I am certain that I will come to dread this day and chastise myself for agreeing to let you leave," Brynn said to Juraviel and Cazzira.
J* - The three were back in To-gai, far to the north, at the southern entrance to the Path of Starless Night in the foothills of the Belt-and- Buckle. Behind them, Agradeleous stretched his great leathery wings and roared repeatedly into the winter wind.
"It was not your decision to make," Juraviel replied. ?Nor one that you could have changed, if you sought to."
"If I begged Belli'mar Juraviel to help me, he would not?" Brynn asked, batting her eyes and putting on a purely wounded tone, almost sounding like the lost little girl who had first arrived at Andur'Blough Inninness.
All three shared a laugh at that.
"He would indeed," said Cazzira. ?Belli'mar Juraviel has a reputation among his own people, he tells me, that he is more fond of n'Touel'alfar than of Touel'alfar, and it is a reputation that he has truly earned!"
"Only if you consider Doc'alfar as n'Touel'alfarl" Juraviel shot back, adding in a wink at his lover and friend, and the three laughed all the louder.
But that mirth couldn't hold, for the reality was that these three were say-ing good-bye. Juraviel and Cazzira were abandoning Brynn and her quest for their own, which seemed much more pressing to their respective peo-ples now that Brynn's campaign was in full swing. The reality was that it seemed quite plausible that Brynn Dharielle would never see Belli'mar Ju-raviel again.
They both knew it, but neither spoke that possibility aloud. Instead, they snared a good meal and told many, many tales, mostly Juraviel and Brynn re-counting to Cazzira some of their adventures together back in Andur'Blough Inninness, like the time Brynn had lured a deer with a sweet plant, that she could pass the challenge of touching the animal - turning what should have been a test of her stealth and understanding of her surroundings into a of her charm. How many tales Juraviel had to recount of Brynn frustrar' him and the other Touel'alfar, circumventing their plans while reach' every goal they had set out for her!
Late that afternoon, with daylight beginning to wane, they shared so hugs and some tears, some hopeful words about a reunion, and some ass ances to each other that they would all succeed.
And then the two el walked into the deeper darkness of the Path of Starless Night, and sudden!
Brynn Dharielle felt very much alone.
She hugged herself against the cold winter wind and reminded herself that Pagonel was back to the south, at the Mountains of Fire and the Walk of Clouds, waiting for her. Still, she stared into the black hole of the tunnel feeling lonely and empty and fearful.
Behind her, Agradeleous roared.
"Are we to fly all the way back to the south this night?" the dragon asked some time later, with Brynn still standing there, staring into the tunnel.
She was no longer thinking of the two elves, though. Rather, she was formulating her continuing plans. The previous night, the last leg of the journey that had brought them up there, they had spotted several large en-campments of the Behrenese army, still floundering about the To-gai steppes. Brynn was glad that the winter had caught the Behrenese still in To-gai, confident that the vicious weather would erode their morale, possi-bly even their numbers. She was thinking that she should find some way to keep the soldiers there, in misery, and perhaps even lure more in.
She glanced back at Agradeleous. ?No," she answered. ?My army is at rest and needs us not at all. Perhaps you and I should find some fun in lo-gai.
The dragon looked at her curiously. ?Fun?"
"You have wanted your fights, Agradeleous - more than I have allowed you, certainly. Perhaps it is time for you to have those fights."
The dragon's lips curled eagerly and a low growl escaped his lips, along with a trickling line of smoke.
"Let us go down this night, and however many it takes, for us to learn as much as we can about the situation in To-gai, that we might find ways to strike hard at our enemies."
The dragon's wicked grin receded more than a little. ?Months of gather-ing information?" he asked, seeming none too pleased.
"Days," Brynn assured him. ?Only days. I desire battle as much as you. There is an enemy army within my country, likely making life miserable for my kinfolk."
"We will chase them away!" Agradeleous roared.
"No," Brynn corrected. ?We will make them miserable and strike at their flanks, but above all else, we will keep them here."
in came that curious look, but Brynn gave a sincere smile in response, }>e plan was aiready taking definite shape in her mind.
o tj ,nn kept the dragon aloft for as long as she could stand the cold wind first night and the next, mapping out the deployment of the Behrenese They had several encampments, and it was obvious that the army using a number of the settlements in the region for their bivouac, as, they weren't as far west as they had been when Brynn had previ lv encountered them, and she was guessing that her To-gai forces had ken them on a chase out to the north and west, but that they had, for some reason, turned back.
I\Tor were the encampments static, for that second night, she noted that the westernmost groups had moved to the east, leap-frogging their fellow Behrenese. Brynn didn't even need to see the movement before the third night to know that the pattern would be repeated, an organized, well-defended retreat back to the plateau rim, perhaps even back into Behren, to Dharyan.
She wasn't surprised.
On the third night aloft, Brynn and Agradeleous found another encamp-ment, a large one, further to the south and west. Recognizing it for what it was, Brynn had the dragon set her down far to the side, and then she walked in, greeting the To-gai-ru perimeter sentries.
