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"Runtly, then," Brynn announced to the pony ?I will call you Runtly!"

The pony threw its head up and down, several times

Brynn knew that it had understood, and she couldn&039;t have been er and her pony spent the next several days together, so, with Brynn leading the way and Runtly plodding along, seely contentedly, behind The weather re lower in the foothills, the season was pushing on

All the while, Brynn tried to get her bearings, looking for soed, peculiar face of aher childhood ai-ru ht be encamped She knew that the season was somewhat late for any of the tribes to be so close to the mountains, and so she was re-lieved indeed when she saw a line of thin s back and urged the willing pony along at a swift pace Goose bumps showed on her bare arht of seeing her people again for the nrst ti an adult She grewstride and had to reain that she ell prepared for theThe louel&039;alfar had trained her in one out of their way to tutor her, often using her own language and not their singsong tongue

It occurred to her, then, that the elves had not sie Brynn never recalled Lady Dasslerond, nor any of the others, speaking to Aydrian in the tongue coue That struck her as odd indeed and, for some reason she did not understand, set the hairs at the back of her neck on edge, but she couldn&039;t pause and ponder it just then Aydrian&039;s road out of Andur&039;Blough Inninness was years away, she believed - not knowing that the young man, barely more than a boy, was even then in fast retreat froht before her, right under that line of gray s, soon cresting a ridge and pulling the pony up to a stop, her s For there below her was not a To-gai-ru encamp-ment as Brynn reh circle around a large cooking pit, with horses running free in the fields all about and watchers guarding those fields fro the herd that was so vital to the To-gai-ru survival Brynn had even suspected that she e

There was no watcher There were no horses running in the fields, as far as Brynn could tell And no tents!

The settleai-ru, but a true settlement, with permanent structures, and even a trench-and-wall barrier surrounding the whole of it There were houses fashioned of wood and clay, with sod roofs They were connected by cleared pathways, roads, all centered around a wide town square Directly across that square fro and tall building with a sloping roof constructed of inter-locking beams that formed a row of X&039;s, front to back, and with small tow-ers, minarets, at each of the four corners

It was a distinctive design, and one that Brynn would come to mark well and despise in the days ahead

Her eyes scanned the structure for a bit, but were draay, to the side, to the second-largest structure in the settle and wide and low, and with several fenced-in areas about it A stable, she knew, for more than a dozen horses milled about those corrals, and even fro froer, Brynn just shook her head helplessly

It took her a long, long while to th to prod Runtly down the slope to the settleate, Brynn noted that there were ht-colored robes and turbans, and more than a few suspicious expressions turned her way

The To-gai-ru who saw her looked on with equal curiosity, but with expres-sions that showed less sinister undertones

Brynn feared that wearing her surcoat and her aring at Runtly&039;s side, ht have been a mistake Perhaps she should have stripped off the pilfered iteai-ru wanderer

"Too late now," the young wo of her shoulders, and she pushed Runtly forward at an easy, unthreatening pace

"Halt!" ca about the gate area

Brynn shifted back and gave a slight tug on the pony&039;s uards, Behrenese all and with one of the scale armor of the Chezhou-Lei, came forward The three common Behrenese soldiers looked a bit nervous at first, but quickly settled beside their arded Brynn gravely, then grunted at one of her companions

"Who are you?" the ht

"I am Brynn Dharielle," she answered honestly, for she could think of no reason to hide the nah it was not her true naed and looked back over her shoulder at the ai-ru quickly translated to the Chezhou-Lei, and the arded Brynn evenin the Behrenese tongue, which Brynn did not understand

"What village do you call home?" the translator asked ?And what tribe?"

"I was of Kayleen Kek," Brynn answered, again honestly ?But that was o"

"And now?"

