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Elbryan sat astride Sye of a tree line at the top slope of a wide field He shaded his eyes froht before, bloinds drifting the snow in places so that it stood higher than a tall h, since they had constructed an appropriate shelter; thankfully, the place had stood under the treht of the snow and the power of the wind

But now they had another problem, as Elbryan and Bradwarden had dis-covered the day before, right before the stor in the ruins of Weedy Meadow, only a day&039;s march to the west

"Glad I will be when Lady Dasslerond and the elves er remarked He could still hardly believe that a troop of so er had put their nu in the area without contacting him

"Ye never can tell about theht above us, and the best-trained hulance at the centaur, recognizing a strange expression there, and then, at last picking up the cue, he did look up There, perched upon a branch soed for has it been since we have shared a song," the elf called down

"Ni&039;estiel!" Elbryan called back up, recognizing the voice, though he could still ainst the soh the flakes that still drifted down "Where is your lady, and Juraviel, and all the rest?"

"About," Ni&039;estiel lied "I have cooblins are on the er asked "Further west, to End-o&039;-the-World, perhaps? Or to the east?"

The elf shrugged "They are not where they were, that is all I - we, have been able to discern thus far"

"Roger&039;s out scoutin&039;," Bradwarden re soer shared that concern; Roger was a cunning scout, adept at hiding, adept at running But a deep snow could neutralize many of those abilities, could make him much easier to spot and much easier to catch

"And another force is on theon this very position froer started to ask the elf to elaborate, but the elf skittered off, rushing along the branches, then fluttering to another tree and running on

"Noho are ye supposin&039; that est for the the wind-cleared ridgeline, then plowed down through the snoorking the horse hard to get to another ridge not far away that com-manded a better view of the southern trails As soon as he and Bradwarden arrived up there, they spotted the force, a group of soldiers, their glittering helsh the snow, an obviously weary and battered group

"Out in the storht," Bradwarden remarked "Oh, but I&039;m bettin&039; they&039;re in a fine er srin went away, replaced by intrigue as the band moved closer "Shanize the posture of the rider and the gait of his horse It is Shaods must we be," Bradwarden h certainly loud enough for Elbryan to hear

"A good ht be lookin&039; for yer new monk friends," Brad-warden reminded

That took the smile from Elbryan&039;s face, but for just a minute Shareat assistance fighting the large goblin band they had found at Weedy Meadow

"He would not coth "Or even if he has, ill discover that truth soon enough and easily slip the monks away into the forest"

"I&039;ll be lookin&039; forward to their company," Bradwarden said dryly, and then Elbryan understood that the centaur&039;s dour ht of the five monks Bradwarden had come into plain view of late, and was known and accepted without question by all the folk fol-lowing Toerwart It would be harder, &039;s soldiers, men ere probably, at least peripher-ally, allied with the Abellican Church It wasn&039;t that Bradwarden cared much for the company of humans anyith the possible exceptions of Elbryan and Pony, but he had long ago grown tired of having to hide from them

"They&039;ll be seein&039; us soon," the centaur remarked, "so I&039;ll be takin&039; reat body toward the deeper woods

"Shale step away

Bradwarden stopped and looked back over his broad shoulder at his friend, looked into those honest green eyes

"He will accept you and not judge you," the ranger declared

"Ye&039;d be a fool to tell him," replied the centaur, "for then ye&039;d hts with the Church, boy, but I&039;ve no desire to see the inside o&039; St-Mere-Abelle again"

Elbryan had no practical response to that

"So go and oblins," Bradwarden continued, "but be quick if ye&039;re lookin&039; to kill any yerself I&039;oblin h then and walked away into the shadows

Most of all, Elbryan heard the hollow resonance of that laugh Bradwarden had aptly been nainal settlers of Dundalis; and until Nightbird had returned, elven trained, to the region, the centaur had been a solitary figure But Bradwarden had come to enjoy the company of Elbryan and the others over the past er h than froht of Shaed Sy to intercept his Kings beside Shah better still would it be if the situation was not so complicated

Pony awoke in darkness and started to rise, only to sla wood barely two inches above In the stifling darkness, a sur-prised and panicked Pony reached up, hands striking wood, hard and solid, and finding no handle

A scream welled in her throat; she kicked up and bruised both knee and toe

And the wood seemed to close down on her

She was shut in, locked, buried alive Desperately she reached for her pouch, but the geone Just this, in a coffin, in the darkness

Pony punched hard against the wood and yelled out as loudly as she could Ignoring the pain, she punched again and again, and kicked and clawed Maybe she would break through and the dirt would pour in on her, suffocating her, crushing her, but better that atteain, though she realized that she could hardly expect to be heard

