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Graceful and strong, Nightbird slipped down froallop The ranger hit the ground running, stringing Haing as he went, while Pony, who had been sitting behind him on the horse, hopped forward, took up the reins and kept Syround was treacherous She expertly veered the horse to the left, around the base of a wide ht

Before Pony and Syoblins they had been chasing Tere far ahead, run-ning wildly for the cover of a copse of trees, but the third had doubled back and was going around thefast!" Pony yelled and bent low on Sy the horse more sharply about the hillock

Sy back out froed in its throat A second arrow hit it in the chest, dropping it to the er as he caht "They will lay up in there," she reasoned

The ranger slowed and glanced at the copse, then, apparently agreeing, he went to the dead goblin and began extracting his ar-rows That done, he stood again and scanned the landscape, a cu-rious expression crossing his handsome face

"We can do a circuit of the copse," Pony reasoned "Find the best way to get in and strike at the

"Elbryan?"

Still the ranger kept looking around, his mouth open now, his face full of wonderment

"Elbryan?" the woain, more insistent

"I know this place," he replied absently, his gaze darting from spot to spot

"The Moorlands?" Pony asked incredulously, her face scrunch-ing with disgust as she looked around at the desolate region "How could you?"

"I passed this very way on my road back to Dundalis," he ex-plained "When I left the elves" He ran to a nearby birch tangle, bending low as if he expected his long-ago campsite to still be under there "Yes," he said excitedly "I slept here in this very place one quiet night The gnats were horrific," he added with a chuckle

"The goblins?" Pony asked, nodding in the direction of the dis-tant copse

"I did find soes of the Moorlands," Elbryan replied

"Iahead

Elbryan waved his hand disoblins were not io-traveled road co clearer and clearer in his mind He scrambled to the side, past Pony and Sy clay to the black silhouette of mountaintops just visible far in the west, their outlines silver under the light of the de-scending sun

"Forget the goblins," Elbryan said suddenly, grabbing Sy horse and rider away, on a course that would bring them well to the side of the copse of trees and et them?" Pony echoed "We chased that tribe twenty h I&039;ve got a thousand gnat bites swelling on every part of my body, and the smell of this place will follow us for a year to coet the at her "The last two out of thirty With their score-and-eight companions slain, I doubt they&039;ll head back toward End-o&039;-the-World for sooblin ain

Pony lowered her head and growled softly She could hardly believe that Elbryan was leading her farther west, away frooblin pair But she trusted hiht, they were closer to the western edge of the Moorlands than the eastern The sooner they got out of this wretched, bug-ridden place, the better she would like it

They went on for a short while, until the sun began to set over the distantup camp They were still in the Moorlands, still haunted by the buzzing insects, and, even more to Pony&039;s dislike, they were still too close to the copse of trees wherein the goblins had disappeared She repeatedly tried to point this out to her coo to Oracle," he announced

Pony followed his gaze to the base of a large tree, one root pulled up out of the soft ground to create a soblins co in," the woman replied sourly

"There were only two"

"You doubt that they&039;ll find friends in this wretched place?" Pony asked "We could set our caht, only to find that we are fighting half the entire goblin army before the dawn"

Elbryan seemed to have run out of answers He chewed his botto to the nearby tree, its hollowed base inviting hio to Uncle Mather, he felt and soon, before the ihts

"Go and do what youthe true dileive me the cat&039;s-eye Syns of eneenuinely relieved as he took the circlet froift fro back and forth as needed He couldn&039;t use it in Oracle anyway; it would defeat the whole emstone set in the front of the circlet, a chrysoberyl, more commonly known as cat&039;s-eye, would allow the wearer of the circlet to see clearly in the darkest of nights, even in the darkest of caves

"You owe ence," Pony informed him as she placed the circlet about her thick rin that lifted the edges of her ht have in mind, a notion reinforced when she hopped over to him a moment later and kissed him passionately

