"I am glad to see you survive, Lady Linde."
Linde sighed and looked down at the wee Waldan riding at hand. "There are but seventeen of us left, commander. Seventeen."
"So few?" Rynna glanced back at the meager number of Harlingar riding after.
Linde's face drew gaunt. "Aye. Of one thousand Jordians sent by King Ranor, only seventeen of the brigade yet live."
"Oh my," said Rynna.
They rode in silence for a while, and then Rynna asked,
"Where is the Gargon's head you bore away when you left Darda Erynian."
"It is lost, Lady Rynna, lost, lying somewhere in the wrack of war. After the Battle of Gunarring Gap it was gone."
"You fought there?"
"Aye. When word came that King Blaine had landed in Jugo, we set sail from Pendwyr and joined his force."
"And the battle…?"
" 'Twas bloody, yet we won in the end."
Again they rode without speaking, wending among the crags and hills, but at last Rynna said almost to herself, "Like so many things."
An eyebrow raised, Linde looked at the Waldan.
Rynna sighed. "Many things lie somewhere, lost in the wreckage of war… innocence not the least of these."
Linnet and Tipperton watched as the column of foe marched along the rim of the rift below. Sheltered by the hills and out of view of the enemy, Vail and Flandrena made their way southeastward to take up the vigil atop the next craggy mound. Leftward, Nix and Arylin made their way down from the previous station. In the far distance rightward Tip and Linnet could see the shield wall and beyond it the indigo waters of the Avagon sea.
"How is the health of your father, Arth?"
Arth shook his head. "He is dead, Healer Darby, slain at the Battle of the Downs."
"Oh my, but I am sorry to hear of that," said Beau.
"It was just west of Stonehill," said Arth. "Da was a hero: saved the King's life."
"The mayor saved Blaine's life?"
"Aye. King Blaine was unhorsed. A Ghul on Helsteed was riding him down. Da charged in between and engaged the foe and fought furiously. But Ghuls shrug off wounds that would slay any ordinary man, and in the end Da was speared through and fell."
"What of the King?"
"He caught up Da's horse and mounted and charged the Ghul, but by this time I had won past and with my sword I took off the corpse-foe's head."
"Good," said Beau.
"The King then gave me command of the folk of the Beacontor muster, and we've been with him ever since, though nearly half altogether have been slain. I alone remain of the entire Company of Twoforks."
"You alone of all those men?" Sudden tears spilled down Beau's face.
Arth nodded, his own cheeks wet as well.
"They've stopped alongside the shield wall," said Nix, as Tipperton and Linnet came up the back of the hill to the crest in response to his signal.
Tipperton peered 'round the crag and down toward the enemy. As Nix had said, the foe stood on the broad flats along the rim of the rift, the shield wall stretching away eastward. Sheer and high was this barrier and some ten miles long, a perpendicular stone rampart spanning the width of the narrow neck between the ocean and the mighty rift below, the hundred-cubit-thick barricade keeping the two apart. Beyond the wall, beyond the foe, they could see the waters of the Avagon Sea and hear the roar of the ocean crashing against the hard stone.
"Have you seen any ships on the sea?" asked Linnet, taking a place beside Arylin.
"Nay," replied the Dara, "though they could be anchored beyond our sight at the base of the cliffs."
Linnet nodded and glanced at the rim, where the land dropped down steeply to an unseen shore below. "Vail and Flandrena rode ahead to look," said the damman.
"But if there are ships, then why are these forces waiting?" asked Nix. "Why aren't they climbing down the cliffs to board the craft?"
Ere any could answer-"Hist," said Arylin, "I ween they draw into formation."
"Be ready to cut and run," warned Nix, "for if indeed they are forming up, they may send sentries into these hills."
"Oh my," said Tipperton.
"What?" asked Linnet.
"They are facing back the way they came," replied Tipperton. "As if-"
"As if expecting someone," said Arylin.
"The High King," said Tipperton. "That's who they expect. I knew they were making no attempt to escape.
"A last stand?" asked Nix. "Are they making a last stand?"
Nix and Linnet turned to Tipperton, yet he looked to Dara Arylin. "Cornered foe oft make a final trial," she said, "and most dangerous are they then."
"But if they are expecting ships…" Linnet's words fell silent, but finally she added, "I think there are no ships there."
"We will soon know," said Tipperton, looking toward the ocean and seeking to see Vail and Flandrena but finding them not.
"Oh my, so this is H?l's Crucible," said Rynna, as darkness descended on the land. "Now I know why Lord Steward Voren called it a terrible place."
Even as she said it, word came from the fore. They would spend the night encamped on the flats between the hills and the rift, and turn toward the enemy on the morrow, for scouts had seen their fires nigh the shield wall, no more than ten miles hence.
As Rynna prepared her bedroll, Beau and Farly and Dinly came to her side. And Rynna said, "Rest well this night, my dearest friends, for on the morrow we will fight. And although I would have this be the last battle of the war, I fear it is not."
"Not the last battle?" asked Dinly.
Beau looked up from spreading his bedroll. "No, Dinly. You see, these are but the Hyrinians and Chabbains and Rovers and the Fists of Rakka; Modru and the Foul Folk are yet on the loose. And it is Modru and his master Gy-phon who drive all. Nay, until we can deal with them, the war will not be ended."
Glumly Dinly nodded, while Farly pulled biscuits of crue from his saddlebags to pass around. In spite of the fact that none had any appetite, they each took one.
"There are no ships directly below," said Vail, sitting down beside Tipperton and taking a wafer of mian from Arylin, "but sails approach from the southwest."
"Fjordlander sails," said Flandrena.
"Fjordlanders?" blurted Tipperton. "Have they thrown in with the foe?"
Vail shook her head. "I think not, Tipperton. Instead I ween King Blaine, acting on word borne by Farly and Dinly, has sent the Fjordlanders to stop any seaward escape by the enemy below."
"Ah," said Nix, taking another bite of mian. "Makes sense." "How far down to the ocean?" asked Linnet. "-I mean, how high are the seaside cliffs?"
"Sixteen, seventeen fathoms, and sheer," replied Flan-drena. "If enemy ships do come, 'tis not an easy climb up nor down."
"Thou canst bear such word back to King Blaine as well," said Arylin, looking from Tipperton to Linnet to Nix.
Vail raised an eyebrow.
"That the foe stands with their backs to a cliff with no ships waiting below," said Arylin, "but is instead arrayed to meet the host."
"I made a sketch of their deployment," said Tipperton, "though I still think that I should remain here while Linnet and Nix take it back."
Arylin shook her head. "Nay, for 'tis better that ye all three be with thy kind when the conflict comes. Vail, Flan-drena and I will wait till the last to join with ours."
As Tipperton reluctantly agreed, Vail said, " 'Tis but some three or four leagues back to where Farly and Dinly parted to bear word back to the King, hence ye should await the host there if they have not already come."
Tipperton nodded and then stood and said to Nix and Linnet, "Let us be gone, and then."
Each of the Elves embraced the trio and kissed them, and then watched as down the hill and toward their ponies the Warrows went.
With a gentle kiss, Tipperton awakened his dammia. Together they quietly took up her blanket and slipped in among the nearby crags, even as Linnet and Beau did the same.