But thena reply And not from above, but from the side And sud-denly she was not in darkness anylow of a lantern - a lantern held in the doorway of the cabin A cabin! And she lay not in a coffin, but in a bunk bed, in the top berth with her face close to the ceiling

Pony closed her eyes and breathed deeply, relief flooding through her She recognized then that she was in the hold of a ship, could tell fro movement that the river, and not hard earth, was below

Pony turned her attention to the iven her, Elbryan, Bradwarden, and Juraviel passage across the river with no questions asked

"Captain Al&039;u&039;ether once more"

Al&039;u&039;nition sparked in his dark eyes "The friend of Jojonah," he said quietly, calmly "Ah, but that alone explains so much"

"I am no enemy of the Behrenese," Pony stated bluntly, "nor any friend of the Abellican Church"

"Or of the city, then, since they, Church and city, are now one and the same"

Pony nodded carefully - for her body ached fro she had received - slid her feet to the side, and extricated herself fro down shakily to the floor Al&039;u&039; her with his strong arm

"You speak ill of the union," Pony noted, "yet you are a friend of Master Jojonah of the Abellican Order"

Al&039;u&039;ured that he had seen her ruse for what it was Only as Al&039;u&039;the man

"Jojonah did not approve of this Church," he said confidently

Pony started to nod, but Al&039;u&039;ued her Had Jojonah changed heart?

"Ito the side and hooking the lantern on a peg, "on a passage up the Masur Delaval to Amvoy, his return to St-Mere-Abelle He told me then to remember the name of Avelyn Desbris, and so I have, and now that I have heard that name openly blasphemed in the Church of Palmaris, I have come to under-stand Jojonah&039;s concern He cared for Avelyn deeply, I understand, and fears for the ain the past tense with reference to Jojonah, and Pony&039;s expression reflected her growing fear

"Master Jojonah was executed as a heretic," Al&039;u&039; with intruders who stole away the Father Abbot&039;s most precious prisoner, a centaur said to have witnessed the destruction of Mount Aida and the dee of the lower bunk

"Might you know anything of such a conspiracy?" Al&039;u&039;lare ca the sentiment

Al&039;u&039;rief," he observed

"You saw my companions e crossed the river"

"I did indeed," said the captain, "and I hold no doubt that the conspiracy claie of heresy "

"Jojonah was oodness of the Church than any man I ever knew," Pony asserted, "except for Brother Avelyn Desbris"

A second bow from Al&039;u&039;met came back to her in response "What, then, of the centaur?"

Pony studied hie his sincerity Was he, perhaps, an agent of the Church? As soon as she renized that as improbable Al&039;u&039;met and his dark-skinned southern brethren were obviously not her enemies

"Bradwarden runs free in the northland," she said frankly, showing her confidence in theboth the infor reward for a hero"

"And he was at Mount Aida, at the reputed end of the dactyl?"

"More than reputed," Pony replied with a chuckle She ran one hand through her thick blond iness "I was there when Brother Avelyn destroyed the demon and its home, as was my human companion on the journey with you across the Masur Delaval" She hesitated as she spoke, wondering if shetoo much away, but then decided, on pure instinct, that too much was at stake and that tiainst Bishop De&039;Unnero, then this ht Bradwarden had given his life to save us, and yet, by a stroke of good fortune and elvish eons of St-Mere-Abelle as a prisoner"

"Because the Father Abbot did not believe his story of the demon dactyl?"

"Because the Father Abbot fears the truth of Avelyn Desbris," Pony corrected

Al&039;u&039;met pondered the profound words and their implications for a moment, then moved to sit beside Pony on the bed "Thus was poor Jojonah convicted and removed," he remarked

"And thus was De&039;Unnero inserted as bishop of Palmaris," Pony replied She stared intently at him as she added, "And what are o to do about that?"

Al&039;u&039; along the saehs, Bradwarden watched Elbryan guide Syroup The soldiers ell trained, the centaur saw, for at the sound of an approaching horse, they moved immedi-ately into a defensive position That for-nized the rider, and the centaur watched as Elbryan ht up beside the leader - Shaed a warm handshake and a pat on the shoulder

The centaur narrowed his eyes and gru about this soldier&039;s return, but illing to tell hiated to the shadows

Thus, with a frustrated gruo

He was not alone; he knew that ih the brush, deep down, brushing through the snow Bradwarden quickly assessed the direction of the approach and the distance, and loomy forest

He turned back then, and moved his telltale humanlike torso behind a tree, so that the part left visible to the newcomer would seem only the hindquarters of a horse

"Ack, ye little horsie," caoblin&039;s voice "Get me some food afore we&039;re pickin&039; at the bones o&039; the e to turn and run the thing doaited patiently, and let the goblin come to him

"Now don&039;t be oblin said quietly, standing right beside the centaur