Rynna looked startled.
Tip turned to Rynna. 'It is war, love, and as well we know, in war loves and lovers are parted, though I would dwell with you awhile.'
Rynna nodded in anguish but said, 'I understand.'
'I say, though,' exclaimed Beau, 'in the meantime, if we can get the Drimmen-deeve Dwarves to come to Darda Erynian, then we can destroy the remnants of the Foul Folk who wait at Eryn Ford, and then we won't have to worry about them at all.'
Aravan shook his head. 'Nay, Beau, 'tis better those Spaunen be left alone, for where they are they do little good in Modru's cause, and little harm in ours.'
'But they slew nearly all the Vanadurin,' protested Beau, 'and if that's little harm, then I don't know what harm is.'
'Aye, that was indeed harm. Yet heed, as Galarun says, we would have ye Waerlinga keep track of the Rupt and guide others past them as ye have guided us. And in that way they will be ineffective, a waste of Modru's power.'
Galarun nodded. 'The Horde is best set along a margin where they are doing no good whatsoever, though Modru knows it not. Mayhap it will lead him to believe we have not set out at all, and are yet to fall into his trap. If so, then mayhap our mission to Black Mountain will go forth unmolested. Hence, leave them be, and this I promise, when we return we will lay the Rupt by the heels. And when the time to go to Pellar comes, we will proudly ride with ye.
'But now our mission is not to aid the High King, but to fetch a sword instead, and I would have Modru think we are yet to come.'
Rynna nodded, as did Tip, though his assent came reluctantly.
Galarun smiled and then said, 'Fare ye well, my friends, and may Adon ward each and every one of ye.'
And Galarun signed to his company, and with Aravan at his side, out into the plains they all rode, packhorses and remounts trailing, the Lian on an enigmatic mission to receive a silver sword from Mages and bear it back to war.
'Farewell,' cried Rynna. 'May Elwydd keep you all.'
As they watched the Elven company ride away, Tipper-ton sighed and said, 'I suppose they're right, though leaving two segments of Foul Folk on our very doorstone sits askew with me. Nevertheless, if keeping track of the Spawn and guiding others past will serve the needs of all best, well then, I suppose it'll have to do.'
Rynna nodded, then said, 'We have done well these six days, steering Galarun and his company 'round a danger lying in wait. Let us go back to Darda Erynian and see how to best carry out the mission he has charged us with.'
The four Warrows set out for Caer Lindor, where they would cross back over into the Blackwood once more. And as they rode, Beau said, 'Well, Tip, with Warrows and Pysks and Groaning Stones, with Living Mounds and Woodwers, there's not a man among them. We couldn't find a better group of not-men.'
'Not-men they are, that I agree, but I ask you this: are we using their aid to quench the fires of war or simply to avoid strife?'
Beau frowned and did not answer Tipperton's question as into the Greatwood they rode.
Chapter 29
Summer came at last, though it seemed more chill than summers before. 'I wouldn't doubt that it's all the fault of Gyphon,' said Beau, his back to a boulder as he watched the slope behind.
'Gyphon?' asked Linnet, keeping vigil the opposite way, Linnet now a young damman, her twentieth birthday having come just a week past on Summerday-Year's Long Day itself.
'Wull, Tip thinks it's due to Karak blowing up and sending stone dust into the sky, and Phais and Loric seemed to think that as well. If they're right, then this chill summer is due to the hand of Gyphon. It's all connected, you know.'
'You keep saying that, Beau, about all things being connected.'
'Well, they are. Let me tell you how events falling upon the world are like stones being cast into ponds, the consequences like waves, mixing and mingling and affecting one another-'
'Hsst!' shushed Linnet. 'Ogru.'
Beau and Linnet crouched low against the ridge and peered through the boulders and down. Below, a massive Troll plodded through the moonlight and across the wold. Linnet took up an arrow and set it to bowstring.
'Might as well put that aside, Linnet,' said Beau. 'It'd be nothing more than a pesky gallinipper to him.'
'Gallinipper?'
Beau grinned. 'A biting fly, Linnet. It's an old Bosky term.'
Long they watched from the overlook, viewing the wold east of Eryn Ford, the ridge part of the spur of the Rimmen Mountains extending down to the Greatwood. Finally the Ogru trod 'round a flank of stone to disappear from view.
'Should we follow?' asked Linnet.
Beau shook his head and resumed his watch on the slope behind. 'I think he's heading up to his Troll hole again.'
For the past seven weeks, Warrows and Fox Riders had been keeping watch on the Spawn, and they knew much of their movements by now. This particular Ogru had a lair in the spur of the mountains a bit north of where Linnet and Beau now sat vigil.
As to the remainder of the Spawn, they yet sent patrols along the margins of Darda Erynian and Darda Stor, though they kept a goodly distance away from the eaves themselves.
In the early days of the vigil, acting on Galarun's request, Tynvyr had ridden to the Dylvana and asked them to join in the watch on the Spaunen, and to guide travellers past. In the meantime, Tipperton and Rynna had ridden into the Greatwood to find the Baeron and ask them to do the same.
It was as they were riding northwesterly away from The Clearing-a vast open space in the Greatwood, on the verge of which they had met with the Baeron-that Rynna and Tip had come across a vine-covered dell filled with huge broken stones-shattered, cracked, toppled and burst asunder-none were whole but one, and this a tall monolith, tilted askew, leaning against the steep valeside…
'This looks like an aggregate of Groaning Stones,' said Tip.
Rynna nodded and peered into the vale, tears springing into her eyes. 'Oh, Tip, so many Eio Wa Suk slain. What ever could have happened here?'
'I don't know,' replied Tip, 'but whatever it was, it was horribly ruinous.'
Rynna sighed and tugged on the reins of her pony, the steed's head coming up from cropping grass. 'Let us go away from this place, Tip. I will have one of the Fox Riders come and discover what happened here and when.'
'Do only Fox Riders know how to speak with the Stones?'
'Aye, Tip. Except for other Eio Wa Suk, the Stones will listen to none but a Pysk.'
And on toward the Blackwood rode the two, leaving the dell behind, their mission to the Baeron successful.
And so it was that Fox Riders and Warrows, Dylvana and Baeron, all sat watch on the eaves of the woods and escorted the few who would fare through the region safely past the Spawn.
On the ridge Beau glanced up at the waxing, gibbous moon and said, 'Our relief should come soon.'
Linnet nodded, but did not take her gaze from the wold below. 'You were saying about stones and ponds…'
'Oh well, it's just this: events are like stones cast into water, some large, some small, some tiny. And the consequences of the events ripple outward, like waves on the water to mingle and mix with other waves, at times adding, at other times cancelling, and sometimes having no effect at all. But all the waves from all the events-from enormous to tiny-sooner or later cross one another, hence all things are connected.'
