Into the fire

On the morrow as well, would Silverleaf's legion ride along the Sea Road to the rendezvous point.

But this night in the abandoned port city of Adeo would Silverleaf's legion wait.

In the middle of the night Beau startled awake, sitting up with a jolt. Beside him Li

"I du

Beau lay back down. "Hullo, there it is again."

"What?"

"Put your ear to the earth, love."

Li

Beau raised up on one elbow. "Do you know if there are any Groaning Stones about?"

Without taking her ear from the ground, Li

Beau pressed his own ear to the earth and listened a moment to the uneasy silence of the land, then said, "Well, it wasn't the drum of ru

Li

"It had a cadence, you say?"

"Yes, DelfLord," replied Li

"And it was a deep knelling and not a tapping?"

Li

Volki turned to Bragga and Helki, two of his Chakka counsellors and said, "Utruni," his word a statement, not a question.

They both nodded in agreement.

Li

Volki grunted. "Aye, Stone Giants… for what you have described is what we call Utruni signalling. It is much like hammer-signalling through stone-"

"Hammer-signalling?" asked Ry

"Aye. We Chakka often signal each other by hammer tapping on stone, though in this case I deem it to be Stone Giants sending the messages. We at times hear the knells sounding within the stone of our Chakkaholts."

"Can you read these signals of theirs?" asked Tipperton.

Regretfully, Volki shook his head.

"But why are they here?" asked Li

"There is no guarantee they are nearby," said Bragga, ru

Volki nodded, his dark eyes casting back gleams in the firelight. "Some tell that the knells of Stone Giants can sound across the whole of the world."

Tip sighed and looked at Beau. "I was hoping that they'd come to help."

Helki stroked his grey beard. "Ah, would that it were, for it is said that evil flees when the Earthmasters are nigh."

Beau frowned. "Earthmasters? Utruni? Stone Giants?"

Helki nodded.

"Let's hope that evil does flee, then," said Beau.

Helki shrugged. "It may be nought but an eld Chakias' tale."

Ry

Ry

Helki held up his hands in surrender as Volki broke out in loud laughter. Finally, Volki mastered his humor and said to Ry

Of a sudden the storm left her eyes, and Ry

"Ah, but just as wonderfully beautiful," said Tip.

Volki started, as did Helki and Bragga, and a stern look came over Volki's face and he said, "Chak-Sol Tipperton, we do not speak of such."

Tipperton frowned in puzzlement and glanced at Ry

A momentary uncomfortable silence followed, broken by Beau, who yawned, then said, "Well, Stone Giants or not, for me it's bed."

Volki nodded. "Indeed, we all need rest, for we ride on the morrow at dawn."

"But what about the Utruni?" asked Li

Volki turned up his hands. "What would you have us do, Lady Li

Li

Volki gri

At last dawn came on this the seventh day of the new year, and the Dragonships raised sails and set out for the mouth of the Ironwater, and the column of warriors mounted up to ride, Dwarves and Warrows on their ponies, Elves on fiery steeds, and Baeron on their massive horses of war, Bwen and her wagons coming last of all.

Northwesterly they fared up the tradeway known as the Sea Road, a route with one end anchored at the harbor of Adeo and the other terminus at Dael in Riamon, with the city of Rhondor at the far end of H?l's Crucible nought but the first port of call.

Northwesterly they went and northwesterly, at a leisurely gait, the fleet of Dragonships now riding upstream alongside, keeping pace, Elven scouts on their fiery steeds riding far to the flank and fore and rear. And although Commander Ry

All day they maintained the deliberate pace, and when evening fell they had ridden some twenty-five miles altogether-halfway to their goal.

The Dragonships pulled into the southern shore and the legion made camp for the night.

And still a chill wind blew out of Garia, pushing grey clouds overhead.

Again at dawn they rode northwesterly, and when evening fell they had reached the point on the Ironwater chosen by Silverleaf and Aravan weeks past, for here the riverbanks rose up steeply some eight feet or so on either side, and the river itself flowed gently a thousand or so feet wide.

By hooded lanterns and stealth in the night, the first of the Dragonships-a Jutlander craft-drew parallel to the shore and moored at the nearside upjutting bank, and the upper platform was eased out to meet the land, the great wooden screws set to hold it fast to the platform aboard the ship, while at the landward end capped piles were driven through the holes and into the earth to anchor all to the shore. Then a second Dragonship-a Fjordlander- was moored alongside the first, and its upper platform slid out and fixed between, bridging from ship to ship, the heavy wooden screws holding it fast. The third Dragonship-a Jutlander-drew alongside the second, and once again the upper platform was fixed to span across. And so it went into the night, Fjordlanders and Jutlanders alternating craft and plying oars against the gentle flow of the current to anchor a boat-length or so upstream and then pay out the mooring line to ease back and set the ship in place, with Dragonship after Dragonship positioning alongside one another and platform after platform bridging the gaps between.

Long did the Warrows watch, but then Ry

And so, they took to their bedrolls, sleep coming quickly, and none of the Warrows heard the faint knelling deep within the earth, though Volki and his advisors did. They looked at one another and nodded in agreement-it was Utruni signalling indeed.