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"That's one," I told A
Baron Dieth was almost bubbling over with excitement when I arrived. Xayber's army had simply packed up and left. "They just melted back into the forest," was how Dieth put it. He had been in no hurry to order a pursuit-a wise decision as far as I was concerned. The elflord's soldiers had taken a few villagers with them, presumably as slaves, but most of the local peasants had been safe inside the castle, so losses weren't as serious as they might have been. I told Dieth what we were going to do, in more detail than before. He nodded and suggested a suitable doorway. A
Parthet was sitting at a small table in his bedroom with a platter of food and a pitcher of beer-and he was making them disappear the old-fashioned way, without magic.
"You did a bang-up job at Arrowroot, lad," Parthet said, without slowing down his intake. "If you hadn't come along, I think the elflord would have kept me hanging there until I shriveled up and blew away." His voice sounded a lot stronger, he seemed to be in good spirits, and he didn't even appear to be nearly as stooped over as he had been before. His encounter with the elflord seemed to have actually done him some good.
"I still don't understand all of it, but we can puzzle it out later if we have to," Parthet said. "Don't waste time worrying about me, lad. You get yourself over to Thyme and set up the doorways. I'll be ready to do my bit on this end." He stopped eating long enough to take off his glasses and wave them at me. "You know, these are really marvelous. I'm seeing things I haven't seen in a thousand years."
I smiled. It was a tremendous relief knowing that Parthet was recovering, and not just because I wanted him beside me when we faced the Etevar's army. I told him exactly where I had put both new doorways and where I would put the ones in the east, and then I left him to his meal.
Next I had to face what almost became a mutiny among my "entourage" when I told them that I was going to make the long ride east alone.
"Every extra rider will slow me down that much more, and we don't have any hours to spare if we're going to get our army in place before the Etevar marches into Varay," I told them.
I couldn't see pulling a ride that might turn out like the one in The Three Musketeers with everyone falling by the wayside in one trap after another, leaving only the hero (small h, please) to finish the ride and quest. My promise that they could be the first ones through the doorways didn't help much, but there was a limit to how far they would press the argument. I was the Hero of Varay, after all. The only person who could overrule me was the king, and none of my people thought enough of their chances to make that appeal.
Then there was A
"I'm going with you no matter how many high-and-mighty pronouncements you make," she informed me, and then she made her arguments in a hurry, before I could blow my stack and order her locked in a dungeon or something-and I didn't even know if Castle Basil had a dungeon.
"You try making this crazy ride alone and you're liable to lose the whole kingdom," she shouted-right in my face. "You're going to ride day and night, you said, racing as fast as you can to beat the Etevar. Why, if it wasn't for that number you're swilling, you couldn't even stay upright that long. And what happens if your horse stumbles or steps in a hole? You're in the middle of nowhere without a ride. You won't be able to travel far or fast on foot with that busted rib and that hole in your back, no matter how much painkiller you drink. By the time you find yourself another horse and finish your ride, it's too late. The Dorthini army is inside Varay. They've destroyed the men already waiting for them and it's too late to get the rest of our soldiers in front of them. Ride at night? You're blind in the dark. I'm not. You'll travel faster with me, not slower. And if one horse is injured, we still have a second."
My first reaction was anger. With A
"Then let's eat and get out of here," I said.
Pushing ourselves and our horses for all we were worth, I thought that we might reach that cottage in the orchard near Castle Thyme in thirty hours. Since it was well past noon when we left Basil, that meant sunset the next night, or later. Earlier would be better, but earlier was unlikely, despite the arrangements I had made for either Mother or Parthet to be ready to open the passages before dark. I needed light to complete the passages, and if there wasn't enough light to work by when we arrived, I might have to wait until the next morning when I would have Parthet or Mother waiting to help with the final co
Most of the ride was a blur. A
Fields and forest passed on either side of us. A
We rode through the village of Nushur in the dark. I toyed with the idea of stopping for fresh horses, but decided against it. We probably wouldn't have found very good animals, and waking the place for remounts would have cost us too much time. At least, I was afraid that it would. So we rode on through the night, into morning and a sun that stabbed deeply into our sleepless eyes.
Our horses started stumbling on dust and air. Their pace fell way off. Their chests heaved as they fought for air, sweating, trying to keep up with our demands. Long before noon, it was obvious that we had to give our animals at least a couple of hours to recuperate. If we didn't, A