44,185 / 42,502

Well... this is going better than I thought. Or rather, more easily. I'm actually a little ahead of my writing with my plotting. It makes things a lot easier if, when you sit down, you actually have a place to get to. heh.

Birili said, slowly, musing, "Mazya? I was wondering something." Mazya nodded encouragement, and she went on, "Everything you've told us about the dragon, about Steleduil, indicates that he knows what he's doing. He seems to have chosen each of us for a reason, and sometimes I can even guess what those reasons might be. But if that's the case, then what was his reason for choosing people who all live on the west side of Elegar? Wouldn't it have been more efficient to have chosen Talons with the same strengths on the east side of the country, closer to the Divide?"

She was a most intelligent young woman. Mazya said, "I wish I could answer that. But I cannot. I do, however, have a guess."

Geram grouched, "I'd like to hear it."

"I think, perhaps, a long and maybe hazardous trip will bring our individual strengths to a peak unknown in our lives before. Also, we all need to discover our talismans, bond with them, and impart our spirits into them, and Steleduil may be forcing us to take the time to do so."

"I already know what mine is." This, unexpectedly, came in the high, piping voice of Arnal. "Look. My mother gave me this. She said it would protect me." The others gathered around her, admiring whatever the object was. Then Mazya caught the green-grass farmyard scent of the girl as she came to sit beside her. Carefully, Arnal took one of Mazya's hands, then pressed a cool metal object into the palm. Mazya moved the fingers of her other hand over it. "A medallion. Gold, isn't it? If so, you had better keep it hidden in some of the places we will go. What is the design?"

"Mother says it is an ancient god who once watched over farmers."

"Kafur," said Mazya and Birili together. Birili laughed.

Arnal said, "Mother says no one worships him anymore, but that gods don't die, so she hopes he – Kafur," she added with a smile in her voice, "will bring me back to the farm again, safe and sound."

Mazya released the medallion and stroked the girl's soft hair. "I'm sure he will. That is an excellent talisman, Arnal."

A long silence followed this, perhaps because the others were wondering about their own talismans. Mazya herself knew what her talisman was. He lay by her side, his head on her thigh. Lithi. When the time came, and the sacrifice had to be made, he had insisted that he would accompany her. None of her protestations had convinced him otherwise. He was determined, and after a few days on the road, speaking to him as the donkey plodded quietly on, she realized what his stubborn insistence meant. When she asked him, he said, yes, of course he was her talisman. What else would it be?

So she had to accept that when she ended her life, she would also end his. Lithi himself was unconcerned. As all animals knew, he informed her, death was just a part of life, parted from them all only by a sheer curtain.

"Not that I am complaining, mind you," Wilia said cheerfully, "but wouldn't it have been better to have picked up Lady Harali before me? That would have been more efficient. We are doubling back over all the days of our trip to Ironhall."

Niam was irritated, not just with the woman, but with everything at the moment, including the long delay. "We could have, if I had known where to look. Which I did not. But you should be grateful. If we had, you'd be missing your right hand."

"I said I wasn't complaining. I was just wondering."

Tenni said, "Other than saving that appendage, my lord, did the dragon give any reason why we have to go traipsing back across the entire island? Or why, in addition, we don't simply go north and pick up the King's Road instead of wending our way through endless farmland?"

Lur snorted. "Oh, yeah, the King's Road. We'd have a great time trying to explain what the five of us are doing, if we met any suspicious soldiers. Or even bored ones. Which are most of them."

"I never liked soldiers," Wilia agreed. "Boorish and arrogant, most of them."

Niam waited until the bantering was over and they all realized he had something to say. They fell silent after a moment, and he let his horse skirt a rough patch of ground before continuing. "As to why we are not taking the King's Road, that is because the Black Talons are not taking it. I don't know why they are going by the eastern route, but perhaps they, like us, wish to avoid any delays and questions which they can't really answer."

