Page 8 (1/2)
In a meadow a score of miles east of the town of Landsdown, the caravan froe of horses Friar Peht news that was not welcoo farther to the east, then," Brother Brau to the northwest, their intended course, as if he expected a host of monsters to rush down upon the and ae to his itinerary personally
"Be at ease, Brother Francis," Master Jojonah re hard on his lip "You have heard good Friar Pembleton All the lands between Landsdown and the Wilderlands are thick with our eneued
"At what ical cost?" Master Jojonah asked "And at what delay?" Jojonah gave a sigh, and Francis growled and spun away That settled, for the moe and round man with a thick black beard and bushy eyebrows "Pray tell us, good Peion far better than we"
"Where are you going?" the friar asked
"That I cannot say," Master Jojonah replied "You need know only that we h the Timberlands, to the north"
The friar rubbed a hand over his bushy chin "There is a road that will lead you to the north, though into and through the eastern sec-tions of the Tii-nally planned It is a good road, though little used"
"And ord of powries and goblins up there?" Brother Braued "No word," he adh the h the Timberlands past the three towns of Dundalis, Weedy Meadow, and End-o&039;-the-World From there they have extended south, but, as far as I have heard, not to the east
"It seems a reasonable detour," the friar added hopefully, "for there is little in the east that would give the monsters sport No towns, and very few, if any, ho a satchel full of rolled parch Brother Francis moved immediately to intercept, and yanked the satchel away
"Thank you, Brother Dellh the various rolls, finally settling on one and pulling it forth He unrolled it gingerly, spreading it on a tree stump as Master Jojonah, Brother Braumin, and Friar Peh Weedy Meadow," Brother Francis reer
"Then expect to be fighting every step of the way," Friar Pem-bleton answered sincerely "And Weedy Meadow, by all accounts, is now a powrie outpost Lots of giants up there, too"
"Where is this more eastern road?" Master Jojonah asked
The friar moved in close to the er to the east of their present position, and then north, cutting through the narrower region of the eastern Tiht into southern Alpinador "Of course, you can turn back to the west before you get through the Ti north of the three Tiht we find?" Master Jojonah asked "Have you ever been up there?"
"Once," the friar replied "When they first rebuilt Dundalis after the goblin raid - that was several years ago, of course It&039;s all forest, settled on the hillsides, hence the naion"
"All forest, and thus not well-suited for wagon travel," Brother Braumin put in
"Not so bad," the friar replied "It&039;s old forest, with great and dark trees, but not rowth Except of course for the caribou moss; you will encounter more than a bit of that"
"Caribou moss?" All eyes turned to the questioner, Brother Francis, his fellow -nize the naer ly "No tomes told of it," he answered the master&039;s unspoken question
"A shrub, white and low to the ground," Friar Pembleton ex-plained "Your horses should have no trouble pushing through, though it will grab at your wheels Other than that, the canopy is too dark for h, no h along the original course," Brother Francis replied sternly
"I beg your pardon, good brother," Friar Peracious bow "I never said that you would not I only warned you - "
"And for that, we are truly grateful," Master Jojonah said to thedirectly at Francis as he spoke "I ask you now, in good faith, which road would you, who are more fa-miliar with this terrain, select?"
Pe over the options "I would go east," he said "And then north, right up into Alpina-dor The land is sparsely populated, but you&039;ll find the barbarians living along the route to be cordial enough, though probably of not much assistance"
Master Jojonah nodded; Brother Francis started to protest
"Will you go and speak with the drivers now, that you uide them to the entrance of this eastern road?" Jojonah bade the friar "We ain and walked away, glancing back several tian
"Is not here," Master Jojonah proree with this new course Subli to one of your training and station"
Brother Francis started to argue, but the words were lost in a swirl of absolute rage before they ever got out of hisit in- the first time the others had seen him treat one of the oes to contact Father Abbot," Brother Brauht, confident that his choice was the correct one and that Francis was sier and wounded pride to see past the inconvenience
The caravan was on its way soon after,onto the eastern road without incident Brother Francis did not eh the et out and away fro, by their accounts
"In some situations, Father Abbot Markwart can be counted on," Master Jojonah whispered to Brother Brauer monk smiled widely, always thrilled to see the am-bitious Francis put in his proper place
As Friar Pembleton had told the the area with the quartz reported no mon-strous activity at all, just the wild forest Master Jojonah set the pace at steady and smooth They couldn&039;t afford to drive these horses beyond their limits, for they expected no replacements the rest of the way to the Barbacan and all the way back again, until they met with Friar Pembleton in the very sa these horses for the ones they had given into thethat Pembleton&039;s little haiven the reports of monsters just a score of miles away, the monks could only pray that would be the case
They traveled late into the night, with Master Jojonah even daring to put up substantial diaht on the road, circling the wagons for protection Great care was given to the precious horses, with hooves cleaned and shoes carefully inspected The aniraze in a nearby uards were posted about theain the next day, but their new track would be er, and there was no way they couldthe horses Brother Francis ran up be-hind Master Jojonah&039;s wagon and climbed in precisely to make that point
"And if we drive theued
"There is a way," Brother Francis said evenly
Master Jojonah knehat he was talking about: in the old toic stones, that could steal the life force froht the process truly bar-baric, and had hoped they would find no cause to even discuss the matter Or at least, he had hoped he could keep the caravan on schedule, thus giving hier and ambitious brother would surely want to try this new coics, if only to add athe reality of a longer road, the , for he, too, had no practical answers Finally, Jojonah threw up his hands in defeat "See to it," he instructed Brother Francis
The one
Using turquoise and heht the first few deer to the wagons within the hour The unfortunate wild aniain the hematite and turquoise combination was used upon them, this ti their strength and energy to the horse teams
The deer were soon left behind in the road, two of them dead, the other three too exhausted to even stand Master Jojonah looked back at the hiency of the mission, of the fact that reatly if the ansere not found and the ht of the drained anireatly The Abellican Order should not be about such dark things as this, he thought
More deer were brought in, and even, at one point, a large bear, the creature posing no threat, for it was overwhelmed by telepathic intrusions Continually refreshed by the stolen energy, the horses crossed ain the caravan rolled on long into the night
With the abundance of wildlife and absence of monsters, neither Jojonah nor Francis doubted they would be back on schedule within a couple of days, despite the roundabout detour
"Just goblins!" oneof ale down on the oaken table so forcefully that the olden liquid flying about Thearms and chest, thick hair and beard He hardly stood out in this gathering of thirty adultfrom a life in the harsh clioblins, at the least," another iant or two, do not doubt"
"And thely as an old dog&039;s arse, but tougher than stewed boot!"
