heavy-bladed axe, and in the other, a thick staff. He had caught sight of Taran and Fflewddur and strode to meet them.
In another instant the bard and Taran were clasping his hands, pummeling his burly shoulders, and shouting so many greetings and questions that the new arrival clapped his hands to his head.
'Doli!' Taran cried. 'Good old Doli!'
'I heard you clearly the first few times,' the dwarf snorted. 'If I ever doubted you recognized me, you've fully convinced me that you do.' He put his hands on his hips and looked up sharply, trying, as always, to appear as gruff as he could. Despite himself his bright red eyes flashed with pleasure and his features broke into a grin, which he tried, without success, to change to his usual scowl.
'You've led us a chase,' Doli declared, motioning the warriors to follow Taran up the slope. 'We had word you'd gone into the hills, but saw nothing of you until today.'
'Doli!' Taran exclaimed, still amazed at the unexpected sight of this long-absent companion. 'What good luck brings you to us?'
'Good luck?' grumbled Doli. 'Do you call tramping day and night in snow and wind good luck? All of us Fair Folk are abroad, one place or another? Orders of King Eiddileg. Mine were to find you and put myself at your service. No offense, but I could guess that if anybody in Prydain needed help it would turn out to be you. So, here we are.'
'Gwystyl has done his work well,' Taran said. 'We knew he was journeying to your realm, but we feared King Eiddileg might not heed him.'
'I can't say he was overjoyed,' Doli, answered. 'In fact, he nearly burst. I was there when our gloomy friend brought word of your plight and I thought my ears would split with Eiddileg's bellowing. Great gawks! Lumbering oafs! Giant clodpoles! All his usual opinions about humans. But he agreed willingly enough despite his bluster. He's really fond of you, no matter what he says. Above all, he remembers how you saved the Fair Folk from being turned into frogs, moles, and whatever. It was the greatest service any mortal ever did for us, and Eiddileg means to repay the debt.
'Yes, the Fair Folk are on the march,' Doli continued. 'Alas, we came too late to Caer Dathyl. But King Smoit has cause to thank us. There's a host of Fair Folk fighting side by side with him. The northern lords are ready for battle, and we'll take a hand in that, too, you can be sure.'
Doli, for all his gruffness, was obviously proud of his own tidings. He had finished, with great relish, an account of one fray in which the Fair Folk had baffled the enemy by making an entire valley so resound with echoes that the foe fled in terror, believing themselves surrounded, and had begun another tale of Fair Folk valor, when he stopped abruptly, seeing the look of concern on Taran's face. Doli listened while Taran told what had befallen the other companions, and, it was the dwarf's turn to be grave and thoughtful. When Taran finished, Doli did not reply for a time.
'As for Eilonwy and Gurgi,' the dwarf said at last, 'I agree with Fflewddur. They'll manage, somehow. And if I know the Princess, I wouldn't be surprised to see her galloping up at the head of her own army.
'With the Cauldron-Born, we're all in bad straits,' Doli continued. 'Even we Fair Folk can do little against such creatures. All the tricks that would gull a common mortal are useless. The Cauldron-Born aren't human? I should say they're less than human. They've no memory of what they were, no fear, no hope? nothing can touch them.' The dwarf shook his head. 'And I see that any victory we might gain elsewhere would be wasted unless we find some way to deal with that spawn of Annuvin. Gwydion is quite right. If they aren't stopped? well, my friends, among us we'll have to do it, and that's flat.'
By this time the Fair Folk band had reached Taran's lines and a murmur of wonder spread through the ranks of the Commot men. All had heard of the skill and prowess of King Eiddileg's fighting forces, but none had seen them face to face. Hevydd the Smith marveled at their axes and short swords, pronouncing them sharper and better tempered than any he could make. For their own part, the Fair Folk seemed not the least uneasy; the tallest of Eiddileg's warriors stood barely higher than Lassar's knee, but the Fair Folk soldiers looked on their human comrades with the friendly indulgence they might show to overgrown children.
Doli patted Llyan's head and the huge animal purred happily in recognition. The sight of Glew, hunched on a rock and staring sourly at the new arrivals, brought a cry of surprise from the crimson-haired dwarf. 'Whoever? or whatever? is that? It's too big for a toadstool and too small for anything else!'
