she stopped and sprang to the ground and looked up at them.
[Know you what passed nigh Rimmen Gape?] asked Rynna.
[Aye, the Eio Wa Suk carried the news,] replied Tynvyr.
[The Foul Folk, we have not seen them since. Are they back at Eryn Ford?] asked Tipperton.
Tynvyr shook her head.
'Barn rats!' exclaimed Beau, and then speaking Fey, added, [Where have they gotten to, I wonder?]
'No matter where,' said Linnet in Common, 'they can be up to no good'
'No matter where,' agreed Farly, the look on his face glum.
[I would think that if they've not returned to the ford,] said Tip, in the Fey tongue, [then it is most likely they are somewhere in the Rimmens licking their wounds.]
[That, or waiting for another surrogate,] said Beau.
Rynna sighed. [Well, there's nought we can do for the moment, and I am tired and cold and hungry. Tip, you and the others see to the ponies, and I will see to a good fire and a meal.]
[I will help,] said Linnet, handing the reins of her pony to Beau.
Rynna looked at Linnet in some surprise, for as far as Rynna knew, her cousin would rather care for a pony than to help prepare a meal.
As the buccen and Tynvyr returned from the makeshift stables westerly in the woods, Rynna looked at Beau and grinned, while Linnet turned away in some haste and busied herself at things already done, color high in her cheeks. That night Linnet drew Beau into her bower, her mother Melli away at the Springwater holding and the last thing on the young damman's mind.
'Oh, Tip,' said Beau. 'I've loved her ever since the first moment I saw her, but I am so plain and she is so beautiful, and yet she feels the same. Isn't that marvelous?'
'Indeed, Beau, indeed. But I knew it all along, what with you mooning about and watching her every move and her casting sly eyes at you.'
'Rather like you and Rynna, eh?'
Tip laughed and slapped a hand over his heart. 'Argh, bucco, sling bullets are not all you throw.'
Beau grinned, then turned serious. 'I say, Tip, what say we get married?'
'Married?'
'Aye. Not to each other, of course, but you to Rynna and me to Linnet.'
'But Beau, there's a war on.'
'In spite of the war, Tip, life goes on,' declared Beau. 'What better time to plight troth?'
Tipperton frowned and looked eastward, where stood the eaves of Darda Erynian some five miles away through the forest.
'Look,' said Beau, 'I think we'll have a bit of respite while the Foul Folk are off licking their wounds, and so we ought to take the time to have a wedding or two. Besides, Linnet is my heartmate.'
'Have you asked her?'
'Well, not exactly, but I will. And you should think on asking Rynna, too, what with Lark and all. A child needs a father, you know.'
'But Beau, she has a father. Me! Or did you think Lark fell out of a nest on one of those branches above?'
'Of course not, Tip. But I just think you ought to get married, and we can make it a double.'
'Oh, Beau, don't you think Rynna and I want to be married? We've talked about it often, but there's no mayor or Adonite cleric or Elwyddian priestess about.'
'What about up in Bircehyll, or over in Darda Galion for that matter? In Wood's-heart. Surely there's a cleric or priestess in one of the two.'
'Married by the Elves?'
Beau nodded.
Tip smiled. 'When?'
'How about Winterday?'
'Year's Long Night?'
Again Beau nodded.
'All right, Beau. Let's get the Pysks to ask the Groaning Stones to see if a cleric or priestess is available.'
[Is something amiss?] asked Tynvyr, sitting before a wee fire outside her tiny bower.
[Oh no,] replied Tipperton, [we've come on another matter altogether.]
[Would you like a small cup of tea,] said Tynvyr, laughing as she held up an acorn-sized mug. As both buccen declined, Tynvyr canted her head and said, [Well then, what is this-how did you put it? Oh yes-this another matter altogether?]
Tip glanced at Beau and then said to Tynvyr, [Would you ask the Eio Wa Suk to send a message to Bircehyll and to Wood's-heart to see if a priestess or cleric is among the Elves? If so, we'd ask that they come to the holding of the Springwater Warrows to perform a wedding ceremony, and if they cannot, then we'd travel to wherever they might be.]
Tynvyr smiled. [Wedding ceremony?]
[Yes,] said Beau, grinning. [Linnet and me, and Tip and Rynna. We need a cleric or priestess to do it since we haven't any mayors on hand.]
Tynvyr pursed her lips and then said, [There are no Eio Wa Suk in Darda Galion, and so we cannot send messages there by that means. Too, I can say now there are no clerics or priestesses among the Elves, unless one haps to be passing through.]
[Oh my,] said Tip, and he turned to Beau. [If none is available, how will we get it done?]
Beau frowned and shook his head, but then his eyes lighted and he turned to Tynvyr and exclaimed, [I say, who performs the ceremony for Pysks and Vred Tres and Living Mounds and other such among the Hidden Ones?]
Tynvyr turned up a hand. [No one. We simply declare ourselves bonded, and that's that.]
Beau looked at Tip. [Hmm. Much like you and Rynna did.]
Tip nodded. [But we always knew one day we'd take formal vows.]
[Would you instead accept a coron?] asked Tynvyr.
Tip raised an eyebrow. [A coron?]
[Rather than priestesses or clerics, corons perform the ceremonies for the Elves.]
[Ruar or Eiron?] asked Tip.
Tynvyr nodded. [Ruar, Eiron, or, for that matter, Sil-verleaf, for he was coron apast.]
Tip looked at Beau and grinned, and together they nodded.
Tynvyr smiled and called her fox and rode away toward the aggregate.
'With Ruar gone, we will have to chance that Eiron is in Darda Galion,' said Tip.
'Chance?' Rynna frowned.
'There are no Hidden Ones,' said Tip, 'no Eio Wa Suk, in the Larkenwald, love, and so we do not know if the coron is even there.'
'Ah,' said Linnet, grinning at Beau. 'Well, I say we trust to Fortune he is there.'
'I dunno,' said Beau. 'Dame Fortune has looked askance at us before.'
'But She's also smiled, Beau,' said Tipperton, 'else you and I would be long dead.'
Rynna gasped. 'Oh, Tip, don't ever say that. -About being dead, I mean.'
Tip pulled her close and kissed her, then said, 'To travel to Darda Galion means we need cross the Argon. When last we heard, the Baeron were plying the ferry. Yet things change, and what if they've been called away? We'll still need to cross the Argon.'
Rynna and Linnet nodded, and Rynna said, 'And…?'
'And, well, how will we do so?' added Tip. 'I mean, I don't trust the Rivermen.'
'The Rivermen are gone,' said Rynna.
'Gone? From Olorin Isle?'
Rynna nodded. 'Aye. None were there when we went to see to the truth of their story. Even so, and even if the ferry is abandoned, when last Farly and Nix and I crossed with Aravan and Velera and Arnu, we used Elven boats, and I know where they are cached.'
