thinking might be a wizard? How many merchants will come into our vale at all, then?'
Carandrur's face darkened, and he folded his arms across his chest in exaggerated mockery of what Thrayl had done. 'I didn't come here to the blundering edge of a battle, Thrayl, to bandy words with you.'
'Well, now, think on those words you've just said a moment, Carandrur. That's just it; we're sitting on the edge of a great fray, and find this end of Galath, at least, roused to arms and rushing about killing each other with right bright enthusiasm! What boots it if our hunt for two folk we only think came this way, remember, rouses one of these warbands below to hack us to the ground and ride in anger right up into our little vale-defended only by Tharlark's sharp tongue and a handful of guards, mind-and lay waste to all Arvale, end to end, because we dared stride into Galath to hunt and slay?'
Thrayl sat back and added quietly, 'Just think about it a little more, Carandrur. That's all I'm asking. While we still have our heads on our shoulders to do some thinking with.'
By the time Deldragon's war-horns blew a triumphal flourish, Lord Darl Tindror had led his wizard and his two guests down to the towering front doors of Wrathgard, and ordered them flung wide.
Some of his men gave him grim looks, but hastened to obey, dragging out the huge beams that barred and braced the doors against rams, and thrusting the huge doors open, the ponderous arches groaning deeply as they were moved.
Tindror sheathed his sword and strode to stand where the two doors had met. His timing was perfect; Deldragon's knights had cleared the dead from before the doors and formed two rows, astride head-tossing horses, to give the velduke's bodyguard an avenue to ride along, forward to Wrathgard with Velduke Deldragon himself shielded from attack behind them.
The bodyguard, four stout-armored knights twice the height of some of their fellows, rode right up to Tindror and then parted, turning aside with cold, alert gazes, to leave the bearded baron standing staring up at a fair-haired, familiar figure in dazzling enspelled armor, mounted on a magnificent horse covered in mail and barding-plate.
From his flaxen mustache to his piercing ice-blue eyes, Velduke Darendarr Deldragon might have been a shining hero straight off the cover of one of Holdoncorp's game boxes. Bareheaded, he waved a gleaming gauntleted hand at the baron and called, 'Darl! I hope you don't mind this intrusion. I felt a hunger to hunt Murlstag, and the spoor led me here!'
'Murlstags are bad at this time of year,' Tindror observed, smiling. 'I thank you for this and stand in your debt.'
'Not at all, not at all. Murlstag fled, I'm afraid. My men are chasing him, but running is something he's very good at, and lorn came down like a cloud as he got near the Spires. He may make it home to Morngard yet.'
'Wrathgard yet stands, and I have you to thank for that,' Tindror said quietly. 'Will you come in?'
'Alas, but I cannot stay. A certain wizard watches Bowrock, and means to do mischief whenever I am away from home.'
'You have much to do with wizards?'
'As little as I can, friend Tindror. As little as I can. I have no love for the thought of ending up dancing to any spell-tune, if you take my meaning.'
'So you smelled Murlstag in the air?'
Deldragon grinned. 'No, nor used magic either. I have spies in that boar's wallow, and they have ways of signaling me swiftly. When I saw he'd gone to war, it fell to a simple matter of taking to horse and following him.'
He looked up at the walls and towers of Wrathgard, drew his snorting horse nearer, and said more quietly, 'Darl, to these eyes it looks as if Wrathgard is breached, and your healthy armsmen are now… but a handful. Need you sanctuary, at Bowrock?'
Lord Tindror's chin lifted. 'Thank you, Darendarr, but no. I'll bide on my own lands, defend my own, and take my chances.'
His voice was curt, but he held out his hand as if pleading, and added, 'Yet I have two guests I can no longer give fitting shelter to; guests a wizard watching from afar might well send a stag to fetch. They could use your sanctuary.'
He turned and pointed to Taeauna and Rod. The Aumrarr gave Deldragon a solemn nod, so Rod did the same, and endured a moment of feeling as if he was being skewered to the heart on a lance of ice-blue eyes before the velduke smiled and nodded.
'I extend my offer to you both, if you are minded to ride with me to Bowrock. Begging the pardon of my Lord Tindror for saying so, there's no finer castle in the land.'
'I should be honored,' Taeauna said loudly, 'just as I was deeply honored by Lord Tindror's hospitality, aid, and friendship.' She looked at Rod, and said, 'I speak also for my traveling companion, Rodrell, whose wits have been spell-twisted. There are things he can't remember, and others he can't utter. He is on a death-quest, and can neither say nor remember the place he seeks. We Aumrarr owe a blood-debt to him, wherefore I am guiding him.'
Deldragon's brows lifted. 'Ah. Entertaining guests, I see. Be welcome in my home, provided, of course, we get there. Once the very rock of peace, justice, and order, Galath has become a rather more interesting place.'
Without turning his head, he raised a voice a trifle and called, 'Pari?'
'Lord Velduke?'
'How many Murlan horses can be ridden?'
'We have ten-and-nine, lord.'
'Provide our two guests with one apiece, keep two as remounts, and give the rest unto Lord Tindror, in payment for disturbing his tillage.'
He looked down at the baron, who nodded and said, 'Deldragon, you are a decent man.'
'Galath demands, Darl. Galath demands.'
The velduke watched horses being brought to Rod and Taeauna, and Deldragon knights assisting them to mount by cupping gauntlets around their boots and through sheer strength lifting them up onto their horses. Deldragon nodded, let his own restive mount trot in a tight circle, and came back to Tindror to murmur, 'You're sure you'd not want to feast tonight in Bowrock? Natha would be glad to see you, and Laranna, too!'
Baron Tindror stared up at him. 'Tempting. Thanks. I find myself strong enough to stay. Where I belong.'
Deldragon inclined his head. 'Darl, you're a decent man, too. Fare you well, in the days ahead; they bid fair to test us all.' He looked across the churned slopes of dead and dying men and horses, and added, 'You've weathered the first test handily. I wonder if there's such a thing as a lorn-slaying spell?'
Tindror shrugged. 'There's such a thing as too much magic in a kingdom, that much I know.'
Deldragon shook his head, watching servants hasten out of Wrathgard to hand his two new guests each a small, half-full laedre. 'Too much magic? That's like saying 'too much boar' or 'too many knives.' 'Tis not the magic… 'Tis those who wield it; their weakness, that they get so seduced by power as to use it for their every whim. But this is converse for a fairer day, another time.' He turned his head and cried, 'We ride!'
'We ride!' the Deldragon knights roared in chorus, and set about turning their mounts in thunderous unison.
Deldragon nodded to Tindror, raised his open hand in salute, and said to Rod and Taeauna, 'Guests, will you ride with me?'
'Bright Lord of Galath, we will,' the wingless Aumrarr replied, framing her words in the tones and serene dignity of a noble lady of long years and high standing.
The velduke flashed his teeth at her in a delighted smile. 'I believe I'm going to enjoy this ride home even more than usual.'
Taeauna inclined her head to him, and turned to raise her hand in salute to Baron Tindror, who was still standing with his arms folded, in the open doorway of Wrathgard. He lifted his hand in response, face carefully expressionless.
Aside from Taeauna, who was watching for it, Rod was the only person who saw Tindror's lips move, soundlessly framing the words, 'I love you.'
Then Wrathgard and its bearded baron were behind them, Deldragon knights closing in around them in a