"Later," she said

"When we are not surrounded by goblins and insects," Elbryan agreed

Pony swung up onto Symphony&039;s saddle With a wink at Elbryan, she turned the horse about and trotted away into the growing glooes before her reo with the deepest affection and respect This was a trying tier, a ti put to the absolute test every day Every decision could prove tragic; every lad he was to have Pony, so thoughtful, so skilled, so beautiful, at his side

He sighed when she passed out of sight, then turned to the busi-ness at hand: the construction of a proper sight for Oracle and ato discern that the goblins had not given up the chase, and had in fact begun trailing her and Elbryan And the tracks she found when she circled back indicated that the goblin pair had indeed found sooblins, per-haps as many as a dozen Pony looked ahead, back toward her camp, which was now no more than a oblins and get to Elbryan in tiiving a great sigh She bade Symphony to stay put, then reached into her pouch for her malachite She slipped her feet out of the stirrups as she put her thoughts into the gean to rise, slowly, into the nighttih to keep her hidden froone up about twenty feet when she spotted the creatures, gathered about a small, well-concealed fire in another copse of trees, barely a couple hundred yards froht, she knew, but were up and agi-tated, sketching in the dirt - probably approach routes or searching routes - pushing each other and arguing

Pony didn&039;t want to expend too radually released theback down to land atop Symphony "Are you ready to have so theout two different stones

Symphony nickered softly and Pony patted his neck She had never tried this particular trick before, and especially not while taking a horse in with her, but she was briiven her newfound insights into the ge she had ever known - she believed with all her heart that she was ready

She started Syoblin caic In her other hand she held both bridle and a ruby, perhaps the most powerful stone in her possession

With the cat&039;s-eye, Pony picked her path carefully, a trail that would take her and Symphony in fast and hard Barely twenty yards away, Syoblins, the woman communicated her intentions to the horse via the turquoise, then kicked the powerful stallion into a dead gallop and let her own thoughts fall into the serpentine, bringing up a glohite shield about her and the horse, h she and Symphony had fallen into a vat of a sticky, milky substance

Pony only had seconds to secure the shield about the the ruby up high, dropping the serpentine shield about the ruby, then coe and rolling as horse and rider thundered into their ly brute had a spear up and ready to throw

Pony paid it no heed, could see nothing but the red swirls within the ruby, could hear nothing but the wind in her ears and the sieoblins&039; fire, then skidded to an abrupt halt and reared

Goblins shouted; soh away

Pony loosed the destructive power of the ruby, a tremendous, concussive fireball that exploded out frooblin and tree alike in a sudden blazing inferno

Sy wildly Pony held on and called coh she doubted that Syh the trehts with the sheer coration Pony could hardly see, sed Symphony forward, and so solid was her serpentine shield that neither she nor the great horse felt any heat whatsoever They passed by one fallen goblin, the one who had raised its spear to throw, and Pony looked on in disgust as the blackened creature, still holding fast the charring spear, settled, its super-heated chest collapsing with a crackle

Soon after, horse and rider caht, andthe protective shield "Oracle," she said again and sighed again, glancing back at the blaze

No goblins would eot back to her ca at the continuing fire nearly a ," he stated oblins," Pony replied, slipping down froitated black horse "And it should interest you to know that their nurin "I had confidence that you could handle whatever situation arose," he said

"While you played at Oracle?"

The ser&039;s face and he shook his head slowly

"No play," he said gravely "A search thatvery ht," Pony remarked

"If you took a moment from your insults and considered the tales I told you about in to understand"

Pony cocked her head and regarded the er

"Juraviel?" she asked suddenly, breathlessly, referring to an elf she had once known, friend andhis chin toward the west "I believe that I have reh Inninness"

Andur&039;Blough Inninness, Pony echoed in her mind The "Forest of Cloud" wherein lay Caer&039;alfar, hoed elves of Corona Elbryan had told her many tales of the enchanted place, but always answered her pleas to go there with a frustrated reply that he could not recall the trail, that the elves desired their privacy even froer trained in their hoht now, if he could indeed find the trail back to the elven hooblins suddenly rang with ," Elbryan proer expression "Before the dawn"

