At the small table the eld damman looked up from her work, Lark standing on a stool at her side looking up as well, the child's face and arms streaked with flour. 'Bread, bread, bread,' said Lark, holding out her white- powdered hands to show to her dam.
'What is it?' asked Melli, trying to keep her voice calm in front of the child, but her words quavered regardless.
'Bread,' said Lark, looking at Melli.
Rynna snatched up her arrows. 'The Spawn are on the move,' she said as she fastened the quiver to her hip. 'Heading north. Tipperton is on their east flank.' She strung her bow and looped it over her shoulder. 'With Nix.' Now she took up her saddlebags and blanket roll.
'Nix? Going north and on the east flank? Riding the open wold between the maggot-folk and the mountains?'
'Yes,' gritted Rynna.
'Oh my,' groaned Melli, 'but that means they're trapped.'
Lark looked back and forth between Melli and Rynna, anxiety coming over her tiny face.
'No, not trapped. Not trapped. Not precisely,' averred Rynna, as if to assure not only Melli but herself as well. 'Yet if the Foul Folk turn…'
Lark began to cry.
Rynna set down the saddlebags and bedroll and scooped her up and said, 'There, there,' but Lark only cried all the harder.
Despairing, Rynna turned to the eld damman. 'Melli, I must go.'
Melli stepped forward and took the child from Rynna and embraced her and in spite of her own tears muttered a soothing word or two, the tot inconsolable. But then Melli asked, 'Do you want me to go back to the Springwater holding?'
'Perhaps it's best,' said Rynna, taking up her bedroll and saddlebags again. She stepped to the door. 'I'll be there as soon as I'm able.'
And then she was gone.
And Lark looked up at the empty doorway and said, 'Bye-bye,' and she rested her head on Melli's shoulder and sobbed, Melli weeping as well.
'Why are they marching north, and in such a hurry?' asked Nix, urging his pony 'round an outcrop of rock.
Riding in the lead, Tipperton glanced back. 'I don't know, Nix, but with a surrogate, and what with the Ghuls racing ahead, I think it must be urgent.'
'Well, should we double back and cross at the ford? The Rissanin is somewhere ahead, you know.'
'I don't think so, Nix. I mean, I don't think we should double back. I don't know where they are going but, wherever it is, we've got to keep up.'
'How will we cross the river?'
'Swim, bucco, swim.'
'Argh,' groaned Nix. 'I suspected as much.'
'Oh my,' exclaimed Beau. 'On the wold on the eastern flank? That's not good being out in the open like that.'
Linnet, riding on Rynna's left, said, 'Can't they always double back and cross at Eryn Ford? I mean if it is abandoned…'
'It may not be,' said Rynna. 'They may have left a contingent behind. But fear not, Tip and Nix know what they are doing.'
'I hope,' said Beau. 'I hope. -Oh, I should have been with him, not Nix.'
Rynna shook her head. 'Not so, Beau, for who better to take Linnet under wing than you? -as fond of her as you are.'
Linnet gasped, and Rynna reached out to her cousin. 'Linnet, 'tis nought but the plain and simple truth. You needed someone skilled in the ways of war to apprentice under, and since Beau cherishes you, I knew he would-' Rynna's words came to a halt, for they had reached the eaves of the darda.
'Here they come,' said Farly.
In the distance out on the plain the massed Foul Folk boiled northerly.
After a while Beau said, 'Lor', but look at them go.'
' Tis a forced march,' said Rynna. 'They are in a hurry.'
'I'd not like to be in their way,' said Farly.
'And somewhere ahead ride Ghuls,' said Linnet.
Both Rynna and Beau nodded but remained silent.
They watched moments more, and then Rynna spurred forward and out onto the wold, the others following, the four Warrows heading northerly on a course parallel to that of the distant march.
And in the dimness of Darda Erynian, enshadowed Fox Riders coursed a like route within, though Tynvyr and Picyn rode out on the wold with the Warrows.
'I do hope that you are right about Tip and Nix,' said Beau.
Her eyebrow cocked, Rynna looked at him. 'That they know what they are doing,' explained Beau.
'L-lor', 1-lor', b-but this w-water is c-cold,' said Nix, his teeth chattering, the two buccen hanging on to pony saddles and urging the little steeds through the water, the horselings drifting downstream in the current as they valiantly struggled across. 'W-we should have k-kept on our c-clothes and b-boots.'
'N-no,' chattered Tip. 'We'll n-need them w-when we get to the s-side opposite.'
'If we d-don't f-freeze first,' said Nix.
At last, numb and shuddering uncontrollably, they reached the far bank, both buccen staggering up out of the water and into the woods beyond.
'S-s-swift, now,' said Tip, 'unbundle everything, d-dry on the, the blanket, and, and g-get dressed.'
But Nix needed no instruction, for even as Tip spoke, in spite of his numb fingers Nix untied the tightly wrapped all-weather cloak from 'round his blanket roll, which in itself was wrapped around his garments and weaponry and a few supplies. Quickly he dried on the blanket, and then donned his clothes, and looked up to see that Tip had done the same.
Both Tip and Nix wiped down their ponies, using the blankets here too, the labor serving to warm the two buccen. Wringing out as much water as they could, they re-rolled their blankets 'round their meager supplies and lashed them to the saddles.
Fastening his quiver to his thigh and his bow scabbard to the saddle, Tip said, 'Quick now, we've got to get ahead of the Foul Folk and track them from the fore. That way they can't trap us against the mountains. Too, by the tracks of the Helsteeds we can see whether or no the Spawn follow wherever the Ghuls have gone.'
'Speaking of Ghuls, what'll we do about them?' asked Nix.
Tip shook his head. 'I don't think our ponies can keep up with Helsteeds, but surely we can outpace maggot- folk afoot.'
Mounting his steed, Nix said, 'No, Tip, what I meant was: with Ghuls ahead, are we likely to run into a trap?'
Swinging up and astride his own pony, Tip said, 'Well, bucco, we'll just have to keep a sharp eye out.' With that he heeled his pony in the flanks, Nix following, and off they rode, wide to the right of the march.
'Lor',' said Beau, 'are they never going to stop?'
'I think not,' said Rynna. 'At such a pace they think it urgent to get to wherever it is they are going.'
'Hsst!' sissed Linnet. 'Something or someone comes 'cross the wold.'
In the twilight to the fore and left they could see a mounted force riding from the direction of Darda Erynian, the eaves of the forest now some fifteen miles to the west.
'Hai,' said Beau, kicking heels into pony flanks, 'come on. It's Dylvana.'
Weary, eyes rimmed red, Tip looked hindward through the dawn light, a waning half-moon overhead. 'They're still marching.'
'If they keep this up,' said Nix, '-no, what I really mean is: if we keep this up, we'll kill the ponies.'
'They're tougher than you think, bucco,' replied Tip, gazing to the fore. 'I don't see any Ghuls, so what say we again ride far enough ahead so to dismount and walk awhile?'
