with their backs to the hundred-foot drop unto the Avagon Sea below.'
'What lies in front?' asked Beau.
'A long flat like this,' said Tipperton, gesturing at the broad expanse lying between the sheer fall into the rift to their left and the craggy hills in the near distance to their right and stretching out fore and aft of the moving host.
'They have their backs to the sun,' growled Bekki.
'What sun?' asked Rynna, gesturing to the overcast above, yet sliding southwesterly overhead, driven by the chill wind.
'Should it come out,' replied Bekki.
'And it is nought but a sheer fall to the foe's right?' asked Phais.
Tipperton shook his head. 'Several hundred yards in front of the enemy's ranks, there seems to be a broad, broad slope down into H?l's Crucible, the pitch itself mayhap a full mile wide. How gentle or steep, I cannot say, for we could not fully see it from our post.'
'I say we drive them off the cliffs behind to fall into the sea,' said Bekki.
'Or off the sheer drop to their right,' added Nix.
'Or run them down the slope and into the foul air of H?l's Crucible itself,' said Linnet.
'The King says any one or all of these tactics will do,' said Rynna, adding, 'assuming they do not lay down their arms as the King will demand.'
'Bah!' growled Bekki. 'Were it mine to choose, I would not offer them surrender terms as King Blaine has said he will do.'
'Better they surrender without a fight than to have them maim and kill our own,' said Beau. 'I'm sick of seeing so many warriors lying in their own leaking blood, weary of sewing and patching muscle and skin as if they were nought but shredded remnants of a torn garment, weary of dealing with broken bones, weary of pain and death and crippling harm… ah, me, but I am weary of war.'
They rode awhile without speaking, but then Linde's horn sounded from the fore.
Loric looked at the others. ' Tis the call to fall into formation as planned.'
Bekki sighed and said, 'May Elwydd shield ye all.'
'May Her hand protect thou as well, Drimm Bekki, DelfLord of Mineholt North,' replied Phais.
Bekki peered long at her, an unfathomable look in his eyes, but then he saluted with his war hammer and wheeled his pony rightward and to the fore, where the Chakka of Mineholt North rode in array.
'Take care, wee ones,' said Phais, and then she and Loric also turned, and they cantered toward the Lian of Arden Vale.
'Remember,' said Rynna, 'if it comes to fighting, we are to circle to the far right, out where we will be free to cast arrows.'
Farly shook his head. 'I think the High King put us there just to get us out of the way.'
'No, he did not,' replied Rynna. 'Silverleaf is the one who suggested it, and though we are but a handful and two, he knows how deadly we can be.'
'Well, out of the way or not,' said Tipperton, 'I say we should get over there now, commander. I mean, I don't trust Modru to honor a grey flag.'
Rynna nodded and spurred rightward, the others following, and among the ponies of the twenty-five hundred Dwarves and past the horses of six hundred Dylvana and eight hundred Lian and fourteen hundred Baeron and thirty-nine thousand men, the entire Wee Folk army of seven rode to their position wide to the right to cover the host's dextral flank.
In row after row came the King's host, each long row reaching across the wide flat between the hills to the right and the precipice to the left.
In the lead rode King Blaine and Silverleaf, with Larana to Silverleaf s right and Linde to the King's left. Couched in Larana's stirrup cup was a lance bearing a grey flag, and on Linde's lance flew the King's scarlet and gold.
In a row a short way behind the King were borne the many banners of the Allies, pennons of men and Elves and Dwarves, but no flags for the Warrows and the Baeron.
Directly after the standard bearers came the heavy horses with Baeron astride, maces and morning stars and war hammers in hand, for as Blaine had said, 'I would have the foe tremble at the sight of such huge men and mounts; mayhap it will give the enemy pause should there be deceit in their hearts.'
And following after the Baeron came row after row of men and Dwarves and Elves, armed and armored for war.
And two miles ahead and also arrayed in row after row stood the Lakh of Hyree and the Askars of Chabba and the Rovers of Kistan, along with the Fists of Rakka, all of them accoutered for war as well.
'Oh lordy,' said Beau, 'but what a throng. I swear, Tip, there's more foe here than ever was at Dendor.'
Grimly, Tipperton nodded but otherwise did not reply as he and the Warrows pressed forward, riding along the right fore flank at the foot of the hills.
'Take note of the terrain,' said Rynna, 'for it may prove the difference between living and dying or between victory and defeat.'
Even though Tip was thoroughly familiar with the lay of the land, for he had studied it well while making the sketch, a sketch he had shown to all, still he scanned the surround. To the right stood the craggy hills, a place of refuge at need. A broad flat stretched between these mounds and the precipice of H?l's Crucible, a fiat some thousand yards wide and running for miles along the rim of the rift. This flat between the hills and the brim would be the battleground if it came to combat. To the left yawned H?l's Crucible itself, the bordering stone plummeting downward some thousand feet or so, the fall sheer alongside where the host now rode, but a quarter mile hence stood the long slope down into the vast basin, the slope Tip had observed from the hills above. Straight ahead were arrayed the foe, at their backs a hundred-foot fall to the deep Avagon Sea below. Stretching away to the enemy's right ran the shield wall, the steep stone plunging down into the basin, a sheer face between the rift and the ocean a hundred cubits beyond.
All was as Tip had last seen it; nothing seemed to have changed.
Tipperton looked up to the right. Somewhere in the hills above, Vail, Arylin, and Flandrena yet watched.
When the distance between the host and the foe came to a half mile or so, King Blaine signed to Linde, and she raised her black-oxen horn to her lips and blew a resonant call, and the host came to a stop.
Riding forward through the ranks came the emissaries who were to accompany King Blaine forward from this point. From the far right rode a wee Warrow on a pony. These emissaries arrayed themselves among the banners of the Allies, Rynna centermost and flanked by two Baeron, these three bereft of flags.
Now King Blaine looked behind and saw all was as planned, then he turned and nodded to Silverleaf and said, 'Let us see if they are open to surrender.'
'Beware treachery, my lord,' gritted a voice from behind.
'I shall, Lord Bekki,' replied the King without looking back.
Together, Blaine, Silverleaf, Larana, and Linde rode forward, the grey flag on the right, the scarlet and gold on the left. Directly behind rode the emissaries amid the many banners: Lian, Dylvana, Dwarves, Humans, Baeron. a Mage, and a single Warrow. Toward the foe they rode, coming at last to a point halfway between. There they stopped and waited.
The foe did not respond.
Long moments passed, a candlemark or so, yet neither ally nor foe stirred, and Rynna could hear the DelfLords growling among themselves, Bekki in particular.
And then Bekki cursed, 'Kruk, Loden, look. There's Coward Tain.'
Rynna stared at the enemy but a quarter mile away, where, centermost among them a man sat ahorse and seemed to be speaking to a bundle in his arms. Rynna shuddered, for although she had never seen Lord Tain before, she knew this bundle to be the corpse of his daughter Jolet.
Tipperton looked long at the enemy ranks, and he could make out Lord Tain astride a mount and whispering to the remains of his daughter, while gesticulating toward the host. Tip glanced at the cluster of emissaries: the King and Silverleaf and the others, notably Rynna, waiting at the midpoint.
Of a sudden, Lord Tain straightened and glared about -a shudder ran through Tipperton -the surrogate peered at the waiting King and his escort and laughed, then turned and spoke to someone at hand -and from the hills above
