as if he thought a tylor could masquerade as a tree.
'These creatures are intelligent,' the captain called. 'They can speak Common. Therefore, be careful what you say. Do not, for example, call out strategies to your comrades. The creature will hear and understand you.
Gilthanas pulled his roan to the other side of Flint. The Speaker's younger son was dressed in the black leather jerkin of the ceremonial guards. The early morning breeze blew his gold hair back from his brow. He looked a great deal like Laurana, Tanis thought, certainly much more so than Porthios did. Gilthanas had changed a good deal himself these past years, though nothing to keep pace with the changes Tanis himself had experienced. Still, Gilthanas was more an elf lord than a child now, and while he looked small, almost lost, within his guard's uniform, he sat straight upon his roan, his green eyes proud.
'In addition,' the guard captain said, bringing Tanis's attention back to the fore, 'while tylors prefer to kill by biting or by lashing their victims with their tails, they also can use magic. If they are losing a battle, they often will move out of range and use spells. Be aware of that. I am told we have the mage Miral with us today as a protection against the tylor's magic.'
'Oh, terrific,' Gilthanas muttered. 'Miral. We're doomed.'
Despite himself, Tanis looked across Flint and grinned at Gilthanas, who, obviously surprised, smiled back. Tanis realized that he hardly knew Gilthanas anymore. The two had been so close as children, but they had grown up and grown apart. Gilthanas had spurned Tanis to cast his lot with the court, seeking his friendship and recognition there. And, with Porthios's help, he had gained both.
'Tylors,' the captain announced, 'move very slowly in cold weather. That is why we are leaving so early today. We hope to corner the creature before it warms itself in the sun. And it appears, from the look of the clouds'-and several elves murmured at the gathering of thunderheads to the west-'that we may have the weather on our side.'
The captain saluted to Lord Tyresian, who returned the gesture. Then the elven lord raised one arm to the volunteers, and silence reigned as the hunters waited expectantly.
Faint yellow light suffused the eastern horizon, but to the west, the sky was dark, as if night still reigned there. The storm had been hovering above the distant mountains for several days now, gathering strength, its clouds building higher, growing darker. During the night, it had begun to move eastward, like a great dark wall across the sky, threatening the land. Flashes flickered within the swirling clouds, and already Tanis could feel the faint rumble of thunder, charging the air.
The trumpet called out on the air then, and Lord Tyresian raised a black-sleeved arm to motion the hunters onward across the bridge. With a glorious cry, the elves spurred their mounts, triple-file, onto the bridge, and Tanis felt himself shouting with them, the sound bursting from his lungs onto the morning air. It was a cry as old as the world itself, as old as life and death.
'Reorx save me,' Flint muttered to himself as Fleetfoot, Belthar, and Gilthanas's mount approached the bridge. 'At least I'm in the middle. Lad'-and he turned suddenly to the half-elf- 'you will tell me if I'm about to dive over the edge, now, won't you?' When Tanis agreed, the dwarf tilted his face downward and Tanis saw Flint's eyes clench shut, just before his hair swung forward to hide his features.
'What's wrong with him?' Gilthanas asked sharply. 'Is he ill?'
Tanis shook his head. 'A moment of prayer. It's a dwarven religious tradition.' He saw a smile flit across Flint's knobby features. The smile was followed in time by an audible sigh of relief as their mounts' hooves sounded on wood no longer, but on the beaten rock of the western side of the ravine.
In the green wood, the air was fresh with the fragrances of pine sap and mushrooms, an almost medicinal scent that left his head clear and heightened his senses. He heard every rustle made by the small forest animals in the underbrush, saw the outline of every leaf, sharp against the sky above. The trees moved past him as the elves pressed their mounts along the twisting game trails, deeper and deeper into the forest.
