Another three weeks passed, Beau now gaining flesh, and every day he grew stronger.
Anxious to follow Tipperton, Beau marched into the chief healer's office nigh the prison door. Sitting at the desk within was Halga, leader of the healers ever since Bragan had died of the plague. She looked up from her work as Beau came purposefully in. "I'm fit to travel," he pronounced.
"No you are not," declared Halga.
"I am, too."
"Nay, wee one. Shall I demonstrate?"
Beau groaned. "Look, Lady Halga, just because I need to sit down and rest when I get to the top of the stairs, that doesn't mean-"
"Oh, but it does, Sir Beau. Tell me: what would you advise a like patient who happened to be in your care?"
"Why, I'd tell him to go and do whatever he-"
Halga squatted and looked into Beau's eyes.
"-urn, er, that is-" Beau couldn't meet her gaze, and finally he said, "All right. You win. But just as soon as I can top those stairs without stopping to rest, then I'm going, permission or not."
"Beau, even now you need no one's permission to get up and go. Yet heed: if you do go now, then there is every chance you will become a liability along the way and never reach the end."
Beau sighed and nodded, and Halga said, "Another week or so, and then we'll see."
During the week, Beau helped the other healers tend a handful of patients much in the same shape as he, the few who had been drawn back from death's door. All other living victims of the plague had recovered wholly, had been discharged, and the sequestrated surrounding buildings had been given back over to their original purposes.
Those patients left had been moved to the lower quarters of the prison. And the prison itself had once again become a jail, though the inmates were few, most having marched off to war; now in the cells were new-caught felons waiting for the king's steward to pass judgement on them.
In any event, Beau tended a few patients, and every day practiced walking the stairs, getting stronger with each pass up and down.
On the sixth day after confronting Halga, there came a bustle at the front gate, and a guard was assigned to escort a tall person into the lower halls.
Beau was summoned.
As he stepped into the chamber, Beau saw a man, an Elf, nay, a Mage. Tall he was with brown eyes and auburn hair and dressed in a brown robe. He seemed to be youthful, though with Mages one could never tell.
The Mage scowled at the buccan. "So you are Sir Beau Darby, the Litenfolk who found the cure for the plague?"
At Beau's nod, the Mage smiled and sat down and gestured toward a second chair. "I am Farrin, late of Black Mountain."
"I've heard of you, Mage Farrin," said Beau, climbing into the seat.
At Farrin's raised eyebrows, Beau added, "From Mage Imongar and the others. You were part of their circle of seven, or so Tip did say, though you were off looking for Stone Giants to get them to side with us. Did you find them and will they join in the battle against Modru and his ilk?"
A brooding look came over Farrin's features. "Aye, find them I did. But as for siding with us, the chances of that are slim."
"You must tell me all about it, for Tip will want to know."
"The other Waerling? The one who went off with the king?"
Beau nodded. "Yes, and I hope to catch up with him soon and join with- Oh my." A look of dismay crossed Beau's features.
"What is it?" asked Farrin, glancing 'round. Finding nothing to note alarm, he turned back to the Warrow.
Beau looked up at the Mage. "Dara Rael's rede."
"Rede?"
"Aye. 'Seek the aid of those not men to quench the fires of war.' That's what she said, there in Arden Vale, when she looked in the crystal, though at the time she said it, she spoke in the Elven tongue; Dara Faeon rendered it into Common."
Farrin canted his head. "For whom was the rede intended?"
"That's just it," said Beau. "We don't know. A number of Elves were in the room at the time, along with two ragtag Warrows-Tip and me-and Rael said it could be meant for any one of us."
Farrin nodded, then said, "And what does this have to do with your dismay?"
"Well, you see, if the rede is indeed meant for either Tip or me-though I don't think it likely-then Tip has gone off with King Agron, you see, and his entire army, and I am soon to follow."
Farrin turned up a hand. "And…?"
"And they're all men," replied Beau.
"Ah," said Farrin, nodding. "And the rede says to seek the aid of those not men. I see your concern. Of course, that assumes the rede was not meant for the Elves but for you or him or both."
Beau sighed, and he faintly smiled up at the Mage. "Not likely, eh?"
Farrin turned up both hands. "With wild magic, one can never say."
Silence fell between them, but finally Beau asked, "Do you think he is in any danger?"
"Who?"
"Tip."
"Why would you say that?"
"Well if he's with men instead of not-men…" Beau looked at Farrin and shrugged.
"He was with men at the battle of Dendor, wasn't he?"
Beau nodded, then said, "Yes, but with Mages, too. And aren't you not-men? Uh, er, I mean, well, that is- Oh, barn rats, you know what I mean."
Farrin laughed. "Yes, Sir Beau, we Mages indeed are not men but another race altogether. Yet, hear me: I would think Sir Tipperton is in no more danger than anyone else marching with an army into the wastes of Gron, even though there are no not-men from whom he can seek aid."
Before Beau could answer, a gong sounded. At Farrin's raised eyebrow, Beau said, "Dinner. Would you join me? You can tell me all about the Stone Giants."
As they stood and stepped from the room and strolled down the hall, Farrin said, "Well, there's not that much to tell. I found them under the Grimwall north of the Skog-"
"The most ancient forest?"
"Aye, though how did you- Oh, the Elves?"
Beau nodded. "Phais and Loric spoke of it. But what about the Stone Giants?"
"They spoke in a tongue most peculiar, like rocks sliding over one another. I managed to teach three or four of the younger ones an old form of Common. When I explained to them why I had come, and they in turn told the elders, well, the elders replied that they wanted no part of a war among surface dwellers."
"Surface dwellers?"
"Aye, that's what they call those of us who live on the land and not within it."
"What about the Dwarves? They are in this fight, and although they live on the land, they live in it as well."
Farrin smiled. "The very point I made to them, Beau. Yet though they admire the work of the Dwarves and revile that of the Rupt, still the elders refused. On the other hand, a few of the younger ones seemed somewhat reluctant to say yea or nay."
"Did you tell 'em about Gyphon and what it might mean should he be victorious?"
"I did. Even so, they were not swayed."
"Hmm," mused Beau, and he turned from the hallway and entered a common room, Farrin coming after. Taking up trenchers and knives and spoons from a side stand and taking up earthenware mugs as well, they filled their plates from an array of food on a central table and filled their cups with tea. As they moved to a bench and settled in to eat, Beau asked, "What do they look like? -The Stone Giants, I mean."
"Tall. Some even taller than Trolls. Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen feet and more they stand. And they have gemstones for eyes."