Fires of Azeroth

"Some of them are well up the Silet, the tributary river to our south; the force at Narnside began moving across to our bank at dawn."

"You permit this?"

She gave a bitter laugh. "I? Permit? I fear I am not in charge here. The arrha have permitted it, step by step, until we are nigh surrounded. Powerful they are, but their whole mind, their whole conception of the problem, is toward defense, and they will not hear me. I would have done differently, yes, but I have not been able to do anything until recently. Now it comes to the point that the only thing I can do is help them hold this place. It has never been a matter of what I would choose here."

He bent and gathered his armor from where he had left it.

They saddled the horses, not alone Siptah, but Lellin's and Sezar's, and gathered up all that they might need if it came to flight. What was in Morgaine's mind remained her own; but he reckoned in his own thoughts what she had told him, the isolation by wood and water of the area that was Nehmin, and the Shiua possessing the rivers that framed their refuge.

All the area about them was tangled and wooded, and that was a situation no Kurshin could find comfortable; there was no place to maneuver, no place to run. The horses were all but useless to them, and the hill was too low to hold.

They rode up the slope of the hill and among the twisted trees, down again by the winding trail among the rocks, so that they came out again on the meadow.

"No sight of them," Vanye muttered, looking uneasily riverward.

"Ah, they have learned a slight caution of this place. But it will not last, I fear."

She turned Siptah to the right hand, and warily they rode away from that vicinity into the woods, through brush, into an area where the trees grew very large. A path guided them… and our enemies next, Vanye thought dismally. Horses had been down it recently.

"Liyo," he said after a space. "Where do we go? What ma

She shrugged, and seemed worried. "The arrha have withdrawn. And they are not above abandoning us to the enemy. I am concerned for Lellin and Sezar. They have not reported back to me. I do not like to take their horses from where they expect to find them, but likewise I do not want to lose them."

"They are out there-toward the enemy?"

"That is where they should be. At the moment, I am concerned that the arrha are not where they should be."

"And Roh."

"And Roh," she echoed, "though in some part I doubt he is the center of this matter. He may himself be in danger. Merir… Merir is the one who deserves watching. Honorable he may be-but thee learns, Vanye, thee learns… that the good and virtuous fight us as bitterly as those who are neither good nor virtuous… more so, perhaps-for they do so unselfishly, and bravely , . . and we must most of all beware of them. Do you not see that I am what the Shiua name me? And would a man not be entitled to resist that… for himself-most of all for what the arrhend protects? -Forgive me. Thee knows my darker moods; I should not shed them on thee."

"I am your man, liyo."

She looked at him, surprised out of the bitterness that had been her expression.

And around the bending of the trail there stood one of the arrha, a young qhalur woman. Silent, she stood among the branches and ferns, light in green shadow.

"Where are your fellows?" Morgaine asked of her.

The arrha lifted her arm, pointed the way that they were going.

Morgaine started Siptah forward again, slowly, for the trail wound much. Vanye looked back; the arrha still stood there, a too-conspicuous sentinel.

Then they passed into another space where few trees grew, and in that open space there were horses; the arrhendim were there, seated… the six who had gone out with Merir, and Roh. Roh gathered himself to his feet as they came.

"Where is Merir?" Morgaine asked.

"Off that way," Roh said, and pointed farther on. He spoke in Andurin, and looked up… shaven, washed, he looked more the dai-uyo he was, and he bore his weapons again. "No one is doing anything. Word is the Shiua are closing on us from two sides, and the old men are still back there talking. If no one moves, we will have Hetharu in our midst before evenfall."

"Come," said Morgaine, and slid down from the saddle. "We leave the horses here." She wrapped Siptah's reins about the branch, and Vanye did the same for the horse he rode and the ones he led.

None of the arrhendim had done more than look up.

"Come," she bade them; and in a stronger voice: "Come with me."

They looked uncertain; Larrel and Kessun stood up, but the elder arrhendim were reluctant. Finally Sharrn did so, and the six came, gathering up their weapons.

Wherever they were bound, Morgaine seemed to have been this way before; Vanye stayed at her shoulder, that Roh should not walk too near her, watching either side and sometimes looking back at the arrhendim who trailed them on this suddenly narrower path. He was far from easy in his mind, for they were all too vulnerable to treachery, for all the power of the weapons Morgaine bore.

