such?'
'Aye, it is,' responded Loric. 'Nevertheless, 'tis the quickest way to our goal.'
'Fear not, Sir Beau,' said Phais. 'The Horde is well in the pass, and we are reasonably away from its flanks.'
'Adon, but I hope she's right,' muttered Beau, as they turned among great rounded stones and skirted thickets and rode along the faces of low-walled sheer bluffs.
But at last, as the day drew to an end, they came into a set of low rounded hills, the slopes thick with silver birch trees.
'Here we camp,' said Loric, and set camp they did.
That night, again the torchlight blazed, though now it was closer, much closer.
