Into the fire

Tipperton looked up at the Wolfmage and said, "I am glad you are here, for we can use all the help we can get. – You did come to help, neh?"

"I came to find King Blaine and offer him my aid, and perhaps he can use it well, for the ill wind blowing out of Garia and over this host bears the vile taint of foul Modru."

Tipperton's face fell. "Oh lor', just as we suspected."

After a restless night, chill dawn came, the sky yet covered by a dismal grey pall ru

"Mmm?" murmured Ry

Tipperton rose up on his elbows. "The sun. I would see the sun."

Ry

"What's it been, love," asked Tipperton, "twelve, thirteen days under this dreary cast?"

Again Ry

Tip rolled over and sat up. "It's Modru's doing, or so says Dalavar."

"I saw him, you know," said Ry

Tip nodded. "He went to see Blaine."

Now Ry

"I think so," replied Tipperton. "I mean, Beau says Dalavar tangled with Modru in the past. Too, he may have opposed Modru again in the Gwasp. And if that's what it takes, well then, Dalavar should know that foul taint."

A waft of sulfurous air blew across them. Ry

Tipperton laughed and stood. "Speaking of H?l's Crucible, what say after we break fast and take care of the ponies, we ride down the slope to the legion? I mean, I'd like to get a good look at what may become our next battleground. I've not yet been there, you know."

Ry

Down they rode and down, down the center of the mile-wide ramp, and as they descended they let the ponies find the way, for spread out before them was the basin of H?l's Crucible, a stark vision, indeed:

Girdled by steep stone walls a thousand feet high or more, the great barren rift gaped wide. Three-quarters of a mile away to the right stood the shield wall, the stone dark and sheer and plunging into shadowed depths below. To the east at this end of the mighty cleft stood the far side, at this point but ten miles away. Leagues to the left the breech widened, spreading out to a breadth of thirty miles, more or less maintaining that width to the far end of the basin some forty leagues away; there where it widened the floor of the rift plunged down a mile or more, becoming deeper in places all the way to the end; but here nigh the shield wall it narrowed down from thirty miles to ten, its floor but a thousand feet deep. As Beau said, "Lor', it's somewhat like a bottle, and we are caught here in its neck."

Below and leftward, they could see but desolation, the land hot, baked, cracked, with leagues of black stone heaped in shattered piles jagging across the floor in long, jumbled runs. Beyond the black stone, whitish vapors, mayhap steam, surged from holes in the ground, and far to the left yellow gas belched upward from a great crack cleaving across tawny flats. Dark smoke billowed from a conical ash pile nigh the opposite side, and here and there on the ravaged earth pools of black bubbled and oozed, as if the damaged ground itself were raddled with open cankers seeping ebon pus.

"What a hideous place," said Dinly. "No wonder they call it H?l's Crucible."

Down they rode and down, coming at last unto the host standing athwart the long, rough ramp, rubble and scree and barren earth underfoot, the sides left and right pitching down steeply. Continuing on, across the more or less level place they fared among the ranks of the warriors, the War-rows at last emerging beyond. There the slant pitched downward again, and a mile or so downgrade and at the base of the broad, gritty slope was arrayed the foe.

The Warrows reined to a stop and dismounted, and stepped forward to see, and they found themselves next to Gildor and Vanidor, the twin Lian brothers staring down at the ranks of enemy. At hand stood Bekki, the Dwarf glaring down as well.

"Quite a number, eh, Tipperton?" said Vanidor.

"How many do you think there are?" asked Tip.

"Somewhat between sixty thousand and seventy," said Vanidor, "or so we judge."

Gildor and Bekki nodded in agreement.

Ry

"Bah," growled Bekki. "Outnumbered or not, we will defeat them."

"Be not too certain, Lord Bekki," said Gildor, "for they are an arduous foe."

A look of anguish crossed Beau's face, and he said, "Lord Gildor is right, my friend, for our casualties were heavy: there were nearly three thousand slain outright in the strife along the rim, and seven thousand more who were wounded grievously, seven thousand who will not soon see battle again." A tear trickled down Beau's cheek, and Li

Bekki shook his head. "The cowardly enemy did not escape unscathed, for the Chakka threw twelve or thirteen thousand of the foe over the rim last night."

Ry

"Aye," replied Bekki, "by my orders as well as those of DelfLords Volki and Okar and Valk, they were thrown into the rift. Pah, unlike some we have battled in the past, these did not deserve the honor of fire or stone."

"But to cast them over the rim…"

"Fear not, lady, for most were dead by the time they were flung."

Ry

"When will the King offer them surrender terms again?" asked Tip.

As Bekki snorted in disgust, Ry

"Well then, that gives us some time to look over the terrain, just in case-"

Tipperton's words were interrupted by a horn call from below.

"Look!" cried Beau, pointing.

From the fore of the ranks of the enemy, a large party broke away from the main body and advanced onto the slope and up. In the lead strode a Chabbain bearing a grey flag, flanked left and right by more Chabbains, twenty-one warriors in all. In their wake rode some thirty or so horsemen-Kistanians, Hyrinians, Jungarians-with a score of black-robed Fists of Rakka striding upslope behind. Midst them all rode Lord Tain bearing the corpse of his daughter Jolet.

A half mile up the slope they came, to one of the level flats. And there they stopped and planted the grey flag and blew the horn again.

The surrogate had come to parley.

"My Lord King, again I say beware treachery," said DelfLord Bekki, even as he slipped a throwing axe into his belt and took up his war hammer and shield. "There is no honor in their hearts."

"Nevertheless," said King Blaine, buckling on his sword, "we will go to meet them. I had pla

Armed and armored and mounted all, the Corons and DelfLords and Marshals and Captains and Mages and Kings and Chieftains and one Warrow Commander started down the slope, Vanidar Silverleaf at Blaine's right, Hros-marshal Linde to his left and bearing the High King's scar-let-and-gold standard, Dara Arylin dextral of Vanidar and bearing the flag of truce.