Into the fire

Beau stabbed a finger to the map. [Here near Stonehill there were several battles in a set of downs, and it was here Blaine and his forces smashed the foe, for here the High King won. But more Foul Folk marched down through Rian, and still more came from the east, and so the King and survivors went west, past the Bosky and into Wellen beyond.] Beau gri

Ry

[These were the ones we saw when we came through Drearwood,] said Beau, looking at Tip.

Tip nodded but did not reply as Ry

[Still in the north, the maggot-folk took Crestan Pass, and Quadran Pass, and set siege upon Drimmen-deeve.

[Too, they blocked the Gunarring Gap.]

[As we found out,] muttered Beau, looking at the map.

[Is there no end to Modru's vile greed?] asked Phero, stepping across the map to view it from the other side.

[You've not heard the half of it,] said Li

Ry

Ry

[Yes,] said Tynvyr, [but what of the High King, and what of the Hyrinians and Kistanians and Chabbains?]

Ry

[The Kistanians themselves, after burning the ships in the harbors of Arbalin, landed a force in Hoven, though for the most, their ships block the Straits of Kistan.

[And also to the south, across the Avagon Sea came the Chabbains, and they invaded Jugo and Pellar.

[Meanwhile, the Fists of Rakka have revealed themselves once more, and they swept out from Sarain to take Hum and Alban.]

Phero looked up from the map. [Fists of Rakka?]

[A religious sect,] said Ry

[And this Rakka…?]

[Another name for Gyphon,] replied Tip, [or so the Lian say.]

[Ah,] said Tynvyr. Then she looked back at the map as Ry

[Together, these four nations-Hyree, Kistan, Chabba, and Sarain-control the Karoo, Khem, Thyra, Hum, Alban, Vancha, Tugal, and parts of Hoven, Jugo, Valon, and Pellar.] As she named them off, Ry

[Oh my,] said Picyn, [can things be worse?]

[Things are worse,] said Tipperton. [Atala has been destroyed, and the silver sword is lost.]

[That's right,] said Beau. [And Gyphon has invaded the High Plane, and the ways between are sundered-all but the bloodways-yet that seems neither here nor there to Warrows]-he turned to Tynvyr-[although it might to Pysks.]

Tynvyr shook her head. [We fled from our home to Mithgar and will never go back to our own Plane.]

[Oh?] said Li

All five Pysks nodded grimly, but none added more.

Tynvyr turned to Ry

[He is hard-pressed in the west. Still, the men of Wellen and Dalara and Thol, of Jute and Gothon and Gelen, and the warriors of Fjordland-who've sailed across the Boreal Sea and 'round to the Ryngar Arm to join Blaine in the fight-they all stand fast, in spite of bad blood between nations.]

[Old adversaries unite against a common foe,] said Farly.

[Enemy of my enemy, enemy of mine,] affirmed Nix.

Ry

[A great fleet? What for?] asked Nia, looking at her mate, Kell. He, in turn, looked at Ry

Ry

[If and when he does,] said Nix, [that's the time we War-rows need to rally to his ba

[As well as to the Rucks and Hloks,] added Farly.

Her voice aquaver, Li

[And Gargons,] Ry

Recalling Quadran Pass and Dael, Tip looked 'round at the others and quietly said, [And perhaps a Dragon or two.]

Awed by the enormity of the task, they fell silent a moment, until Beau asked, [And after we've done them all in, then what?]

"Uh oh," whispered Tip, "I think he's got our scent."

Downslope, a horrid being stood among the crags: twelve feet tall, like a giant Ruck, it seemed, but massive and brutish and with a green-scaled skin. But no Ruck was this; instead it was an Ogru, and it snuffled the air, as if to catch the scent of a quarry. And now its glare seemed locked upon the heights above, where lay Tipperton and Beau.

"We've got to get out of here," hissed Tip.

"What about the Rucks?" whispered Beau, pointing rightward, where was sited a maggot-folk sentry post on the ridge crest some two furlongs away.

Still the Troll snuffled the air drifting down from the heights.

"We can only hope they don't spot us," said Tip, glancing up at the February moon, full in the sky above.

The Ogru began climbing up among the crags.

"Let's go," breathed Tip, and down the back slope of the ridge they crept, down toward their ponies waiting in the shadows below.

And then a horn blatted.

"Oh lor', they've seen us," groaned Beau.

"Run!" barked Tip, and through the snow they fled, whiteness boiling in a wake behind.

Again the horn blatted, but its blare was chopped short in midcry.

"Tynvyr," grunted Beau, floundering downward, "or Picyn. Should we stop and help?"

"No," called Tip, scrambling. "Foxes can outrun an Ogru, but we afoot ca

And down they fled through cascading snow, to come to their ponies at last. Leaping astride-"Hai!"-away they flew, racing along the snow-laden valley and toward the Greatwood ahead. And as they dashed away, among the crags behind, the Ogru topped the ridge and bellowed in rage and frustration and raved at the winter sky.

March came and with it Springday, and lo! winter began to fade as it had always faded in years past. And folk faced into the warming winds and looked at the sky in wonder, for ever since the detonation of Karak and the destruction of Atala a chill grasp had fallen over all of the seasons… but now it seemed as if that grip had begun to loosen at last.

"Perhaps it's an omen," said Beau.

"Omen?" asked Li

"That a tide has begun to turn somewhere," replied the buccan.

"Oh, I do hope so," replied Li

"It is becoming too dangerous for us to watch from the Rimmen Spur," said Ry