Tenni said, "We could all tell the truth." He chuckled. "And they would lock us up for lunatics. Or worse."

"Exactly. And that's true for them even more than for us. Besides, I want to catch up with them as soon as we can. I don't want to have only one chance, at the path in the Divide, to stop the Black Talons. I never cast all my dice in a single throw. Whatever their reason for going this way, we are going to get ahead of them here, before we even reach the Drifals, and eliminate or at least delay them."

Wilia said, "That doesn't explain why you went to Yulrena first, and then had to take us back to Ironhall."

"That was the path Nathduil dictated. I haven't been told the reason for it, although I can speculate. I suspect that either the dragon wanted us to be in the same location, at the same time, as the Black Talons, or that he wants to give us as much time as possible to find our talismans and bind them to us. Or both of those could be right. Or neither."

Tenni said, "The talisman is a thing I have never understood. How are we to bind ourselves to something inanimate?"

"It might not be inanimate. The talisman can be anything, Master Tenni. But the more it means to us, the more powerful it becomes. You bind yourself to it by caring about it. The closer your bond to it, the stronger your spirit is within it, and the more power it gives to Nathduil."

His scout was returning, cantering easily toward them. Good news, then. He halted his horse and held up a hand to stop the others. He lifted his voice. "Find something, Galth?"

The man reined in sharply before him. "Yes, sir. About two miles east of Amfeni, the road passes through a strip of dense woods. Just before it emerges, it rises up a hill."

"Perfect. How is the traffic on the road?"

"Light, but it would be good to put a man to hold up traffic between Amfeni and the woods until we are finished."

"Good idea. Tenni, can you manage that? A lame horse, perhaps?"

"Do you have any caltrops?"

"I'm sure one of my men does. Why?"

Without being asked, his lieutenant edged his horse forward, reached into his saddlebag, and pulled out a sack. "There's a dozen of them here, Master Tenni."

Tenni accepted them with a nod. "You are always to be depended on, Lt. Deri." To Niam, he said, "The plan is, I will scatter these all over the road. Then we'll have good reason to stop everyone. Before letting anyone through, we must, after all, search for the caltrops and be sure we have them all, so that no merchant's horses or oxen can possibly be lamed."

Niam grinned. His mood was lightening. "You're brilliant. Yes, do that. I can't tell you what the Talons will look like, but I don't think you will have trouble identifying them. There will be at least five, probably only five, and as a group they will look as out of place and odd as we do. I'm sure I don't have to tell you to let them through and hold everyone else until you hear from me." He settled his horse, which had shifted, sensing his eagerness. "Harali, you're with me. Wilia, Lur, go with Tenni. I'm sure you can make the hoax convincing."

As they rode off, Tenni was saying to the others, "You can pose as my clerk and my... mother."

"Sister!" insisted Wilia.

Still smiling, Niam gestured his men forward and followed Galth to the ambush point.

The site was so perfect for an ambush that the town of Amfeni had placed a watch there, but Galth had already dealt with that man, leaving him bound and gagged within his shack. Niam sat looking down the slope, his horse rock-steady now, as he had been trained. A simple charge would do it, he saw. Impetus alone would give them an advantage, and between that and surprise, he needed nothing more complicated. He positioned two men at the bottom, hidden amongst the trees, to prevent anyone from escaping into the woods. Then, with the rest of his men, he waited.

They didn't have long to wait. Within minutes, Harali said, "I hear voices."

And there they were, coming at a walk along the road, their horses held to the slower gait of a donkey bearing an old woman. Only two possible fighters were amongst them, an armed and armored woman and the only man. Niam said quietly to his men, "Spare the women and children. Kill the man and the soldier." At least one of the Talons would die, that way, if not two. He would figure out later what to do about the others, but he did not make war on innocents.

Lt. Deri nodded his understanding. At Niam's signal, all six men drew their swords and plunged out into the road and down the hill in unison. Harali said, "They're well trained."

"I trained them myself."

