“What if he doesn’t want to be found?” Mathi said. The old warrior trickled more water on his cuts. “Worse, what if we find him and he won’t come with us?”
“My lord will not roam the plain like a savage beast.”
Mathi noted the strung bow, the quiver of arrows, and the ready spear. Lofotan’s meaning was clear.
Later, when daylight was breaking, Lofotan shouldered his spear and set out to find his commander. Mathi and Treskan followed on foot, leading the horses. Lofotan tried to order them to stay behind, but they were in no mood to obey. There was safety in numbers, so the girl and scribe followed, and there was nothing short of violence Lofotan could do to stop them.
It was a short hunt. Just as the first rays of the sun were piercing the sky Balif came into view on the northern horizon, loping along at a jaunty pace. His old comrade halted and waited. Balif arrived, dishevelled but beaming. Under one arm he carried a bundle of fur. Without being asked he whisked it open, revealing a fine wolf pelt, freshly skinned.
“This was the best of them,” he said proudly. “What do you think?”
“Did you kill them all?” asked Mathi.
Again the sly smile. “Not all. Just the four largest males.” The rest of the pack had scattered to the winds to escape his remorseless pursuit.
“This is not right, my lord.” Balif asked what he meant. “To exact such a punishment on wild animals is not just. Astarin teaches that all creatures have a right to life, according to their natures. Wolves hunt for food. You killed them for sport,” Lofotan said.
Balif tensed, like a predator poised to pounce. “Sport? I killed them for a very good reason!” They waited for him to explain. “By scattering the pack and killing its leaders, I have shown them who rules this land now-” He visible relaxed and said simply, “Me.”
Balif’s horse, having borne up under his earlier transformations and forgiven its rider, steadfastly refused to allow Balif on its back. The general grew angry as the animal danced away from him, rearing when Balif took hold of his bridle. Lofotan offered his mount, but his horse wouldn’t allow Balif on his back either. Something very fundamental about the general had changed. His companions were beginning to recognize it. The horses already knew.
Balif said, “Looks like I walk.”
So he did, all morning at an amazing pace. The day waxed hot. Biting flies homed in on the horses but also feasted on targets of opportunity, like Mathi. A band of dark trees appeared on the eastern horizon, growing each hour until the view was filled from north to south. According to their griffon-made charts, the forest surrounded the confluence of the two streams that made up the Thon-Haddaras.
The kender were already there.
Wanderfolk in oversized helmets, sporting spears and too-long swords greeted them at the edge of the woods. Hot and thirsty, Balif brushed past them into the shade, where he sat down demanding a drink. Treskan tied the pack team and brought him a bottle of spring water.
“Greetings, Illustrious General!” the kender said, crowding around.
“Greetings to you. Is the Longwalker around?”
“By the river, Glorious General.”
How do they get around so quickly? Mathi wondered. By her reckoning, being on horses and pushing as they did, they ought to have been two or three days ahead of any kender crossing the plain on foot. But no …
“Fetch him at once.”
Kender were not usually good at taking orders, but three of them dashed away to carry out Balif’s request. Treskan and Mathi prepared a long-delayed meal, which Balif ate alone under a broad maple tree. His companions ate standing up by the horses, which they watered and fed next.
Serius Bagfull, Longwalker of the wanderfolk, arrived after a kenderish interval. He wore a new hat woven of vines and leave plucked from the banks of the Wanderfolk River. The kender with him-they weren’t his retainers, just whatever curious little people who chose to tag along-were likewise decked out in fresh greenery.
“Nice place, General!” he declared. Apparently the banks of the river abounded in fruit trees, and the water was well stocked with fish, freshwater mussels, and tiny lobsters the kender found good to eat.
“You like it here, then?” asked Balif, still resting with his back against the maple.
“It is great, Excellent General!”
“I am glad. Now we must issue a challenge to Bulnac.”
Everyone, from kender to Lofotan, were dumbstruck. “Challenge?” Mathi managed to say.
“Of course. We must fight him some time. It is better to fight on our own terms, at our own place and time, than wait for the humans to choose those situations for us.”
Lofotan agreed with his lord’s tactical judgment, but pointed out they had no one to meet Bulnac’s army with. A few hundred kender, maybe a thousand? Armed with some salvaged and improvised weapons?
“We have the best weapon of them all,” Balif said. He showed his new, savage smile. “We shall create a fortress, a redoubt upon which the nomads will break themselves. I’ll have Bulnac’s hide to hang on a tree next to my wolfskin.”
Through consummate wheedling, the Longwalker got Balif to agree to postpone challenging Bulnac until he had seen the spot that Balif had chosen for his redoubt. The kender led the way. Balif went with him on foot, leaving Lofotan and the others to keep up as best they could with the horses and baggage.
Unlike the west woods, the river forest was dense and full of undergrowth. It was humid too, and the air was thick with insects. Mathi noted ruefully that mosquitoes and flies didn’t appear to bother the kender at all. It wasn’t that they didn’t mind being bitten; the pests didn’t bite them. Another stroke for the Wanderfolk. Here was a tactic Balif had not considered. If the nomads dallied long enough in the lowland woods, they’d be eaten alive by mosquitoes.
It was by all appearances good land to settle, bugs or no bugs. The soil was evidently very fertile, as there were flowers and fruit everywhere. The trees were not so old or lofty as their western neighbors, but useful varieties grew everywhere: pine, elm, maple, and ash. Treskan made careful mental notes of the flora. His stylus may have been broken, but he could still keep notes if he could find the basic ingredients to write with-soot and oak gall for ink, birch bark for paper. The Haddaras river basin was a garden. He could probably find everything he needed. There was much to record.
The western branch of the river came into view. It was a far different water course than the rough Thon- Tanjan or the deceptive Thon-Thalas. Narrow, muddy, closed in by overhanging vines and branches, the Wanderfolk River was unlike any other river in Silvanesti territory. The Longwalker’s description was on the mark. Descending the bank to the water’s edge, the air was heavy with the smell of overripe fruit. Wild grapes hung down, banging against Mathi’s forehead. They were brown and fat and astonishingly sweet when she tried one. She saw kender lolling on the riverbank with willow fishing poles. Every so often one would flip his pole backward, tossing a silver captive onto the bank.
“Have you been across the river?” Balif asked the Longwalker. They had paused atop the earthen ball of an overturned tree’s roots, surveying the land.
He had. The triangle of land between the two tributaries was much higher than the bottom land where they were now. In fact there was a bluff about forty feet high overlooking the eastern branch.
Balif clapped his hands. “Excellent.” His final redoubt was shaping up to be a better defensive position than he imagined.
He went down to the water’s edge and prepared to wade across. Perched on the bank behind him was Rufe, munching a bunch of grapes piled on his belly.
“I wouldn’t,” he said.
Mathi, Treskan, and Lofotan arrived alongside their leader. “Why not?” asked Balif. “Too deep?”
Rufe displayed the calves of his legs. There were dozens of reddish spots on them.
“Leeches.”
Mathi drew back from the water’s edge. She said to Rufe, “How did you get here so fast?”
Rufe pointed at the sky. “By way of the moon.” Kender.
Balif wasn’t squeamish about leeches, but there was no point feeding the bloodsuckers if he knew they were there. He asked the Longwalker for a different way across.
