"Have we done the right thing, coming here?" Brie said to Hanna, running her fingers through Ciaran's mane.
"The Ellyl prince must know what he is doing," Hanna said.
"No doubt," Brie responded. "But it is a risk; perhaps we should have returned to camp instead of..."
"Do not worry, Biri. We shall have our day on the battlefield soon enough."
Brie glanced over at the others. Maire had risen and was walking toward the larches, leaving Collun and Aelwyn alone with Monodnock, who appeared to have dozed off himself.
Hanna followed Brie's gaze, then smiled. "You know, wylls rarely use their own love charms; for some reason they won't work. Wylls have to go to other wylls."
"Hanna! I wasn't even thinking...," Brie protested, very much annoyed.
"No, I know. I just thought you might be interested."
"Well, I'm not."
***
Almost an hour had passed when Clun scrambled down from his lookout post on the ridge. "The gabha are about to enter the pass," he called as he came.
Silien, who was awake now, rose and looked thoughtfully over at Hanna.
"You are a weather maker?" he asked.
Hanna nodded, her eyes blue.
"Come, Traveler," Silien said. "Together we will make weather music." He turned and began to climb the escarpment. Hanna followed without hesitation.
The others stood in a knot at the bottom, watching. They could hear the sounds of distant marching. The goat-men were approaching Tanniad Pass.
The Ellyl and the Traveler lay on their stomachs, peering into the valley. Then Brie saw Silien gesture to Hanna, and the older woman rolled over onto her back.
Great billows of gray clouds begin to pile up overhead. And it was not long before a light drizzle began to fall. Steadily it grew stronger, until Brie and the others had to seek shelter under a rocky overhang that jutted from the side of the ridge. The noise from below grew louder. The gabha must have entered the pass.
Brie saw that Silien had pulled up into a sitting position, and she briefly worried that he might be spotted. She could hear faint singing, that agonizingly beautiful Ellyl music that reached into one's insides and twisted them, causing all else to lose meaning. Then came flickerings of heat and flame that scorched Brie's ears and nose and lips; waves of heat pulsing against her skin, accompanied by glittering eruptions of orange and yellow and gold.
The music faded and Brie blinked. She looked out at the rain and saw that scattered among the raindrops were quills of flame, no more than a finger long. They flared as they fell, a blur of yellow, orange, and gold, and when they hit the ground there was a dazzling burst, then they faded.
Ignoring the fire barbs raining about her, Brie ran out from under the overhang and up the escarpment to where Silien sat, cross-legged, his face drained of all color and his lips bent in a half smile. Hanna lay beside him, her eyes closed, sneezing violently.
Then Brie looked out and over the ridge into the valley. Unlike the intermittent quills of flame on the ridge, there, just a short distance from her, were sheets upon sheets of fire rain. The rain flames fell, unrelenting, on the goat-men below. It was an overwhelming sight, barely believable, and for a moment Brie felt something like pity for the creatures below.
Screams of agony and the appalling cacophony of goat-men and horses burning alive rose up to them. And Brie watched with a horrible fascination as the fire rain consumed all that it touched. Soon after came the smell, waves and waves of it. Brie's throat closed.
Hanna began to cough uncontrollably, and Brie stooped to her. The older woman had a terrible cold, but more, she had a raging fever and was trembling. Brie helped her up, and together they half slid, half walked down the ridge. Collun passed them, scrambling up to assist Silien, who was already falling asleep, dangerously close to the edge of the ridge.
When Collun came down the slope, carrying a limp Silien in his arms, Monodnock let out a shriek, "The prince is dead! All is lost!"
"Oh, shut up, Monodnock," said Aelwyn.
"He sleeps," explained Brie tersely.
They laid Silien on Fiain's back, where he slumped onto the horse's neck, still fast asleep. They gave Monodnock Hanna's horse to ride, while the shivering older woman rode in front of Brie. She too was bent double, her face pressed into Ciaran's soft mane.
They rode quickly, arriving back at the encampment by nightfall. While Collun and Aelwyn took care of Hanna and the Ellyl prince, Brie had Lom gather the company.
The army let out a cheer when they learned of the successful mission to destroy Balor's reinforcements, but listened soberly as Brie described the forces already arrayed against them.
"We must leave at once," Brie said. "The gabha encampment lies beside a forest. We will set up our camp on the far side of that forest, out of sight of the castle. Our main hope lies in taking the goat-men by surprise. Remember, the gabha are not human," Brie told them. And grimly she described the strength and the bestiality of the goat-men.
Shortly before setting forth for Sedd Wydyr, Brie was stowing something in her pack when she suddenly felt a probing in her mind. She stood straight, terrified. It was like a hand groping about inside her head, the fingers prying. Balor. He was looking for her. He knew of her escape from the bell tower; perhaps he knew even what she had done to it. She wondered if he had also learned of Hanna arid Silien's fire of rain at Tanniad Pass. She tried to make her mind a blank, but it was impossible. She had an irrational desire to grasp the arrow, thinking it might somehow protect her. Then, abruptly, the probing sensation was gone and her body sagged with relief. Had he found her? There had been no flaring moment of recognition, but she could not be sure.
She took the fire arrow out of her quiver and gazed at it. When she concentrated she was able to see the stories on all the picture bands now, all except one, the one at the bottom.
Ought she to use the fire arrow in battle? Brie wondered. It was a powerful weapon, but she dared not risk losing it or letting it fall to thé gabha, or worse, into Balor's hands. An arrow was a good weapon, but it had its limitations. Unlike a sword, once an arrow was wielded, it was gone, difficult to retrieve. No, she would not use the fire arrow in battle. Except on Balor.
But ... Brie suddenly smiled. There was another way to use fire and arrows together, and she had the Scathian in the bog to thank for the idea.
Brie sought out Lom and told him. His eyes kindled with interest. "I have heard of such things," he said, then went off to find his best arrowmaker.
***
As the company headed north, Brie felt that the land under her was shrinking, with the mountains on one side and the sea on the other pressing against each other, compacting and merging. And Hanna told her that at Dungal's tip the land between disappeared entirely and sea waves beat against mountain cliffs. Northern Dungal was a place of rock and water, with the occasional eruption of forest; in places trees were bent almost sideways by the long reach of the sea wind. There were few signs of human habitation. The soil was thin and even where there was turf, the rocks seemed always restless, straining to break through.
The army circled east, away from the coast, and arrived at the far edge of the forest while the sun still shone, though because the days were getting longer it was well past time for the evening meal. Quickly they set up camp and Brie sent scouts ahead. When they returned they reported that it was just as Brie had seen: Beyond the forest lay the gabha encampment, which stretched to the east and north of the fortress Sedd Wydyr. The scouts said there were no sentries and no gabha scouting parties. Brie nodded, unsurprised. Though she believed Balor was now aware that she had escaped the bell tower, he clearly could not conceive of her being able to mount any kind of threat to him and his plans—not, at least, in such a short time.