They camped in a thicket that night, and just ere bedding down, of a sudden Aiko hissed, "Quench the fire. Muzzle the horses. Peril comes."
Without question the Elves extinguished the blaze and drew their weapons and stepped in among the animals, soothing the steeds while all waited in the slender shadows. Overhead a waxing gibbous moon shone down on the land. And ere it had moved a handspan, Arin could hear the ching of armor and the distant thud of boots jog-trotting through the night. Now and again there came a snarl of language, but in a tongue she did not speak. Moments later in the moonlight, a jostling band of Rucha trotted into view, coming from the north, heading to the south.
Still the Elves stood silently as the Spaunen loped toward them and past and onward into the night beyond, and slowly the sounds faded in the distance. At last Aiko said, "It is safe once more. They are gone."
Arin turned to the Ryodoan warrior. "Until now I had thought that Elves had the keenest senses of all. How didst thou…?"
"My tiger told me," answered Aiko.
Arin looked at Aiko closely and wondered if it were true. Was it indeed wild magic that had warned her, or was it merely instead Aiko's heightened senses? Arin could not say… but in the end, she reflected, did it matter?
On the twentieth day of April they came to the stockaded village of Inge in the land of Aralan, where they spent that day and the next in the Ram's Horn, resting, relaxing, and replenishing their depleted supplies.
They traded news and songs and were told "Somethin' be afoot in th' Mire, what wi' droves o' Rutches and such movin' down from the Grimwall. Either that or somethin' in th' mountains be drivin' them out." What that something might be-either down in the Khalian Mire below or up in the Grimwall above-none could say. But whatever it was, it had to be bad, or so opined the elders.
The next day Arin and their band rode onward, passing through Stoneford, where the single family of that hamlet helped them across the spring-flooded river… for a small fee, of course.
Westerly they fared, ever westerly, along the southern flank of the Grimwall, following the old tradeway, riding through rain and occasional light flurries of snow as well as through lengthening sunny days as spring drew across the land. They forded rivers and streams, and passed through foothills and mountain spurs, and camped in thickets or in open rolling land. Now and again they stopped in villages or hamlets or towns and took rooms at an inn. At other times they stayed overnight with woodcutters or crofters or hunters. But always the next day or so they took up the trek westerly once more… until on the fourth day of June they came at last to the foot of Kaagor Pass where stood the Silverwood.
CHAPTER 29
Embraced on the north and west and south by an enfolding arm of the Grimwall Mountains, and on the east by the trail leading upward into Kaagor Pass, there lies a woodland of silver birch and trembling aspen and splendid high pine. It is modest as Mithgarian forests go, measuring but some forty miles north to south and thirty east to west, yet it sits like a jewel in a cup, a small treasure to be cared for, cherished, loved. It is the Silverwood.
It has existed for unknown millennia, here in this sheltered mountain bowl. And in the year that Arin camped in these woods-1E9253-the Drimm had just begun delving the Drimmenholt called Kachar at the end of a vale of the Silverwood along its northwestern flank.
This fact would not be mentioned at all but for what was to come. For in the year 3E1602, some four thousand one hundred twenty-four years after Arin passed along its eastern flank, in a war between Drimm and humans, this Silverwood, this precious jewel, would be all but destroyed by raging Dragon fire.
CHAPTER 30
Hist," cautioned Perin, cocking his head to one side.
"What?" Biren stopped filling the canteens and looked at his brother.
"Hush," admonished Perin. "Listen."
They stood in the twilight silence of the Silverwood and from the north and west there came a faint tapping, nearly rhythmic, as of a hammer on stone.
" 'Tis no bird, my brother," said Biren after a while.
"Nor an animal," added Perin.
"Delving?" asked Biren.
Perin frowned and listened as the gloaming deepened. "If so, 'tis far off."
They finished filling the canteens, then stepped back to the campsite and told the others of the sound, and Arin looked at Aiko and asked, "What says thy tiger?"
Aiko shook her head. "She is silent, my Lady."
"Come," said Rissa, "I would hear this tapping."
They walked away from the sounds of shifting horses and ponies, following the twins back to the nearby snow-melt pool, where they stood quietly and listened, but all they heard was the soft purl of a distant stream.
"Hmm," mused Perin. "It is gone."
"Vanished," added Biren.
"Mayhap it was but sliding rock on the slopes," said Melor, glancing up at the embracing Grimwall. "The spring melt bringing it down."
"It seemed too measured," protested Perin, "purposeful."
"As of a hand at work," agreed Biren.
Silverleaf turned to Rissa. "Is there Drimmenholt nigh, chier?”
Rissa shrugged. "None that I know, Vanidar, yet it is long since last I was here."
"It could be Spaunen," growled Ruar. "They teem in the Grimwalls."
Again all eyes turned to Aiko, but she shrugged and said, "My tiger warns of no peril. If the Kitanai Kazoku are in these mountains, they are not at hand."
"Nevertheless," said Silverleaf, "I think we should build no fire this night… and our watch should be extra vigilant."
Melor turned to Aiko. "Does thy tiger sleep?"
Aiko shook her head.
"Good."
There was no moon in the darktide, not even a hair-thin crescent near dusk, and without a fire only the stars lighted the camp. But then the night turned chill and an overcast from the north drew entirely across the sky and not even starlight shone down. And so, even the Elves with their vaunted eyesight could see little in the resulting dark, and all the warders had to depend on their hearing as they each stood watch… all but Aiko, who on her turn listened to her tiger instead. Yet the night passed uneventfully, and no danger came through the blackness to threaten the camp.
Dawn found the Elves and Aiko breaking fast beneath lowering skies, the dark grey stretching from horizon to horizon. They ate in gloomy silence, none saying aught, but as they took their utensils down to the pool, again came the faint tapping from the distant northwest.
After listening awhile, "I deem it is delving," said Vanidar Silverleaf, "yet whether Drimm or Rupt, I cannot say."
"Shall we go see?" asked Perin.
"Whatever for?" queried Biren.
Perin shrugged. "Mayhap it is important."
"And mayhap not," replied Biren.
Rissa glanced at Silverleaf. "I ween our separate missions are more urgent than discovering some Drimm delver or aught else hacking away at stone. And though I would rather accompany Dara Arin on her mission, to do so risks failure of all. Hence, I say we have come to the parting of the ways: we to ride south and bear the words of Arin's vision to Coron and DelfLord and King; she and the cat who fell from grace to ride north-and beyond-to discover the one-eye in dark water and all the others entangled in her words… and to find the Jaded Soul."
Ruar growled deep in his throat and glanced across to Arin. "Would that I could ride with thee, Dara, yet to do so indeed risks all. I must agree with Dara Rissa-we have come to the parting of the ways."
Arin looked into the eyes of each of her companions, and one by one they nodded. And so, ignoring the tapping, they washed their utensils and returned to the campsite, where they saddled the horses and tied on their gear. They evenly shared out the remainder of the supplies and laded them on the ponies, two of which were given over to Arin and Aiko.