The elder trembled, and looked on the others, and on Merir. Lellin wept, and Sezar, the both of them bowed to the floor; and two by two their brother arrhendimjoined them.
"We have heard truth," Merir said. "I think we have heard the truth my grandson was quicker to hear."
The elder nodded, his hands trembling so that the staff rattled against the floor. He looked at all the arrhaabout him. There was none to say otherwise.
"Do as you will," he said then to Morgaine. "Pass. We will seal Nehmin behind you."
Morgaine let go a long slow breath, and bowed her head. After a moment she gathered Changelingto her side and hooked it there, drew it to her shoulder. "We have a number of Shiua to clear from our path to Azeroth. The enemy, my lords of the arrha,is still advancing from the river. What will you do about it?"
There was long silence. "We must hold, this place and Nehmin. Nehmin is surrounded. The enemy has already taken all the area. We can speak to the arrhawho hold Nehmin itself; and within the hold of Nehmin, they can work what you ask. You may ride from here. We can give you seven days to reach Azeroth and pass; and then we may kill the power."
"You would fall. Shathan would be utterly open to the Shiua horde."
"We fought the sirrindim,"said Merir. "The arrhendwill drive these invaders back too."
Morgaine stared at them, one after another, scanning all the company. And at last she folded her arms and looked at the floor, glanced up at Vanye. He tried to say nothing with his expression. She turned last to Merir. "Will you take my help? I would not leave you with such a gift as waits out there. Aye, Vanye and I could slip past, go another route reach Azeroth in seven days. But what sits out there is-mine. I do not want to leave you to that."
The elder approached her slowly, leaning on his staff. He bowed, deeply, and gazed at her when he straightened, like a man looking into the Gates themselves. "There have been many passages for you."
"Yes, elder. I am older than you."
"Much so, I suspect." The frail hand reached, touched Vanye's arm, and the dim gray eyes turned to his. "Khemeisto such an arrhenWe sorrow for both of you. For both of you." He looked at Lellin, and bowed, and to Sezar and the other arrhendim;and lastly at Merir and Morgaine once more. "You are experienced in wars. We are not. We need you. If you are willing, we need you."
"This, at least, must be on my terms. We consult together."
"We accept that," said Merir.
"You say that you can signal those who now hold Nehmin. Bid them expect us, and soon. You shall hold here, as you can; and they must hold Nehmin until we can reach them. My lord Merir-" she nodded to him to join her, and started to the door, unsteady suddenly; at her side, Vanye felt her lean against him, and took her arm, lending his strength. The sword took, of body and soul; he bad held it, and knew the pain of it "Roh," she said suddenly, distractedly. "Where is Roh?"
He had that worry on him too; there were too many things random, too much slipping their grasp.
But Roh waited outside, a huddled figure at the base of the third standing stone, arms tucked about him. He saw them coming, and rose, torment in his eyes.
"They let you go," he said. "They let you go."
"They agreed," Morgaine said, "to seal Nehmin themselves. That was their choice."
The look went stricken, dazed; they walked past, and Roh followed after.
Chapter Sixteen
They found the horses still safely in the clearing, with some of the arrhawatching over them-your qhal,male and female, dressed in white, with faces which still were innocent of what had passed in the dome. The arrhaoffered neither courtesy nor resistance, but backed from them in seeming distress as they came close-perhaps there was a mark on all of them, Vanye thought, for there was a grimness about the arrhendim,the same fey desperation which had troubled him in Lellin and Sezar: he understood now that bleak, lost manner that of men who had seen the limits of their world.
And of all the arrhend,it rested most heavily on Merir.
"My lord," said Morgaine to him. "The arrhendimmust be brought here. If we are to save this place-they must be brought. Can you do it?"
The old lord nodded, turned, the reins of the white horse in his hand, and stared in the direction of the river. Even through the trees the roar of many voices could be heard, shouts raised; the horde was on the march.
"I would see this thing," Merir said.
It was madness. But not even Morgaine opposed it "Aye," she said. "Lellin, Sezar?"
"The hill is still ours," Lellin said. "Or was, lately."
Arrhastood sentinel in the woods, and farther on, in the meadow. "Do not stay here when they come," Morgaine said to the last. "You will only lose your lives. Take shelter with our elders."
They bowed, after their silent fashion. Perhaps they would heed and perhaps not. There was no dispute with men who did not speak.
There rose their own goal, the stony hill at the side of the meadow, and the trail which wound among the trees. The shouts of the horde sounded very near to this place, hardly beyond the screen of trees at the far side of the hill.
They climbed the height on horseback, and rode farther, Morgaine guiding them among the trees which crowned that slope and far to the other side. Rocks were frequent here, a tumbled basalt mass which became a naked promontory, highest of all points hereabouts.
Here Morgaine drew rein and slid down, leaving Siptah to stand. The rest dismounted and tied their horses among the aged trees, and followed her.
Vanye looked back; the last of them rode in, Roh, who left his horse too, and came. Roh might have fled. Do so,Vanye wished him with part of his heart; but that which loved the man knew why he had stayed, and what he sought, that was his soul.
But he did not wait for Roh; what battle Roh fought was his own, and he feared to intervene in it. He turned instead and followed after Sharrn and Dev, up among the rocks.
The hill gave them view across the open meadow, higher than it had seemed, for it overtopped most of the trees at this one point, which upthrust broken fingers of stone. Slabs stood like standing stones on this crest, no work of qhal,but of nature. Morgaine and Merir stood between two of them, sheltered there, with the others of their company.
Vanye moved up carefully past Dev to the very brink next Morgaine, and gained a view which spanned the river and showed far across into the harilim'swoods, so subtly did the ground hereabouts slope. Trees extended into gray-green haze on all sides of this place, on this side of the river and the other, and even part of the curve of a clearing was visible.
And nearer ugliness moved. It was as Lellin had said, like a new forest grown upon the shores of the Nara, a surging mass bristling with metal-tipped pikes and lances of wood, dark and foul. Occasionally there showed a small khalurband, conspicuous in the sunlight glancing off their armor most of those were horsemen. The horde filled all the shore and surged up the throat of the low place that led to the meadow, moving steadily and in no haste. Their voices roared as if from a common throat.