"Noanderer"

The

"A wanderer," Brynn said again ?Surely you have encountered To-gai-ru wanderers, in this season, in this region near to the mountains" The man still didn&039;t seem to catch on, and Brynn worked hard to suppress her smile In Behren, there were no froai, wanderers - as they were called, for they were even more nomadic than the tribes - were eventhe tribes Wanderers were the infor the tribes of news fro the hunters to areas with better ga her friends whenever a wanderer approached Kayleen Kek

"You are young"

"Not so young," she answered ?But I aht, and a fine, cooked meal"

The Behrenese translated to the Chezhou-Lei wo moment, then nodded at the man

"Dee&039;dahk would not turn you away, Brynn Dharielle," the man ex-plained ?If the Ru will have you, then enter

But be warned," he added gri hard at Brynn, ?Champion Dee&039;dahk will tolerate no inso-lence fro her face devoid of expression, revealing nothing that could be viewed as threatening or htened her clothing, then pointedly untied the sword and strapped it about her slender waist Dee&039;dahk atching her every movement, she knew, and so she tried to appear a bit clumsy, at least

"You can stable your horse inside," the Behrenese soldier continued ?Bargain the price as you desire For your lodging, you will have to seek out a the other Ru, but expect that my master, Yatol Daek Gin Gin Yan, ish to speak with you"

Brynn held her ground for a longto es that had come over her homeland So, there was a Yatol here, and a Chezhou-Lei? Was every ?village" like this, under close scrutiny?

She started forward, Runtly stepping easily behind her, but she stopped suddenly and turned to her pony

She scratched his face and neck and pulled his ears and whispered to hiave hirasses

Dee&039;dahk iitated words

"That is not allowed!" the Behrenese translator shouted at her ?The horse will be brought in!"

"This is their land as much as ours," Brynn explained

"This is the land of Yatol Daek Gin Gin Yan!" the ht in!"

Brynn considered it for aherself repeatedly that this was not the tiht She understood that the Behrenese would in no way harai pony as fine as he would be far too valuable for that! She gave a short whistle and the pony stopped and looked back to re-gard her A second whistle turned Runtly around, walking back at his own leisurely pace

"Then I expect that I shall not be staying here for long," Brynn explained when the pony reached her, and she started toward the open gates, Runtly right behind She didn&039;t bother to return the glare that Dee&039;dahk was cast-ing her way

She reain, ain information, to learn all that she could about the present state of affairs in To-gai The tih, she knew

"You are a bit young to be a true wanderer, are you not?" an old woht, when she joined e square, in full view of the dis-tinctive and huge Yatol Te And older than I appear in experience, if not in years"

"Ah ? said Balachuk, the woman&039;s companion, a wrinkled and leathery old ht and sharp as those of any twenty-year-old ?And where is it that you&039;ve been wandering?"

Brynn s answer She wanted this discussion to go co the questions about To-gai, and not the To-gai-ru interrogating her She had found no trouble in getting lodgings; several To-gai-ru families had offered to take her in at the cost of a few tales, and she had accepted the in-vitation of this very couple One Behrenese man had offered, as well, and Brynn had alarnera confidant of one of them But then she had looked into the h his ould be in the sa the mountains, mostly," Brynn answered slowly, very conscious of the fact that a pair of Behreneseat a table not too far away and were listening so watched wherever she went, as the leaders of the town tried to learn as e woman and her unusual equipment Brynn looked at the two h for them to hear, ?And under the mountains"

The old couple looked to each other in surprise, and others about the ie rooan almost immediately, and within a few ai-ruto hear her tales

And so she told theh she kept out any mention of Juraviel and Cazzira Every face screwed up with confusion as she told of the dwarf city, for the To-gai-ru and Behrenese alike had little knowledge of powries, and every eye ide indeed when Brynn told her tale of the great dragon and its hoard of treasure

She played it toand even ht At one point, she cried out, ?So I thrust !" and spun to the side as she did, stabbing out with her bare hand, and taking delight, along with all of the others, in the way several of the audi-ence leaped back, one even giving a shriek

All the while, though, Brynn subtly glanced at the two Behrenese, ere still sitting at their table, still pretending, unsuccessfully, to be a her words, she knew, andwith Yatol Daek Gin Gin Yan before Brynn&039;s scheduled