"Bah! But we&039;ll s with every word
The door to the town&039;s mead hall opened then, and all eyes turned to see a man, tall even by Alpinadoran standards, enter He had seen ht as any twenty-year-old, and there was nothing slack about his muscles or his posture About the town, about all of Alpinador, it was often whispered that this one had been touched by "faerie h His hair was flaxen and long, well below his shoulders, and his face adorned with a well-tri his eyes, which re and blue as a clear northern sky All boasts ended at that reat man
"You have seen them?" one man asked, a perfectly silly question in the er Andacanavar
He walked up to the long table and nodded, then pulled his tremendous claymore over his shoulder and laid its bloodstained blade across the table
"But is there any sport rehter, which was joined by all in attendance
All except for one
"Too rioblins!" the man who had spilled his iants and powries," the ranger corrected
"How reat table
"There were seven," the ranger replied, lifting his glea blade up before their eyes "Now there are five"
"Bah, not so many," two ain,our warriors at bay, the five giants will destroy Tol Hengor"
Nervous glanceshow to respond They held Andacanavar in the greatest respect - never before had he led them astray Over the last few months, with the invasion by sea and by land, all the towns of Alpinador had been sorely pressed, and h, the odds were more even, and the Alpinadorans had fared well
"What are we to do, then?" a bear of a or, asked, leaning forward over the table to stare the ranger in the eye Heat the side of the tent, and she took up a cloth and ap-proached the great ranger
"You will take your people out to the west," Andacanavar ex-plained, handing his clayan to clean it
"And hide in the woods like wo up fro had too many drinks, he wobbled on unsteady feet, and the man next to him pro at the giants," the ranger explained "If I can defeat them, or lead them away, you and your warriors can strike back at the rest and reclaior"
"I do not wish to leave my home," Bruinhelde replied, and then paused, and all the room hushed Bruinhelde was the leader, a title won in battle, and the tribe would follow his words, whatever Andacanavar est "But I trust in you, my friend" he added, and reached out and dropped his hand on the ranger&039;s shoulder "Strike fast and strike hard It would be better if these filthy creatures did not set foot in Tol Hengor And if they do, I wish to have the the open forest at e" He said the last with a wink, for he was more than fif-teen years Andacanavar&039;s junior, and it ell- known that the noer lived aler nodded to the chieftain, then to all gathered He took the cloth froiant blood fro for all to see It was an elvish blade, Icebreaker by naest item ever constructed of sil-verel Icebreaker did not nick and did not dull, and in Anda-canavar&039;s strong arle swipe The ranger slid the blade back into its sheath over his shoulder, nodded to Bruinhelde, and was gone
Master Jojonah and Brau down upon a se of stone houses set in a wide and shallow vale The sun was low in the west, sending long shadows along the valley
"We have come farther than we believed," the brother reasoned
"Alpinadoran," Master Jojonah agreed "Either we have crossed through the Timberlands or these barbarians have settled beyond their accepted southern border"
"The foruess," Brother Braumin replied "Brother Baijuis, skilled in use of the sextant, agrees"
"The ic used on the wild animals is effective, however ilanced sidelong, studying his co of innocent wild anih it seemed he was not nearly as distressed by it as Jojonah
"Even stubborn Francis agrees that we have made up the tih he had little argureed with our choice of the eastern road"
"Brother Francis rarely needs support, or even logic, when dis-agreeing," Brau chuckle fro our new course now, and surprisingly, with the sainal course"
"Not so surprising," Master Jojonah replied, lowering his voice to a whisper when he noticed the approach of two youngerto impress the Father Abbot"
Brother Brauard the newcoive our intrusion, Master Jojonah," said one of the repeatedly