'I'm glad you asked,' replied Glew. 'It's a tale I'm sure you will find most interesting. I was once a giant, and my present unhappy state comes, no more and no less, from a complete lack of concern from those?' he looked dourly at Taran and the bard '?who might have been expected to show at least a small amount of consideration. My kingdom? yes, I would appreciate it if you addressed me as King Glew? was the finest cavern, with the finest bats, on the Isle of Mona. A cavern so vast…'
Fflewddur clapped his hands to his ears. 'Leave off, giant! Enough! We've no time for your prattle about caverns and bats. We know you've been ill-used. You've told us so yourself. Believe me, a Fflam is patient, but if I could find a cavern I'd pop you into it and leave you there.'
Doli's face had turned deeply thoughtful. 'Caverns,' the dwarf muttered. He snapped his fingers. 'Caverns! Hear me well,' he said quickly. 'No more than a day's march from here? yes, I'm sure of it? there's a Fair Folk mine. The best gems and precious stones are gone, and Eiddileg's had no one working there as long as I can remember. But I think we can get into it. Of course! If we follow the main shaft it should bring us out almost at the edge of the Red Fallows. You'll catch up with the Cauldron-Born in no time at all. With all our warriors together we'll stop them one way or another. How, I don't know. That doesn't matter for the moment. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.'
Doli grinned broadly. 'My friends, you're with Fair Folk now. When we do something, it's done right. The first half of your worries are over. The second half,' he added, 'might be something else again.
For the first time since leaving Caer Dallben, Glew appeared in good spirits. The idea of anything resembling a cavern seemed to cheer him, although the result of his improved temper was a further spate of rambling tales about his own feats as a giant. However, after a hard day and night of marching, when Doli halted at the sheer face of a high cliff, the former giant began glancing about fearfully. His nose twitched and his eyes blinked in dismay. The entrance to the ancient mine toward which the dwarf beckoned was no more than a fissure in the rock, barely wide enough for the horses, overhung with icicles glistening like sharp teeth.
'No, no,' stammered Glew. 'This doesn't compare with my realm on Mona. Not half the size. No, you can't expect me to go stumbling around a shabby den like this.'
He would have drawn back had not Fflewddur taken him by the collar and dragged him along.
'Have done, giant!' cried the bard. 'In you go with the rest of us.' But Fflewddur himself seemed none too eager to lead Llyan through the rocky crevice. 'A Fflam is valiant,' he murmured, 'but I've never been fond of underground passages and all such. No luck with them. Mark my words, we'll be grubbing like moles before we're through.'
At the mouth of the cavern Taran halted. Beyond this point there was no hope of finding Eilonwy. Once more he battled the wish of his heart to seek her again before she would be forever lost to him. With all his strength he fought to wrench these thoughts from his mind. But when at last he ruthlessly forced himself to follow the bard, it was as though he had left all of himself behind. He stumbled blindly into the darkness.
At Doli's orders the warriors had fashioned torches. These they now lit, and in the flickering light Taran saw the dwarf had brought them into a shaft that dipped gradually downward. Its walls of living rock rose no higher than Taran's upraised hands. Dismounted, the Commot men led their fearful horses past sharp outcroppings and over broken stones.
This, Doli explained, was not the mine itself, but only one of many side-tunnels the Fair Folk had used when carrying sacks of gems above ground. Indeed, as the dwarf foretold, the passageway soon grew much wider and the rocky ceiling soared three times Taran's height. Narrow platforms of wood, one above the other, followed the walls on either side, though many had fallen into disrepair and the beams had tumbled in a heap over the earthen floor. Lengths of half-rotted timbers shored up the archways leading from one gallery to the next, but of these some had partly crumbled, forcing warriors and steeds to pick their way most cautiously over or around the piles of rubble. The air was stifling after the icy wind above ground, and hung heavy with ancient dust and decay. Echoes flitted like bats through the long-abandoned chambers as the war band moved in a wavering file, with torches raised high above their heads. The twisting shadows seemed to muffle the sound of their footsteps; only the piercing whinny of a frightened steed broke the silence.
Glew, who had not left off his complaining since entering the mine, gave a sharp cry of surprise. He stooped
