Into the fire

"To say nothing of the Ogrus," added Beau.

"Something is afoot," said Nix.

Farly frowned. "What can it be?"

"I du

Beau laughed, and when the others looked at him, said, "Perhaps it's just maggot-folk you're smelling."

Tip gri

"Perhaps it's a way to keep us under control," said Ry

Li

Tip slowly shook his head and said, "I du

Beau frowned in puzzlement. "But the sword was fetched in spite of the Horde, not to say that it isn't lost now. And so why would he keep Foul Folk on this border if it's not to keep the Hidden Ones from joining the High King when the time arrives?"

"Come again?" said Farly. "I got lost somewhere along the way."

Beau sighed. "If the Spawn were here to stop the sword from being fetched but utterly failed, then I ask you this: why are they yet still here?" Farly shrugged, but Beau continued: "The only reason I can think of is to keep the Hidden Ones bottled up."

Ry

"Regardless of why the Spawn are here," said Tipperton, "what are we going to do about the increased patrols and sentry posts?"

No one said aught for long moments, and finally Ry

"I say, why don't we do something to cause them to pull some of their sentries down from the heights?" said Beau.

Ry

"Look, I'm tired of ru

Nix frowned. "How would that help?"

Li

"Aha!" said Nix, gri

Farly nodded and then added, "I say, we could also send word to the Baeron watchers south and the Dylvana watchers north and have them join in making patrols, um, disappear. Perhaps it would clear out the Rjmmen Spur all the faster."

All eyes turned to Ry

"Here they come," whispered Ry

Ry

Past the shoulder of the hill tramped the maggot-folk.

"There's one with a bugle," said Ry

Tipperton nodded. "I see him. I'll try to take him before he can sound his horn."

In that moment 'round the flank rode a Ghul on Helsteed.

"Barn rats," spat Beau. "A Ghul. We'll have to let them pass."

Ry

Two nights later, Tip led his pony toward the eaves of the forest, two slain Rucks draped across the pony's back. Ry

They reached the point of the ambush, and working swiftly, pulled their own arrows from the corpses-thuck! thuck…! -though, heeding Tynvyr's warning, they left the small lethal shafts of the Fox Riders untouched for fear of their fatal barbs.

As Tip and Beau lifted a dead Ruck up onto the back of a skittish pony now steadied by Ry

Again they returned to Blackwood, and again they shoved the corpses from the ponies to land with sodden thuds next to the others felled that night, Ry

They made one last trip back to the wold to see that all evidence of the ambush was gone, and when they returned to Blackwood, the arms and helms and bodies of the maggot-folk were no longer where they had been cast.

Over the next ten weeks, seven Rucken patrols were made to vanish in this sector alone, the Warrows and Pysks waylaying them and haling their corpses into Blackwood, where the Spawn no longer came.

Yet there were also ambushes which they abandoned, for a Troll or Ghul fared among the Spawn patrol, and these foe they shu

Too, in the Greatwood to the south and Darda Erynian to the north, Baeron and Dylvana also waylaid patrols.

By mid-June as maggot-folk were pulled from the sentry posts to augment the vigilance along the eastern wold, Ruptish watchers became sparse along the Rimmen Spur, and Spaunen squads roved the ridges but sporadically, though Ogrus continued to wander along the high slopes and snuffle the air for spies. And so the patrols along the fringes of Darda Erynian and Darda Stor were strengthened, doubling and tripling in size, though the maggot-folk yielded even wider berth to these shadowy woods.

And although the Warrows and Pysks needed to exercise great caution when faring across the wold and in the heights above, still everything was going according to plan.

Summerday came-the summer solstice-and Fox Riders and Warrows alike celebrated together, unlike the ceremonies of the equinoxes, where the Pysks were guided by the moon rather than the sun.

For Pysks dedicated spring and fall to Elwydd, and they celebrated by Her light, holding their rites on the night of the full moon nearest each equinox.

But Summerday and Winterday were dedicated to Adon and the sun, and so the Pysks celebrated the solstices along with other Mithgarian folk…

… and now Summerday had come.

And it was on this day as well that the ground grumbled with a glad message sent from the aggregate of Eio Wa Suk nigh Bircehyll in the north: Crestan Pass had been freed at last, the Foul Folk driven away. Baeron and Dyl-vana were returning to Darda Erynian for a temporary rest, for war yet burned upon Mithgar, and their arms were needed elsewhere. Even so, even though they would yet be marching to war, still it was glad news indeed.