Tynvyr smiled. [Wedding ceremony?]
[Yes,] said Beau, grinning. [Linnet and me, and Tip and Rynna. We need a cleric or priestess to do it since we haven't any mayors on hand.]
Tynvyr pursed her lips and then said, [There are no Eio Wa Suk in Darda Galion, and so we cannot send messages there by that means. Too, I can say now there are no clerics or priestesses among the Elves, unless one haps to be passing through.]
[Oh my,] said Tip, and he turned to Beau. [If none is available, how will we get it done?]
Beau frowned and shook his head, but then his eyes lighted and he turned to Tynvyr and exclaimed, [I say, who performs the ceremony for Pysks and Vred Tres and Living Mounds and other such among the Hidden Ones?]
Tynvyr turned up a hand. [No one. We simply declare ourselves bonded, and that's that.]
Beau looked at Tip. [Hmm. Much like you and Rynna did.]
Tip nodded. [But we always knew one day we'd take formal vows.]
[Would you instead accept a coron?] asked Tynvyr.
Tip raised an eyebrow. [A coron?]
[Rather than priestesses or clerics, corons perform the ceremonies for the Elves.]
[Ruar or Eiron?] asked Tip.
Tynvyr nodded. [Ruar, Eiron, or, for that matter, Sil-verleaf, for he was coron apast.]
Tip looked at Beau and grinned, and together they nodded.
Tynvyr smiled and called her fox and rode away toward the aggregate.
"With Ruar gone, we will have to chance that Eiron is in Darda Galion," said Tip.
"Chance?" Rynna frowned.
"There are no Hidden Ones," said Tip, "no Eio Wa Suk, in the Larkenwald, love, and so we do not know if the coron is even there."
"Ah," said Linnet, grinning at Beau. "Well, I say we trust to Fortune he is there."
"I dunno," said Beau. "Dame Fortune has looked askance at us before."
"But She's also smiled, Beau," said Tipperton, "else you and I would be long dead."
Rynna gasped. "Oh, Tip, don't ever say that. -About being dead, I mean."
Tip pulled her close and kissed her, then said, "To travel to Darda Galion means we need cross the Argon. When last we heard, the Baeron were plying the ferry. Yet things change, and what if they've been called away? We'll still need to cross the Argon."
Rynna and Linnet nodded, and Rynna said, "And…?"
"And, well, how will we do so?" added Tip. "I mean, I don't trust the Rivermen."
"The Rivermen are gone," said Rynna.
"Gone? From Olorin Isle?"
Rynna nodded. "Aye. None were there when we went to see to the truth of their story. Even so, and even if the ferry is abandoned, when last Farly and Nix and I crossed with Aravan and Velera and Arnu, we used Elven boats, and I know where they are cached."
Tip turned to Beau. "Do you know how to row?"
Beau shook his head.
"Neither do I," said Tip. "And I don't want to be swept miles downriver and over Bellon Falls." He turned to Rynna. "Elven boats are out, love."
Rynna glared at both Tip and Beau. "And just what makes you think that Linnet and I don't know how to ply an oar?"
"W-well-" stammered Tip -but Rynna cut him short and gritted, "Buccen."
Beau turned to Linnet. "You know how to row?"
"The term is paddle, my love. And yes, I know how to ply an oar. After all, I lived all my life along the Rissanin, and the river was our playground."
"Huah," said Tip. "I lived all my life along the Bog and the Wilder, and I never learned one whit about boats."
"Well then, it is time you did," said Rynna.
"Uh, how do we get the ponies across?" asked Beau.
"We don't," said Rynna, "if all we have are the Elven boats. But I would think someone yet plies the ferry; after all, it is a vital link, you know."
Beau frowned. "But if not…?"
Rynna shook her head and turned up her hands.
"Perhaps the march-ward will lend us spare horses and someone to haul us along behind," said Tip, looking at Beau. "Just as when we fared southward from Arden Vale."
Linnet touched Rynna's arm. "Why don't we ask my brother to ride ahead and arrange for the ferry to meet us."
Rynna clapped her hands. "Good. Nix will be glad to go. After all, he should be there for the wedding."
"My dam and Lark, too," added Linnet.
"Um," said Tip, "but what about the watch on the wold? The way I see it, it'll take us ten or so days to get to Wood's-heart, and ten or so to return, and that's a deal of time to be away from the eastern marge."
They looked at one another for moments without speaking, but then Rynna said, "If the maggot-folk return, then we will postpone our journey. But if they remain among the missing, mayhap we can go with a clear mind. I will speak with Tynvyr on this, and get her advice."
"Ah, love," said Tipperton, "what she will say is that should the Foul Folk return, we would just be in the way."
"If necessary," said Linnet, "we can ask the Baeron of the Greatwood or the Dylvana of the Blackwood to stand in our stead."
"Oh, I don't think that'll be necessary," said Beau, "I have already spoken with Farly, and he says that when it comes to it he and some others in the Springwater holding can guide the occasional traveller past any Spawn."
Linnet glowered at Beau. "Are you telling me that everyone else knew about us getting married before you even came and asked me?"
Beau's eyes flew wide. "W-wull, not everyone. Just Tipperton and Tynvyr and-"
Linnet looked at Rynna.
"-and Farly-"
"Can you believe this, Rynna?"
"-and of course the Eio Wa Suk and the Fox Riders-" Rynna shook her head.
"-and the Elves in Bircehyll and probably some Baeron, that's all."
Rynna glared at Tipperton. "I said it before and I say it again: buccen!"
Tipperton's gaze darted about the bower, as if seeking a means of escape, and Beau peered at the earthen floor as if he would be better off some ten feet under the dirt.
But then Rynna burst out laughing, Linnet, too, and they embraced their buccarans, and both Beau and Tipperton breathed a sigh of relief.
On the ninth of December they set out from the campsite to journey to Wood's-heart some two hundred miles and ten days away. In the Springwater holding they took up Melli and Lark, and amid cries of well-wishers they rode on. Nix and the ferry were waiting for them to cross the mighty Argon, and now did they see that Dwarves plied the ferry at Olorin Isle, Dwarves from Kraggen-cor, the Chakkaholt no longer besieged. One set of the grim warriors plied between the east bank and the isle, another set plied the west.
"We trade off with the Baeron and the Elves," replied one of the crew to Beau's question, "moon by moon by moon."
"Well, that's good," replied Beau, grinning, "else we'd have a deal of trouble getting to Wood's-heart." He gestured at Linnet and Tipperton and Rynna, his grin growing all the wider. "We're off to be married, you know."
The Dwarf nodded and looked at the Waerans and wee laughing Lark and smiled and tugged on his forked beard and said, "May Elwydd keep you all."
But then the ferry reached the west bank of the Argon, and the Warrows debarked and rode onward.
Over the Rothro they fared and the next day the Quad-rill, and they rode through the towering eld trees, silent now, the Silverlarks absent, what with all but the bloodways sundered. Still Linnet and Melli and even wee Lark gaped upward at the towering giants, their leaves yet gathering twilight to suffuse down through the air to the snow-covered floor below. And Nix and Rynna and Tip and Beau gaped as well, for although they had been in Darda Galion before, still it was a wonder.
On the nineteenth of December they arrived in Wood's-heart, where they heard the terrible news.