Finally he heard a faint jingle of armor and the sound of heavy hooves. And shortly Lyra came slipping through the thicket again, a huge man at her side along with a tiny form.
It was Durul -and Beau.
'I just came to see how you were doing, Tip.'
'Me, I'm all right,' said Tip. 'But I say, what about the wagons?'
'Oh, they're on the move and should be in position well before dawn.'
'Good.'
And they all sat quietly as the night slipped by, while down in the town torchlight and campfires burned.
At length the moon set, and still no Rucken relief came.
Just ere dawn and ignoring the blood and grime, Lyra slipped into the Ruck warder's garb and took up the horn. Then she went to the sentry rock and waited.
Now Tipperton and Beau and Durul moved to where they could see the road as well as the town.
In the dimness below they could make out the bowed canvas tops of the wagon train standing in a long line athwart the road, fetching up nigh the flank of a hill in the north and running into a grassy mead on the south. And in full view in the southern sward stood several of the great draft horses, though not nearly as many as were needed to draw all of the wagons.
Durul turned. 'I go to prepare.'
'Me too,' said Beau.
Tipperton nodded. 'I'll be ready.'
Durul smiled and looked down at the Waldana. 'Keep free of our horses, for doubtless with but one great hoof they could squash either of your tiny steeds.'
Beau shook his head. 'Not likely, Durul, we're tiny but quick.'
Durul slipped away into the thicket, heading back toward the waiting vanguard.
'You keep safe, bucco,' said Tip.
'You too,' said Beau, and then he followed Durul away.
And Tip waited as dawn brightened, the day edging toward sunrise.
And still the wagon train sat quietly with no stir of movement, as if all were yet asleep.
The rim of the sun broached the horizon.
Lyra in Ruchen garb stood and blew the horn, the blats slapping and echoing among the crags. And she clambered atop the rock and blew again, frantically leaping up and down, her arms flailing akimbo as she pointed down at the stationary wains.
Another sentry farther downslope took up the blaring call, a sentry also in Ruchen garb, yet he stood atop the rock where Vail and Elon had gone.
Down in the shadows of the vanquished town a stir quickened.
And Spawn took up cudgels and scimitars and tulwars.
Foul Folk rushed down through the town and out onto the road to see, and some who had espied the standing train ran back to a roadside building and in.
And from somewhere within the town another horn blew, and Tip could see several of the Foul Folk stalk from the roadside building and mount waiting horses.
– Nay! Not horses, but Helsteeds instead!
Oh, no! It's some of those Ghill things!
And Tip racked his mind for what he could remember of them: Nearly unkillable. Terrible foe. Wood through the heart and beheading and fire. He could remember no more as the maggot-folk below scrambled into a ragged mass on the road.
Lyra hopped down from her post and came into the thicket and quickly shucked the Ruchen garb, her nose wrinkled as she did so. 'I'll be chasing nits and lice and fleas for weeks can I not get a bath.'
Again the horn blew, and the segment boiled westward, churning toward the waiting merchant train, where plunder and spoils were theirs for the taking as well as great horses for the eating.
'Come, Tipperton, 'tis time to ride.' And Lyra and Tip leapt astride their mounts and rode through the coppice and away.
As they emerged from the thicket, they saw two other riders appear in the morning light and move toward them. And again they heard the Ruptish horn blat in the distance below. 'Ah, it goes well,' called Lyra to Vail and Elon, 'just as Dara Phais planned.'
From behind a wagon Bwen watched as the Wrg came seething down the Landover Road, cudgels and tulwars and scimitars in hand, Helsteeds with Guula astride in the fore with Rutcha and Drokha coming after.
She touched the morning star hanging from her belt, then took hold of a rope and called, 'Bheith arfuirechas!' and her command was relayed down the line, not only in the Baeron tongue but in Sylva as well.
Now the Rutchen horn blew again, and the segment spread wide in a long line so as to swarm over all the wagons at once.
'Go maith!' she grunted under her breath and grinned, for two days back Phais had guessed they would do just that. All was going according to plan.
Once again the Wrg horn sounded, and with howls and squalls of triumph and baying ululations, the segment charged past the Helsteeds, past the Ghuls and their blowing horns, tulwars and scimitars and cudgels raised to smash down stupid merchants.
'Ullmhaigh, ullmhaig…' Bwen called and gripped the rope all the tighter, 'fan, fan…'
And the long line of Wrg hurtled closer and closer, Helsteeds in their midst…
'Fan…fan…'
Howling, shrieking, the Spawn were nearly on top of the train…
And the ground shook from the hammer of heavy hooves.
'Anois!' shrieked Bwen, hauling on a rope with all her strength. 'Anois!Anois!'
And everywhere along the line Baeron haled on ropes, and canvas was pulled up and across the arched wagon bows to reveal the Dylvana archers, arrows nocked, bows drawn taut -Ssssss… a sleet of arrows sissed forth all up and down the line, whispering of death in their flight, the trace of their fatal sounds unheard in the cries of the charging foe and lost in the thunder of heavy hooves Waugh! cried a thousand Rupt voices, their shouts of triumph turning to shrieks of fear as arrows slammed into their ranks, hundreds to tumble down, dead as they hit the ground.
Ssssss… hissed another hail of shafts, and more Spaunen fell as they tried to turn and flee -but then the column of heavy horses running four abreast smashed into and over and past fleeing foe as Baeron on their massive mounts thundered down the length of the ragged file of Spawn, limbs and ribs and spines and skulls smashing under thundering hooves and hammering maces and shearing blades and crushing morning stars, viscera and muscle and bone and brain bursting outward from the whelming blows of hoof and weapon alike And running alongside were two fleet ponies, with shrieking Warrows astride, arrows and sling bullets flying into the foe.
And racing after the heavy horse column came Dylvana on lighter mounts, swords reaving down those yet standing as the running steeds flew by.
And in the lead one of the massive horses crashed into and over a Helsteed; the Ghul astride, quilled with arrows, was smashed under, and there came the sound of breaking bones. Yet the corpse-white foe gained his feet, his barbed spear still in hand. And he stepped aside from the next galloping horse and, smiling a yellow-toothed grin, stabbed upward at the rider, the brutal spikes on the spear blade punching through the Baeran's stomach, knocking him back over the saddle cantle, driving the Ghul hindward and wrenching the weapon from the corpse- foe's grasp.
Yet as the Ghul stepped toward the felled man and took hold of the haft and stared down in malignant glee, there came a call-'Cha!'-and he looked up to see -Loric's blade flash as he thundered by-Schlak!-the face yet leering as the Ghul's head flew through the air to land in the way and be crushed 'neath smashing hooves, the Ghul's headless corpse yet holding the haft of the cruel barbed spear as it toppled sideways to fall under hammering hooves as well.
And when the thundering horses and two wee ponies and light Elven steeds had gone past and away-Sssss… – more Dylvana arrows sissed into the surviving Rupt, most to punch through the backs of the fleeing foe.
And now, led by Bwen, Baeron raced from behind the wagons, their great long legs overhauling the Wrg, shorter Dylvana leaping o'er wagon sideboards and dashing after, some with long-knives in hand, others yet loosing