"Sy," Pony replied, her blue eyes twinkling with excitement

Elbryan took her hand and led her to the small tent they shared "Have you any enchantments which will repel insects?" he asked on a whiht for a ive us a short reprieve," she replied

Elbryan glanced back to the east, to the still-burning, thoroughly decimated copse, then scrunched up his face and shook his head He&039;d suffer the inconvenience of a few thousand gnats

No goblins bothered theht, nor the next day as they exited the Moorlands through the western border Both rode atop Syround became more firm, and Elbryan pushed the horse at a swift pace Joined tele-pathically through the turquoise, the ranger understood that Sym-phony wanted to run hard, had been born to run hard And so theycaht, and, on Elbryan&039;s insistence, avoiding any goblins or giants or powries, or any other distraction His purpose was singular nohile the ever-elusive trail to An-dur&039;Blough Inninness reue with the wisdole

And there was an added benefit for the wo tales Elbryan had told of his days training as a ranger, she dearly wanted to see the elven forest

She used the reprieve froin your new career?" she asked one brightthat they had overslept and should have been on the trail before the dawn

The ranger cocked his head curiously

Pony held aloft the pouch of geave them a defini-tive shake when Elbryan&039;s expression soured "You have seen their power," she protested

"I am a warrior, and no wizard," Elbryan replied "And certainly no monk!"

"And I am not a warrior?" Pony asked slyly "How round?"

Elbryan couldn&039;t suppress a chuckle at that When they were younger, children in Dundalis before the goblins came, he and Pony had wrestled several ti the victor And once, after being caught by the hair by Elbryan, the girl had even laid the boy out cold with a punch to the face The htest of all for Elbryan, for then had cooblin invasion, and he and Pony had been separated for so htbird, a the finest warriors in all the world, and she was a wielder of emstones by Avelyn Desbris, who had been perhaps the ic-wielder in all the world

"You must learn them," Pony insisted "At least a bit"

"You seem to do ith theh he was privately a bit intrigued by the prospects of using the powerful ge team if some of the stones were in my possession?"

"That would depend on the situation," Pony answered "If you get wounded, I can use the soul stone to et wounded? Who will heal ainst a tree to die?"

The iht nearly buckled Elbryan&039;s knees He couldn&039;t believe that neither he nor Pony had thought of that possibility before - at least not enough to do anything about it All objections gone, he said, "We an her expected protest "But with every meal and every break, I will be tutored, particularly with the soul stone," he explained "All our waking hours will be filled, then, with trav-eling and learning"

Pony considered that for just a ree-ment with the concession Then, with a sudden wistful ser in the top of his tunic and pursed her sensual lips "Every waking moment?" she asked coyly

Elbryan couldn&039;t find the breath to reply That hat he most loved about this woman: her ability to keep him always off-balance, to surprise him and entice hiestive Every tiround, Pony found a way to round was as tentative as the shifting silt of the Moorlands

They were late for the trail, the ranger knew, and he knew, too, that they wouldn&039;t be going anywhere for a little while

What struck them most was the pure majesty of the mountains - there was si rocky trails, with Elbryan in the lead, checking the trail and watching for tracks Pony, walking behind, held Syh with its telepathic connection to both these humans, the horse would have followed anyway Neither Elbryan nor Pony spoke, for the sound of voices seelorious song

All about thereat mountains reached up their white caps of snow to touch the sky Clouds drifted by, sometimes above theh the gray air The wind blew constantly, but it only dulled the sound eventhis majestic place utterly silent, utterly serene So they walked and they looked, and were hulory of nature

Elbryan kneas on the right trail, kneas closing in on his intended destination This place, so powerful, so over-whelh Inninness

The trail forked, going up and to the left, down and to the right, around an outcropping of stone Elbryan started left andthe paths would cross again soon enough He was still cli left, when he heard Pony cry out Down he sprinted, cutting over the rough ground between the paths, leaping atop any boulders in his path and springing away, as surefooted as anysuch terrain during his years of training with the Touel&039;alfar!