The morning continued chilly, with occasional drizzle as the storm clouds marched in from the west. Trackers from the palace guard moved ahead of the main group of volunteers, but with no success. The only animals the hunters saw were squirrels, chipmunks, and one groundhog, slender from a winter's hibernation. The squirrels and chipmunks darted away immediately. The groundhog peered over a log atop a hillock and watched until the hunters had passed.
The trail was wide enough to permit only double-file riding. In some stretches, underbrush grew thick, nearly up to the path. 'I don't like this,' Tanis told Flint, who nodded. Time and again, the half-elf found his hand returning to the hilt of his sword, and he caressed the intertwined 'E' and 'K' on the handguard.
Conversation had long since waned among the hunters. The only sounds were the occasional chatter of birds, the creak of saddle leather, and the sniffling of one allergic dwarf. Once Flint sneezed, and Xenoth turned in his saddle and hissed, 'Hush!'
'I can help it?' Flint retorted, too softly to be heard by anyone but Tanis.
Suddenly, Tanis saw Tyresian shoot up one arm, and the line halted. One of the trackers, on foot, was standing next to the elf lord, one hand resting on the glossy neck of Tyresian's stallion and the other hand gesturing up ahead. Word filtered back through the column.
'They've found the first spoor!' Gilthanas whispered back to Tanis and Flint. The dwarf clenched the reins so tightly that his knuckles whitened.
'What was it?' Tanis asked.
The answer came filtering down the line like the children's game Gossip: Five-toed tracks, four toes pointed forward, one back, pressed into the damp ground, and only a few hours old. The creature, no doubt, was out looking for food.
'And here we are,' Flint said grimly, looking to each side and clasping his battle-axe like a talisman. 'Lunch.'
'Won't we hear the tylor coming?' Tanis asked.
'Not necessarily,' Flint answered. 'It may be lying in wait.'
The volunteers, faces set, moved into single-file; if the monster crashed out of the underbrush, it would carry away fewer hunters. They pressed on, but every man carried a weapon at the ready. Most of the elves carried short swords.
Midday came and passed unnoticed by the hunters. There was no time for thoughts of food and rest. For a long while they lost the trail, but after an hour of searching, they picked it up again, fresher than before. The hunters cantered their mounts down a narrow, muddy trail, following the tracks. Tanis was forced to duck every few seconds to avoid low-hanging branches.
Suddenly, the horses at the front of the party reared as their riders pulled hard on their reins.
'What is it?' Flint hissed from behind Tanis.
The half-elf rose in his stirrups. The trail widened into an opening. Xenoth was waving his arms as the adviser spoke vehemently to Porthios and Lord Tyresian, who looked impassively ahead as though Xenoth weren't there.
Gilthanas swiveled in his saddle and answered Flint's question. 'There's a ravine ahead. Xenoth wants to go around. Tyresian thinks we can jump it.'
Tanis edged Belthar around Gilthanas, trotted the animal to the front of the line, ignoring the irritable glances of the other hunters, and hailed Tyresian and Porthios. The three studied the ravine-as deep as two elves were tall, its banks too steep to be negotiated by horse or elf. The remains of a bridge lay in splinters at the bottom of the crevasse. 'It's not that wide,' Tyresian said. 'We could jump it,' Porthios agreed. 'Most of the horses could jump it, certainly,' Tanis said, 'but what's Flint supposed to do?'
Tyresian looked back down the line, past the elven hunters arrayed in leather and silver, their weapons gleaming in the noon light. At the end of the line, Flint and Fleet-foot looked like the runts of an unusually large litter.
'Leave him,' Tyresian stated, his blue eyes hard. 'He'll find a way around.' Porthios shifted uneasily, started to speak, then fell silent.
'Find a way around?' Tanis snapped. 'That ravine stretches out of sight in both directions!'
'No one asked the dwarf to come along,' Tyresian answered. 'Let him go back.'
'Alone? With a tylor loose in the forest?' The elf lord's handsome features tightened. 'You're under my command on this operation,' Tyresian whispered. 'You're also outclassed as a swordsman and as an archer, half-
