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The horses, picketed near the brook, stirred uneasily Hettar rose to his feet

"So

"They shouldn't be-" Hettar started Then he stopped "Back!" he snapped

"Away from the fire The horses say there are men out there Many - eapons" He ju his sabre

Lelldorin took one startled look at him and bolted for one of the tents Garion's sudden disappointment in his friend was almost like a blow to the stoht and shattered on Barak'shis sword

Garion grasped Aunt Pol's sleeve and tried to pull her froht

"Stop that!" she snapped, jerking her sleeve free Another arrohizzed out of the foggy woods Aunt Pol flicked her hand as if brushing away a fly and le word The arrow bounced back as if it had struck soround

Then with a hoarse shout, a gang of rough, burly e of the trees and splashed across the brook, brandishing swords As Barak and Hettar leaped forward to ed fro arrows so rapidly that his hands seemed to blur as they moved Garion was instantly ashae

With a choked cry, one of the attackers stuh his throat Another doubled over sharply, clutching at his sto and with a pale, downy beard on his cheeks, dropped heavily and sat plucking at the feathers on the shaft protruding from his chest with a bewildered expression on his boyish face Then he sighed and slu fro men faltered under the rain of Lelldorin's arrows, and then Barak and Hettar were upon thereat sweep, Barak's heavy sword shattered an upflung blade and crunched down into the angle between the neck and shoulder of the black-whiskered man who had held it The man collapsed Hettar h the body of a pockht blood burst from his mouth as Hettar pulled out his blade Durnik ran forith his axe, and Silk drew his long dagger froy brown beard At the last moment, he dived forward, rolled and struck the beardedhe caersound as it sliced upward, and the strickento hold in the blue-colored loops and coils of his entrails that seeers

Garion dived for the packs to get his oord, but was suddenly grabbed roughly fro blow on the back of his head, and his eyes filled with a blinding flash of light

"This is the one ant," a rough voice husked as Garion sank into unconsciousness

He was being carried - thatar it had been since he had been struck on the head His ears still rang, and he was more than a little sick to his stomach He stayed limp, but carefully opened one eye His vision was blurred and uncertain, but he couldabove hied with it, as once before in the snooods outside Val Alorn, he seereat bear He closed his eyes, shuddered, and started to struggle weakly

"It's all right, Garion," Barak said, his voice sunk in a kind of despair "It's ain, and the bear seeone He wasn't even sure he had ever really seen it

"Are you all right?" Barak asked, setting hiround

"They hitto the swelling behind his ear

"They won't do it again," Barak e round and buried his face in his hands It was dark and difficult to see, but it looked as if Barak's shoulders were shaking with a kind of terrible suppressed grief - a soundless, wrenching series of convulsive sobs

"Where are we?" Garion asked, looking around into the darkness