He slowed his pace when he spotted Pony standing calot up beside her and followed her gaze over the lip of a steep descent, he understood

There was a valley below them, obviously, but it was hidden froray

"It cannot be natural," Pony reasoned "No cloud as I have ever seen"

"Andur&039;Blough Inninness," Elbryan replied breathlessly, and when he finished his statement, the corners of his mouth rose in a wide smile

"The Forest of Cloud," Pony added, the common translation of the elven words

"There is a cloud above it all the day, every day - " Elbryan started to explain

"Not a cheery place," the wolance "But it is," he replied "When you want it to be"

Noas Pony&039;s turn to regard her coin to explain it," Elbryan staray from up here, but it&039;s not like that underneath, not at all The blanket is illusionary, and yet it is not"

"What is that supposed to h and searched for a different approach "It is gray down there, and melancholy, beautifully so," he said "But only if you want it to be For those who prefer a day in the sun, there is plenty to be found"

"The gray blanket looks solid," Pony remarked doubtfully

"Appearances are often far from the truth where the Touel&039;alfar are concerned"

Pony couldn&039;t miss the reverence hich Elbryan spoke of the elves, and having h she wasn&039;t so enaant and callous Still, looking at El-bryan now, she noticed that he was beahted and charmed as she had ever seen hiht below theer at his word

"It was not until this very moment that I realized how much I miss my days in Caer&039;alfar," Elbryan said quietly "Or how much I miss Belli&039;mar Juraviel, and even Tuntun, who riiven her life in Aida saving Elbryan and her from one of the demon dactyl&039;sthe somber mood

"What is it?" Pony proer replied

Pony looked at him curiously; he had told her quite a bit about his days with the elves, but had onlyDay after day, week after week, s with the stones They were sponge-like, though harder and , where they would soak up the liquid It was Elbryan&039;s job to fish theh, where he would squeeze the now-flavored water out of them, a concoction that the elves used to create a sweet and potent wine

"The waret those stones ather a basket and run to the trough, then return again and again until I had col-lectedhot"

"But you were not fast enough and had to eat it cold," Pony teased

"At first," Elbryan adh I could coue"

"And so you ate many a hot meal"

Elbryan shook his head and smiled wistfully "No," he replied "For Tuntun was always there, setting traps, slowing ot thein the brush, ht in view of the o off the soup" Elbryan could talk about it wistfully now, could re-e of the great value of the often brutal lessons that the Touel&039;alfar had taught hi those stones! And how resilient his spirit had becoh about it now, but the treatht him near to bloith the elf ht with her once - a fight that he lost badly Despite the rough treatment, the humiliation and the pain, Elbryan had come to realize that Tuntun, in her heart, had only his best interests in , and, at that time, not even his friend She was his instructor, and her , had been undeniably effective Elbryan had come to love the elf maiden

And now all that he had of Tuntun were his memories

"Blood of Mather," he said with a sneer

"What?"

"That&039;s what she always used to call ed it with heavy sarcasm Blood of Mather"

"But you soon proved to her that it was a true enough title," ca, and not so far below the pair

Elbryan knew that voice; so did Pony "Belli&039;ether

Belli&039; blanket, his gossale of the olden hair, his golden eyes, his angular features and lithe forave both humans pause and added to the already majestic aura of this place Elbryan and Pony could almost hearsteps, with every beat of his nearly translucent wings His movements were a dance of harmony, of perfect balance, a coreeted the unfamiliar to Elbryan Juraviel had started with them on the quest to Aida, as the sole representa-tive of the elven race, but sacrificed his place in the journey to serve as a guide for a band of haggard refugees

Elbryan walked over and clasped hands with the elf, but the ranger&039;s smile did not hold He would have to tell Juraviel of the fate of his friend, for the elves had not known that Tuntun was fol-lowing the band The ranger glanced back to his co his distress to Pony

"You know that the des erous place," he answered "The dactyl has been thron, but the fiend&039;s legacy lives on, in the forh the civilized lands of your human kin"