'Well and good,' said Ruar. ' 'Tis meet the Baeron command the ford. Would that the Crestan Pass were free as well. Yet as to the strategy offered by Bren: there is much to recommend it. E'en so, there is also this: were the Free Folk to gather all forces and march upon Gron, much would be left vulnerable, and the Foul Folk free to bring destruction unto those thus exposed. Still, could we move swiftly, mayhap we could cast Modru down from his iron tower ere he could combine his Hordes to stay our hand.'
Ruar peered at the ground. 'Yet, 'twould not be easy, for the iron tower is a formidable fortress and Modru a powerful Mage. And not only does he command Foul Folk, 'tis said in the season of cold he has winter at his beck. If true, we would need many a powerful Mage at hand to counter such a foe.
'Still, the plan has merit, and I will think on it.'
Eilor cleared his throat. 'But first, my Coron, we must break the siege at Mineholt North.'
Ruar looked up. 'Aye, we must at that.'
Tip sought out Beau and took back the coin, and the rest of the day they spent wandering about the encampment, gaping up at the huge draft horses of the Baeron, and they helped a wagoner feed one of them, marveling over the amount of food it took.
'A goodly measure of the cargo we bear is for the horses,' said the Baeron, slapping one of the large animals on the flank. 'Else we'd be hauling the freight ourselves.'
Beau looked up at the towering man and horse and over at one of the massive wains. Then he grinned and said, 'Well, it's not as if a pony would do.'
The big man laughed, but Tip turned to Beau. 'Speaking of ponies, bucco, it's time we fed and watered ours again.'
They strolled to where their own animals were penned, and as they poured a ration of oats into nosebags, Beau looked at the little steeds and said, 'I wonder just how they feel, here among the Elves' big horses and the even bigger horses over there?'
Now it was Tip who grinned. 'No different from us, I should think, Beau. No different from us whatsoever.'
Later that eve, Tipperton strummed on his lute, playing it for the first time since hearing of… of the fall of Caer Lindor.
A deep melancholy ran under the tunes.
The next morning, a day early, five hundred Baeron mounted upon huge horses came riding into the clearing. Their chieftain was Gara, a redheaded man, short for a Baeran, standing just six feet three. Yet there was an air of command about him, and he seemed not at all diminished by his taller kith.
Once again Ruar called a council, and Beau and Tip watched from afar, Tipperton picking out songs on his lute. And the sun walked up through the sky and over as the council went on. And the buccan fed the ponies and led them to water, and then watched from afar again, Tip once more lightly strumming doleful tunes. Finally Vail came. 'We leave on the morrow, Tipperton, thou and I on the fore left flank. As for thee, Beau, thou wilt ride among the healers' wains, or so Melor did say.'
Beau sighed and looked at Tip. 'It seems as if we've seen little of one another, especially these past few weeks, less and less as the days go by.'
'Oh, Beau, it's not as if we are parted. I mean, even on the trail I'll see you in camp each night.'
Vail shook her head. 'Nay, Tipperton. Once we are underway, as scouts we'll oft be days on our own, searching, seeking, probing for foe. And we will rendezvous daily with a message rider and tell him what we have seen, and 'tis he who will bear word back unto Eilor and thence to the war council. -Oh, we will return at times, in haste when and if we find the enemy. Yet for the most, we will be long on the track and short within camp.'
Tip looked at Beau and turned up his hands and shrugged, and Beau returned a faint grin.
Tip glanced at his friend and then took up his lute, and a lively tune sprang forth from the silver strings: it was 'The Merry Man of Boskledee,' Beau's favorite.
And when the song came to an end, both Warrows laughed in glee, Beau especially, for it was the first time in a long while that merriment had touched his friend.
The next dawn found huge horses being led to wains and harnessed and hitched to great wagon tongues, while Elves saddled their own mounts and lashed goods to pack animals, and big men cinched big saddles to big horses and tied bedrolls behind. And down among the horses and Elves and Baeron, two Warrows saddled two ponies and tied their goods after.
Finally all seemed ready and the wains pulled out in a long line along the road, flanked on either side by men on horses. In the fore, mounted Baeron and Elves waited, and farther out a vanguard of Elves and horses stood.
Vail, a packhorse tied behind, signaled Tip, and he turned to Beau. 'Well, bucco, it looks as if we're about to start. I'll see you when I can.'
Beau nodded glumly but said nought, and Tip mounted his pony. As Tipperton reined the animal 'round, Beau said, 'Now you take care, Tip. I mean, you've a coin to deliver, and I don't want to see you here at one of the healers' wains.' Beau's eyes flew wide. 'Oh, my, I didn't mean that how it sounded. Of course you must come should you need patching. I just meant you ought to take care and not need any patching whatsoever.'
'Don't worry about me, Beau. I have it on good authority that Warrows make the best scouts of all, right?' And with that he kicked heels to flank and the pony trotted away.
Beau mounted his own pony and rode to his assigned hospital wain.
Moments later from somewhere ahead a horn sounded, and with slaps of reins and chrks of tongues and calls of Hai! and Yah! the wagon train began to roll.
For two days the caravan fared eastward, and nigh noon of the second day a rumor spread down the line that a pair of scouts had come racing west unto the column moving east along the road. It was Elon and Lyra come back from Landover Gape at the Rimmen Ring, or so the rumor said.
And near midtrain-'I don't like this not knowing,' said Beau. 'Buzz and tittle-tattle is all we hear, and as to the truth of it, there's none to be had hereabout.'
Melor laughed. ' 'Pis always so, wee one, that speculation flies on the wings of conjecture. Yet take heart, for are we to go into battle, truth will soon arrive.'
'Battle? Who said anything about battle?'
'No one, my friend, no one at all, at least not that we've yet heard.'
'See what I mean!' growled Beau.
' 'Tis the track of a catamount, Tipperton,' said Vail at last. 'Seldom do they come this far into the darda.'
'Perhaps it was driven,' said Tip, scanning the surround, seeing no movement other than birds flitting among the lattice of greenery above.
Vail nodded. 'Indeed. Mayhap its haunts in the Rim-mens have been overrun. When Lerren comes, we'll send word back to Eilor and Ruar.'
Tipperton squatted and took another look at the impressions. The buccan had wondered why they were scouting within the northern reaches of Darda Erynian. After all, if it was protected not only by Hidden Ones but by the Baeron too, then it would seem fruitless to scout in such well-warded quarters. Yet with the finding of these tracks, perhaps he had an answer.
He looked at Vail. 'How old would you make these? Five days? Six?'
'At least a sevenday, for when they were made the soil was yet wet, soft from rain-see how each print spreads?- and when last it stormed 'twas just ere we set out from Bircehyll. After these were laid the soil dried, binding hard the spoor.'
Tipperton nodded, then stood and glanced through the rustling leaves at the sun passing overhead. 'Shouldn't we be on our way? I mean, don't we have some distance to go to reach the rendezvous with Lerren?'
'Indeed,' said Vail, standing as well. 'Yet just as today, we will see him on the morning.'
They mounted up and rode on eastward, wending among the trees.
In late afternoon Tipperton and Vail reached the clearing and rode up the hillside where to their surprise they could see two tethered horses: one bearing a saddle, the other with a modicum of goods lashed to a pack frame. As they did so, Alor Lerren stood up out of the tall grass and called, 'Hai roi, vi didron velles! '
'Kal ce iyr? '
'Iyr.'