"They say you are of Kayleen Kek," one o," Brynn replied, and si the tribal name evoked memories of her carefree childhood days

"A fine tribe!" another man offered, and many about nodded and sounded their accord, and at that ai were not often friendly with each other, and were of-tenti thereater scheai-ru

The one disconcerting expression that Brynn saw came to her from Bara-chuk, who seemed a bit confused, even suspicious

She wasn&039;t overly surprised, then, when, aftermany that Brynn at last coaxed out of the others, old Barachuk turned to her on the way back to the house, and said, ?I knew Kayleen Kek I once traded with them and hunted beside theentle, but firm, way Tsolona put her hand on Bara-chuk&039;s forear him that Brynn was one of them

Still, Brynn certainly understood Barachuk&039;s concern Kayleen Kek had not been a large tribe, nu no more than three hundred, and with only twenty distinctive families And in this day, under the harsh rule of Behren, there was reason for suspicion

Brynn stopped walking, as did her two companions She stared into Barachuk&039;s sharp eyes ?Do you know the family Tsochuk?"

The man assuu and Dhalana," he started to say, hesitantly

"And their daughter, Dharielle, as spared on that evil e," Brynn finished

"Brynn Dharielle," Tsolona breathed

"You are that little girl?" Barachuk asked, then he nodded, scrutinizing her ?The age is appropriate"

"Poor girl," said Tsolona, in a voice that was both syned to the harsh realities of life She moved closer and put her hand on Brynn&039;s arm in the same ed and let it all go, holding her strong expression and pos-ture and refusing to allow herself to bring back that terrible ie There was no room for any shoeakness, here, no ti other than that sier that drove her on in her mission

"I left Kayleen Kek, alone, the next day," Brynn explained ?I know noth-in<r of the tribe - are they still traveling the steppes?"

"In a village, uess," said Tsolona

"Few follow the old paths," said Barachuk ?To-gai has changed"

"Become civilized," added Tsolona, an obvious frustration in her snappy voice

They walked on quietly, arriving at the small and unremarkable house a few minutes later Barachuk waited until after they had settled before press-ing on ?How did you survive? Which tribe took you in as their own?

And are they still up there, in the foothills?"

The tone of that last question and the glimmer in his dark eyes tipped Brynn off to Barachuk&039;s feelings on that particular subject, and she knew then that she was aed for the old ways, the custo of the hated Behrenese Relief accoinetheir identity to the conquerors in but a decade, she had indeed feared that very possibility

"I ith no tribe," Brynn adai I trav-eled north of the ai-ru were a nomadic people, but their travels had distinct borders, the ai-ru had ever traveled through them; fewer still, and none in memory, had ever returned

"Your words are" Barachuk started to say, but he stopped and just shook his head

"Hard to believe?" Brynn finished for him ?Trust me, both of you, if you knew all of my tale, your eyes would widen even more" As she finished, she reached into her pouch and pulled forth the powrie beret, placing it on her black hair The two looked at her curiously, obviously not understanding

For aforth her sword and setting its blade ablaze, but she held back, thinking it wise not to reveal too much, even to this couple, whom she already trusted implicitly

For they would likely talk, to friends at least, and Brynn knew that the Behreneseon Barachuk and Tsolona now, as they had already been observing her

"It is the headpiece treasured by a race of hty and wicked dwarves, called the powries," Brynn explained

"Much of this armor that I wear is of powrie make, I believe"

"You befriended dwarves?" asked Tsolona

"No"

"You warred with them, then The spoils of battle?"

"No, I have never seen a powrie This was taken froreater foe, in a cavern deep under the hty that it could raze the land!"

The old couple looked to each other, a flash of arin of doubt

"And you killed this creature?" Barachuk asked

"No, the dragon was quite beyond on," said Barachuk, see her calreat beast, and with sorow more curious by the o at that She was tired, and had an i the next day