Up through snow toward Jailor Pass they fared, the route through the Grimwall Mountains standing against the distant sky some thirty miles and three days away, for an army is a slow beast when faring across open land. And although Jailor Pass was a principal trade route between western Jord and Aven, still there was no maintained road between… but for a rough track the merchants' wagons and horses had made.
Ten miles a day and only ten would the army try to achieve, for as King Agron had said, ' 'Tis a long march and better to arrive with ready soldiers than with an army worn by haste.'
And miles out front rode Tipperton and Auly, the two far-point scouts.
Two days, three days, they fared up the land, Tip and Auly now deep in the grip of the pass, the army just then reaching the southern gape. And again snow fell, a chill descending down.
'Oh my, but I hope this weather doesn't bode ill,' said Tip, drawing his cloak tight around.
'Here in the col it could be a bane,' said Auly, a veteran of battles past, 'but down in the flats, it's more likely a blessing.'
'How so?'
Auly scratched his greying beard and gestured about. 'Unlike the flats below, up here the snow is like to get deep, hindering horse and wain and marching men all. But down in the flats, if it doesn't snow a deal, the cold will actually aid us. It'll freeze the ground, you see, and the harder the ground, the less likely a wagon will mire.'
'Ah, yes,' said Tipperton, nodding in understanding.
They fared onward through the slot, scanning the slopes and the col ahead for any sign of foe. But the way seemed clear, and the two rode mostly without speaking. Yet at last, Auly said, 'What I'm truly worried about is that Modru is master of the cold, or so I hear, and I don't want him casting his power against us.'
'I am not certain he will, Auly. When I was in Dendor, six Mages were there as well. They said some castings take an enormous amount of, um,. I would think that raising a blizzard is one of these… though Modru might have done so after the city of Dael was destroyed by Sleeth.'
'The Dragon?'
'Yes. He whelmed the city with fire and might until no shelter was left, and then the blizzard came. Whether or no Modru sent it, I cannot say, though others tell it was so.'
'And you saw this?'
'Only the aftermath. We waited out the storm in a shelter of sorts many miles and several days away and only came to Dael after the dark deed was done.'
'Well I just hope Black Modru doesn't send a storm down on us, though when you think about it, what better target than an enemy army marching on the land?'
Tipperton shivered and did not reply, and the snow came down and down.
On the ninth day after leaving Alvstad the army marched out of the col and down into the Jordian town of Jallorby at the northern reach of the pass. Two more days they rested in this far corner of Jord, there on the flank of the Grimwall Mountains. But on the third day they set out once again, their short respite over.
Moving westerly, they aimed for a distant mountain range and the slide-blocked pass within, Tip and Auly riding far-point, some ten or so miles in advance of the army. And always to their left the Grimwall loomed, reaching for the Gronfangs ahead.
On the fifth day out, as Tip and Auly topped a rise in the land, straight before them and low on the horizon the snow-laden caps of mountains came into view, the range marching off northerly. Tip drew in a breath, the air seeming extra cold.
'There they are, the Gronfangs,' said Auly. 'As evil a stretch as can be.'
'Evil?'
'Aye, filled with Rutcha and Drokha and Guula and such.'
Tip looked at the far reach. 'Perhaps less so, now that Modru's Hordes are spread across the lands.'
Auly grunted but otherwise did not reply, and urged his horse forward and down the slope ahead, Tip following.
'Look, leftward by the big rock,' said Auly.
Lying on his belly atop the hill, Tip peered through the midday light at the ridge nigh the mouth of the pass. Movement stirred among the snow-laden stone on high. 'I see.'
It was the twelfth day after leaving Jallorby, and the two far-point scouts had come nigh the entrance of the pass through the Gronfangs, no more than a quarter mile ahead. The army itself was a day or so behind.
'Spawn, do you think?' asked Tip.
'Who else?' replied Auly.
'So the pass is not unguarded.' Tip's words were a statement and not a question.
Auly shook his head.
'Well then,' said Tip, 'we need ride back to King Agron.'
'Not yet, Tipperton. First let us see what else we can.'
And so they waited and watched as the sun edged down the sky.
'A company, we think,' said Auly.
'In the gape of the pass?'
'Aye, my lord.'
King Agron looked to Tipperton, and the buccan nodded. 'Thirty or forty, we saw, Lord Agron. If there are others, they are well back in the slot. Even so, given five we did not see for each one we counted, then a company in all stand ward. Yet that is but a guess; there could be many more within.'
Agron sighed. 'Then a brigade, or segment, or even a full Horde could bar the way.'
'My lord, if it is a segment or Horde,' said Captain Brud, standing at hand, 'the pass is strait, and it will be difficult winning through.'
'Aye, captain, yet we cannot expect to reach Modru without a skirmish or two.' Agron paused, then said, 'Call my council of captains. We have a battle to plan.'
Dressed in white and stealing through the moonlight, across the snow came Agron's vanguard afoot, nigh invisible in the alabaster night. Behind a mile or so, the cavalry awaited the signal, and more soldiers afoot stood ready.
Far to the left and ahead of those advancing moved Tip-perton and Auly, guiding a small force of raiders. Their assignment was to negate the lookouts atop the southern ridge.
Across the snow the raiders glided, quiet in their approach, and they came at last to the stone flank of the mountain. Then north they turned and up a slope they advanced, Tipperton in the lead, his bow at the ready, the Warrow silent upon the land.
At last they reached the crest of the ridge, and in the moonlight Tipperton could see, down among the boulders, dark forms lying upon the ground. Holding a hand out to stop those following, Tip took a deep breath to calm himself and slowly let it out, then surveyed the scene below.
A squad of maggot-folk. Asleep. But wait!
He espied one of the Rupt on ward, peering southerly.
Silently, Tip signalled the men behind to advance, but quietly. Auly came up alongside the buccan. When it seemed the raiders were in place, Tip's whispered command was relayed down the line, and carefully he raised his bow, arrow nocked to the string.
Inhale full; exhale half; draw and aim and loose.
The Ruck was completely unaware.
Even though reluctant to slay an unsuspecting foe, Tip-perton's mind flashed back to a similar time at Rimmen Gape, recalling Dara Lyra's words: Think of all who have been slain by his ilk. thun! The arrow whispered through the moonlight to take the Ruck in the neck, and gargling inarticulately he fell sideways to the snow. Yet in that same moment a second Ruck stepped from behind a boulder. And ere Tip could load and loose another arrow, 'Waugh!' cried the Ruck and raised a horn to his lips.
Even as the signal blew, Auly's shaft took the sentry under the arm, slamming the Ruck aside to fall unmoving to the snow; but the alarm had sounded, and more Rupt sprang to their feet as arrows sleeted down from above.
With cries of dismay and fear, maggot-folk dodged behind boulders, and again a Ruptish horn blatted, to be answered in kind by a blare from the narrow pass below.
And yet out on the plain another bugle blew, and with a cry of For king and Dular, men rose up from the snow
