The Sworn Knight, Robert Ryan [good beach reads .txt] 📗

tiredness, founda small gully where an overhanging bank gave them shelter from the sun, andalso from prying eyes.

They ate again and rested, and also took turns keeping watchthrough the day. But there was no sign of another living soul. The mule grazedat whiles, and the sound of it was peaceful. It reminded Faran of the livestockat Dromdruin Village, and he slept well.

When the night came again, they were moving once more. Theirluck had been good that no elù-draks had returned, but it could not last. Thefarther they traveled away from the mountain the safer they would be.

It surprised Faran though that they moved to the south andtoward Halathar.

“Are we going to the elves?” he asked.

It was Asana who answered him. “No. But the elves and I havean arrangement. There’s a place where Kubodin or I can leave a message for themif we leave the mountain, as we are, or if there is trouble.”

“Or if they ever wanted to kick us out of our home,” Kubodinadded.

“That they never did,” Asana answered, “nor would they. Butwe were only caretakers there and they knew we would leave eventually. This wasarranged to let them know.”

“They already know something has happened,” Kareste said.“They would have seen the elù-draks likely enough, if from a distance, andmaybe even sensed some of the magics unleashed.”

“But they will not know that we are leaving, or even if we arealive.”

Kareste nodded at that, and some time toward the middle ofthe night they came to a strange area on the plains. Here, a small collectionof trees grew, perhaps some outreach from the great forest that could not bethat far away now. But in the center was a kind of glade.

There was something different here. Some sense of magic, andFaran felt that the air was almost alive. Kareste glanced at him, but saidnothing.

Aranloth had told him about places like this. There wereareas where magic ran strongly in the earth. On such places, rings of standingstones had often been built. Or the people of antiquity had gathered forceremonies.

But there were no standing stones here. There was a singlestone though, half as tall as a man and set deep into the earth. It was whiteand chalky, and Faran got the sense that once it was much larger, but time andweather had worn away at it.

The stone was of no particular shape, but the top of it wasflat, and that appeared to be shaped by tools rather than time.

Asana moved over to the stone, and the others followed. Allexcept Kubodin who held back a little way and kept watch.

“The messages are left with stones,” Asana informed them.“Just simple messages, you understand. Nothing too complex.”

He reached down and picked up some small stones, only aslarge as a pigeon egg, from the ground. These were not white, nor was theirlying about the accident they seemed. They had been left there deliberately,and they were large enough that neither wind nor rain would dislodge them ifleft on the table-like top of the larger stone.

Asana carefully laid some stones out in a pattern of threeslanted lines. They went from right to left, and each was longer than theprevious.

“A drùgluck sign,” Karestewhispered.

“Indeed,” Asana replied. “It will warn the elves that dangeris abroad, and its nature.”

Faran was familiar with the mark. Aranloth had told him muchabout it. It was the mark of evil, and used by elugs and elùgroths as a warningto stay away from a certain place.

“Next,” Asana continued, “a stone to represent NurilFaranar.”

For this, he used a stone larger than the others, and heplaced it dead in the center of the flat surface. The stone must have beenespecially picked for just this purpose. It was rounded on the sides but roseto a flat surface where it had been chipped. It looked like a replica of themountain itself, but no one would be able to guess that or interpret themessage. Only Asana telling them that it was so had let them see it.

After that, he placed two stones at the bottom corner of thesurface. One was larger than the other, and it was pale while the other wasdarker.

“Me and Kubodin,” he indicated. Then he took a stone andmade several scratches radiating out in a circle on the chalky surface.

Faran knew what it was. Agrak. It symbolized a groupof doves taking flight.

“The rune for flee,” he said, and he saw Ferla nodding athis words.

“Exactly so,” Asana confirmed. “It’s a simple message, butthe elves will get the drift of it.”

They left then, but even as they did so Asana picked up arock, the size of his fist, that lay beneath a tree. He moved it to the treebeside it.

Kareste laughed. “You and the Halathrin are certainlycareful enough.”

Faran did not understand. “What was the purpose of that.”

“It’s simple enough,” Asana replied. “If for some reason themessage I left is disturbed, the elves will know at least that one had beenleft. Shifting that stone was a second message.”

“It would also act as a warning,” Kareste added. “If theproper message is obliterated, it would mean, almost certainly, that people didit. And that in itself is a signal to take care and be watchful.”

They left the little glade then, moving out of the trees andback onto the plain. Nothing had changed, nor was there any sign of the enemy.But Kareste waited patiently for some while, casting her gaze everywhere insearch of something out of place before they proceeded.

They only walked another hour or so before finding a hollowin the land, overgrown with a clump of bushes. It was not great cover, and themule was likely visible, at least from the sky, but it was the best they couldfind.

There, they ate another cold meal. Kareste would allow nofires, nor did Faran think it would have been wise to do so. A few cold meals werea small sacrifice to hide from the enemy.

“What now?” Kubodin asked. He sat cross-legged on theground, his axe in his hand and his whetstone rubbing loudly over the alreadysharp blades.

No one answered. But eventually, Ferla stirred. “I know myduty. I must return to Faladir,