Gray stone confronted them through the tangle of vines and branches… lichen-spotted, much weathered, standing stones thrust up among the roots of trees, closer and closer, until the stones formed an aisle shadowed by the vast trees.

Then they had sight of a small stone dome at the end of that aisle. Arrha guarded the entry of it, one on either side of the doorway that stood open, but there was no offer to oppose their coming.

Voices echoed within, echoes that died away at their tread within the doorway. Torches lit that small dome within; arrha sat as a mass of white on stone seats that encompassed more than half the circuit of the walls: the center of the floor was clear, and there Merir stood. Merir was the one who had been speaking and he faced them there.

One of the arrha arose, an incredibly old qhal, withered and bent and leaning on a staff. He stepped down onto the floor where Merir stood.

"You do not belong here," that one said. "Arms have never come into this council. We ask that you go away."

Morgaine did nothing. A look of fear was on all the arrha… old ones, very old, all those gathered here.

"If we contest for power," said another, "we will all die. But there are others who hold the power we have. Leave."

"My lord Merir." Morgaine walked from the doorway to the center of the room; Vanye followed her: so did the others, taking their place before that council. His distress was acute, that she thus separated herself from the door. There were guards, arrha, bearing Gate-force, he suspected. He could not prevail against that. If it came to using her weapons she needed him close to her, where he was able to guard her back… where he was not in the way of what had taken at least one comrade of theirs. "My lords," she said, looking about her. "There are enemies advancing. What do you plan to do?"

"We do not," said the elder, "admit you to our counsel."

"Do you refuse my help?"

There was deep silence. The elder's staff rang on the floor and echoed, the slightest tap.

"My lords," she said. "If you do refuse my help, I will leave you. And if I leave you, you will fall."

Merir stepped forward half a pace. Vanye held his breath, for the old lord knew, knew utterly what she meant, the destruction of the Gate which gave them power, in her passing from this world. And surely he had told the others.

"That which you bear," said Merir, "is greater than the power of all the arrha combined. But it was fashioned as a weapon; and that… that is madness. It is an evil thing. It ca

There was no sound or movement after.

But suddenly other footfalls whispered on the stones at the doorway.

Lellin, and Sezar.

"Grandfather," Lellin said in a hushed voice, and bowed.

"Lady… you bade me come when the enemy had completed their crossing. They have done so. They are moving this way."

A murmur ran the circuit of the room, swiftly dying, so that the tiniest movement could be heard.

"You have been out doing her bidding," Merir said.

"I told you, Grandfather, that I went to do that."

Merir shook his head slowly, lifted his face to look on Morgaine, on all of them, on the arrhendim who had come with Morgaine, and all but Perrin lowered their eyes, unable to meet his.

"You have already begun to destroy us," Merir said. His voice was full of tears. "You offer your way… or nothing. We might have been able to defeat the Shiua, as we did the s irrindim who came on us long ago. But now we have come to this, that armed force has entered this place, where arms never have come before, and some have faith in them."

"Lellin Erirrhen has said," the elder arrha declared, "that lie is hers, lord Merir. And therefore he insists on coming and going at her bidding, refusing ours."

"Else," Morgaine said in a loud voice, "the council would keep me blind and deaf. And Lellin and Sezar in their service to me have kept me from taking other action, my lords. They know what you do not. By serving me .. . they have served you."

Merir's lips made a taut line, and Lellin looked at the old lord, bowed to him very slowly, and to Morgaine… faced his grandfather again. "Of our own choice." Lellin said. "Grandfather-the arrhendim are needed. Please. Come and look. They cover the riverside like a new forest. Come and look on this thing." He cast an anguished glance about at all the arrha. "Come out of your grove and see this horde. You talk of taking it into Shathan. Of peace with it… as we found with the remnant of the sirrindim. Come and look on this thing."

One more dangerous to us," said the elder, "is already here." And Gate-force flared, making the air taut as a drawn string. It shimmered about the elder.

nd it grew. One and another of the arrha began to bring forth that power, until the arrhendim flinched back against the wall, and the whole dome sang with it.