It was snowing the next day, the second of Yule, and the Warrows spent much of their time before warm fires in the guesthouse, talking with Aravan and gleaning what meager news there was of the war, though now and again Beau and Linnet or Tip and Rynna would slip off to be alone. But the following day, the third of Yule, feeling the need to get back to their duties, they said their good-byes and bundled well against the cold, Lark in particular, they set out for Blackwood again.
Among the great eld trees they went, riding by day, camping by night, heading for the ferry at Olorin Isle. And on the eve of the third day, they reached the west bank of the Argon, where this time it was Baeron crews who rowed them across, the full moon having come the eve before.
It was twelfth Yule, Year's Start Day, the first day of January, the first day of the two thousand one hundred ninety-eighth year of the Second Era of Mithgar when the wedding party rode through the snow to come in among the withy-woven bowers of the holding of the Springwater Warrows, where they were greeted by the grim news that the Spawn had returned to the eastern wold.
It was, as well, the very first day of the fourth year of a great and terrible war.
Chapter 32
"Not only have they returned," said Farly, "but there's something afoot on the wold and in the Rimmens."
"Something afoot?" Rynna glanced at Tip and then back to Farly. "What?"
"Well, they've increased their patrols along the eaves two-or threefold above what they were before they went haring off for Rimmen Gape. -Not bigger patrols, mind you, but just more of them. The same is true of their watch posts along the Rimmen Spur: they've increased the number and have shifted their old ones to new places. In addition to that, they've begun scouring the heights trying to locate ours."
"Oh my," exclaimed Beau, taking Linnet's hand. "Have any been hurt? -Any of our watchers, that is."
"Not so far," replied Farly, "though there's been one or two close calls."
Nix frowned and looked at Rynna. "I wonder what it all means?"
Rynna paused in thought and then said, "Perhaps they do not want a repeat of what happened at Rimmen Gape, their trap being sprung and all."
Slowly, Tip shook his head. "It seems to me that something greater may be afoot, but what it might be I cannot say."
"Who knows the mind of Modru?" muttered Beau.
"All we can do," said Rynna, "is keep a wary watch."
Three days later, Rynna stood at the map table in the ward camp, Warrows gathered 'round. A handful of Pysks stood on the table itself and looked at the map Tip had sketched on a broad sheet of vellum. Rynna looked across at Tynvyr and said, [The news is grim.] Picyn and Tynvyr glanced at one another, their features giving way to dismay.
[Tell us,] said Tynvyr.
Rynna sighed and spoke on: [When the siege of Drim-men-deeve was lifted, Coron Eiron sent heralds across Quadran Pass to find High King Blaine. Though there were many foe along the way, some of the couriers managed to get through-and back as well. This is what they learned:
[In the opening days of the war, Modru's forces swept out from Gron and 'round the northern end of the Rigga Mountains. Down through Rian they came, and assaulted Challerain Keep. It fell in a pitched battle, but not before the balefires were lit. The High King and some of his forces managed to escape, and they fought a series of running skirmishes as they fled south and west.]
Beau stabbed a finger to the map. [Here near Stonehill there were several battles in a set of downs, and it was here Blaine and his forces smashed the foe, for here the High King won. But more Foul Folk marched down through Rian, and still more came from the east, and so the King and survivors went west, past the Bosky and into Wellen beyond.] Beau grinned. [Eiron said the Boskydells themselves are yet safe, for the maggot-folk can't breach the Thornwall ringing it all 'round.]
Rynna's finger traced a route on the map: [The maggot-folk who came at the King from the east had marched through Gruwen Pass and into Drearwood and then west, for Modru hoped to catch the King between this force and the Spawn to the north.]
[These were the ones we saw when we came through Drearwood,] said Beau, looking at Tip.
Tip nodded but did not reply as Rynna continued:
[Still in the north, the maggot-folk took Crestan Pass, and Quadran Pass, and set siege upon Drimmen-deeve.
[Too, they blocked the Gunarring Gap.]
[As we found out,] muttered Beau, looking at the map.
[Is there no end to Modru's vile greed?] asked Phero, stepping across the map to view it from the other side.
[You've not heard the half of it,] said Linnet, gesturing for Rynna to go on.
Rynna jabbed a finger to the map at several points: [Here they set siege upon Mineholt North, and here they occupied Rimmen Gape. And here they set siege on Dendor in Aven, and as Tip and Beau have reported]-her hand swept across the Boreal-[from the sea the Spawn invaded the Steppes of Jord.]
Rynna looked up from the map. [Of course, the sieges of Rimmen Gape and Mineholt North and Drimmen-deeve and the city of Dendor have all been broken, and it seems that the Jordians have the maggot-folk on the run, though that news is old and may have taken a turn for the worse.]
[Yes,] said Tynvyr, [but what of the High King, and what of the Hyrinians and Kistanians and Chabbains?]
Rynna's hand swept south and west. [Eiron's own forces have reported that in the south the Lakh of Hyree were ferried across the Straits of Kistan by the Rovers, and up through Vancha and Tugal they came, ravaging as they went.
[The Kistanians themselves, after burning the ships in the harbors of Arbalin, landed a force in Hoven, though for the most, their ships block the Straits of Kistan.
[And also to the south, across the Avagon Sea came the Chabbains, and they invaded Jugo and Pellar.
[Meanwhile, the Fists of Rakka have revealed themselves once more, and they swept out from Sarain to take Hum and Alban.]
Phero looked up from the map. [Fists of Rakka?]
[A religious sect,] said Rynna. [Put down long past when a woman from Ryodo rallied the oppressed.]
[And this Rakka…?]
[Another name for Gyphon,] replied Tip, [or so the Lian say.]
[Ah,] said Tynvyr. Then she looked back at the map as Rynna continued:
[Together, these four nations-Hyree, Kistan, Chabba, and Sarain-control the Karoo, Khem, Thyra, Hum, Alban, Vancha, Tugal, and parts of Hoven, Jugo, Valon, and Pellar.] As she named them off, Rynna's hand swept 'round the whole of the Avagon Sea.
[Oh my,] said Picyn, [can things be worse?]
[Things are worse,] said Tipperton. [Atala has been destroyed, and the silver sword is lost.]
[That's right,] said Beau. [And Gyphon has invaded the High Plane, and the ways between are sundered-all but the bloodways-yet that seems neither here nor there to Warrows]-he turned to Tynvyr-[although it might to Pysks.]
Tynvyr shook her head. [We fled from our home to Mithgar and will never go back to our own Plane.]
[Oh?] said Linnet.
All five Pysks nodded grimly, but none added more.
Tynvyr turned to Rynna. [Can you answer my other question? What of the High King?]
[He is hard-pressed in the west. Still, the men of Wellen and Dalara and Thol, of Jute and Gothon and Gelen, and the warriors of Fjordland-who've sailed across the Boreal Sea and 'round to the Ryngar Arm to join Blaine in the fight-they all stand fast, in spite of bad blood between nations.]
[Old adversaries unite against a common foe,] said Farly.
[Enemy of my enemy, enemy of mine,] affirmed Nix.
Rynna frowned at this statement but shrugged and then said, [And the High King prepares a great fleet in the harbors of the shipbuilders along the Weston Ocean-]
[A great fleet? What for?] asked Nia, looking at her mate, Kell. He, in turn, looked at Rynna.