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"Just to your left," Durnik murmured "Isn't that a crack?"

Garion found it and worrow damper and damper the deeper he went

"It's wet-down there," he whispered, "but the crack's so narrow that the water's barely seeping up"

"Let's widen the crack -but not too h to let a trickle come up"

Garion bent his will and felt Durnik's will join with his Together they shouldered the crack in the rock a bit wider The water lying beneath the rock layer gushed upward Together they pulled back and felt the water begin to erode the hard-packed dirt under the wall, seeping and spreading in the darkness beneath the surface

"Let's ht places under the wall in order to soak the ground thoroughly Then toht we can push the cracks wide open"

"Won't that wash out this whole hillside?" Garion asked, also whispering

"Probably "

"That's going to make it a little hard for our troops when they rush this place"

"There's not et their feet wet," Durnik said, "but that's better than trying to scale a ith so oil on your head, wouldn't you say?"

"Much, h the chill night Then sonored it, but it caain -soft and cold and da to snow"

"I thought that's what it was I think this is going to turn very unpleasant on us"

The snow continued to fall through the reh there were occasional flurries that swirled around the bleak fortress, the snowfall for the most part was intermittent It was a wet, sodden kind of snow that turned to slush alround

Shortly before noon, Garion and Lelldorin donned heavy wool cloaks and stout boots and went out of the snow-clogged encampment toward the north wall of Rheon When they were perhaps two hundred paces from the base of the hill upon which the city rested, they sauntered along with a great show of casualness, trying to look like nothing erous than a pair of soldiers on patrol As Garion looked at the fortress city, he saw the red and black bear-flag once e in hinize your arrows in the dark?" he asked his friend "There are a lot of arrows sticking in the ground out there, you know"

Lelldorin drew his bow and shot an arrow in a long arc toward the city The feathered shaft rose high in the air and then dropped to sink into the snow-covered turf about fifty paces fro of the slope "Ianother shaft fronize one of theers touch it" He leaned back and bent his bow again "Is the ground getting soft under the wall?"

Garion sent out his thought toward the slope of the hill and felt the chill,under the snow "Slowly," he replied, "it's still pretty firh"