And then the pain hit. It was like his head was splitting open and fire was searing his exposed brain. With a cry, he doubled over his horse's withers.

DO NOT HARM THE TALONS, roared the dragon's voice, reverberating and creating ripples of intensified pain.

His stomach heaved, but he got it under control. Harali was bent over him, concerned. He waved her away, gasping an order. "Call them back. Get them back here, now. Quickly! Don't let any of those people be harmed!"

Harali did not question him or wonder at his sudden reverse. She jerked upright, rose in her stirrups, drew her sword in the same movement and held it high, and bellowed at the top of her lungs. "HALT! Halt the attack! Your lord orders it! Retreat! Retreat at once, all!"

Niam swayed, gripped his horse's mane, and pulled himself erect enough to see if his men were obeying. They had already engaged the group – he had heard the clash of steel on shield – but Lt. Deri was pulling them back smartly, in good order. Although the male Talon was unhorsed, he was on his feet, standing before the women and children, weaponless, as if he could have stopped the men-at-arms with just his body. The soldier, her horse edging sideways between her legs as she turned her shielded side to his men, had her sword raised and ready, but she was already relaxing, wisely choosing not to pursue their attackers.

The pain was almost gone now. He sat up and rubbed his face with both hands. Harali said, "What happened?"

"We apparently aren't allowed to harm them."

Again, she didn't question him. "There are many things we can do instead, without actually harming them," she said.

Her grim pronouncement made him feel better as his men circled them. "Our plans must change," he told them. "I can't explain why, but we will not be making a direct attack on this party after all. Galth, go to Master Tenni and tell him what has occurred." He wheeled his horse, and, followed by the rest, he cantered east along the road, away from the Black Talons, seething with frustration and anger.

~:~:~:~:~:~:~

Tenni, Lur, and Wilia joined them in the next town, at the only inn, a dismal place fancifully named The Dancing Frog. The inn was so small that Niam had to evict every other guest just to house their group, even with his men being bedded in the common room.

They met in his room, which was the only one that had a table. The table was scarred and chipped, and one of its legs was shorter than the others, making it wobble until Wilia had Lur shove a towel under it – or rather, the piece of cloth meant to be used for a towel, which Niam would never have put to his face. But at least the table held ale and tankards for them all. Niam desperately needed a drink, not for the alcohol, but because the head pain had left his mouth dry and his throat raw.

Wilia poured for all of them, patting him on the shoulder as she passed him. "You look pale, my lord. Just sit and let me do the honors."

He had to smile at her absurdity, but he let her have her way. When they were all settled, he said, "The dragon Nathduil has informed me that we are not allowed to harm the Black Talons. He did not tell me why, but there was no mistaking the command."

Tenni said, "Don't tell me the dragons have some sense of fair play. A fair fight for 200 years of freedom? I don't think so!"

"I somehow doubt it."

"Maybe," Lur said thoughtfully, "the Talons who don't get killed are made even stronger by seeing their friends die."

"That's a distinct possibility." He was continually surprised by the boy's wisdom.

"And maybe," Harali said, "they can be replaced by Talons who can then carry the talismans of both living and dead Black Talons."

He nodded. Another possibility, definitely.

Tenni added, "Or perhaps, during one of the battles, the two sets of Talons killed each other off, or killed off enough of each other that they were all weakened, and the dragons found themselves on their own, without the power we will give them."

Wilia poked him playfully with the blunt end of one of her knitting needles. "That comes very close to that idea of fair play you were scoffing at only a minute ago."

He brushed at his sleeve where she'd touched him. "There's a difference between fair play as an ethic and balanced power as a tactic."

"Whatever the reason – and it could be any or all of those," Niam broke in, "we will not be able to stop or delay the Black Talons by any form of violence. I am open to any other suggestions."

Tenni said, "What about a writ of arrest?"

They all stared at him, first in astonishment, then in admiration. Niam said, "You have a way to accomplish such a thing?"