They seemed to recognize her almost immediately, but when she drew out her sword and lit its magical fires, their smiles grew wide indeed, and they hustled her into the encampment.
Brynn's initial thrill at finding the To-gai-ru was dampened quite a bit as she made her way through that huge encampment, for this was not the same group of eager warriors she had encountered on her last visit. Or at least, it was much more than that same group. Where that previous band had numbered two thousand, this one had to be ten times that number! Most of the people here were not warriors, however, but were the very young and the very old, were mothers with their children. And it was obvi-ous to Brynn that they were not faring well. Only then did it hit the woman how profoundly her kinfolk back home were suffering because of the war. They had left the settlements - the Autumnal Nomaduc had seen to that - but forced together in a conglomeration of all the old tribes, they could not yet retain their old ways In a tent with the leaders, including old Barachuk, the woman quickly got her answers.
"The Behrenese hoard all of the food, slaughter all of the elk and deer. They leave those which they cannot take to rot on the steppes," said a man whom Brynn surely recognized: Tanalk Grenk of her old tribe, Kayleen K.ek. ?They stockpile the foodstuffs in their outposter settlements and guard them fiercely."
"They continue to seek us," added another leader, a fierce-lookir who could not have been much older than Brynn. ?If we reveal ourselves'h striking at a settlement, they close a wide noose about us."
"We have lost several battles and many warriors," said Tanalk. ?We h five thousand ready to fight, but we cannot hope to defeat the thousands the Behrenese. And as the numbers of our warriors have grown, so t have our responsibilities."
"We are in no condition to do battle against them!" a third interjected angrily. ?We cannot repair our weapons.
We cannot refill our quivers! On horses starve, and we starve!"
Brynn took it all in stoically. Until this moment, she had viewed the dis traction of the Chezru Chieftain's great army as a blessing, allowing her to run wild through western Behren. But now she understood the brutal truth Now she questioned her decision to initiate the Autumnal Nomaduc. Would her people left in To-gai have been better off to remain conquered, to re-main under the control of the Behrenese, even if that meant that Brynn s army would be having a much harder time of it in Behren?
"The winter will not be kind to us," another voice piped in, and many concurring murmurs followed.
"We have won great victories in Behren," she said, if only to judge the re-action. And that reaction was more positive than she had hoped, with Bara-chuk leading a cheer for Brynn Dharielle, for the Dragon of To-gai.
Tanalk, who had obviously gained great respect among the folk, readily joined in. That these beleaguered people still stood behind her despite the terrible conditions her revolution had exacted upon them, struck Brynn profoundly and made her vow then and there, silently to herself, that she would not for-sake them through this difficult season.
"I will return to you tomorrow night," she promised. ?We will find a way to bolster your supplies and your readiness. We will find a way to strike hard at the Behrenese, to chase the remnants of their once great army out of To-gai!"
She was surprised again at the response, for it seemed much more somber.
"They are strong," Tanalk Grenk remarked quietly.
"Where will we hide this time?" Agradeleous asked her sarcastically when she returned to him out from the encampment.
* - - i Brynn didn't immediately answer, going instead to the pile of netting and large skins on the ground beside the dragon. She had intended to make a supply run during her return to the Mountains of Fire, using Agradeleous in his customary role. That was fortunate, she now knew.
"Hide?" she replied skeptically. ?We have several hours remaining until the dawn. Why would we hide?"
The dragon looked at her curiously.
"Let us find a settlement to destroy," Brynn said grimly, and the dragon's lips curled back.
They swooped down like a great bird of prey, right into the middle of a all outposter settlement. For those Behrenese still awake and near to the the first warning came too late, a sudden rush of air, the flap of a leath-wing, just in time for them to look up and see their doom as the dragon breathed its killing fire over them.
Agradeleous banked back up, hovering for just a split second, long enough for Brynn to leap down into the village and scramble into the shadows. She would be no spectator this time.
Alarms went up, as did a pair of bows from the sentries near the gate. But Agradeleous was upon them in a rush, jaw snapping, wings and tail smash-ing, and the sentries were dead and the gate crushed. Then the dragon flew off into the night, turning up high and out of sight, lining up his next angle of attack.
Brynn darted from shadow to shadow, listening to the sounds of the wak-ening town, measuring the screams.
She put her back up against the wall of one cottage, right beside the door, and when it swung open and a man rushed out, the ranger turned and struck hard, a slash across his chest that sent him back inside, sprawling to the floor.
Another man loomed right behind him, a son or a brother, perhaps. He gave a shout and awkwardly tried to put up his axe in defense.
But Brynn leaped over the prone, dying man, to stab the second through the heart.
The ranger turned and rushed out into the village, avoiding the central area, where great flames leaped high into the night sky and the dark forms of terrified outposters rushed all about.
She turned down an alley between two long buildings, realizing at once that they were storehouses. Brynn put her sword up high and lit its blade, but only briefly, the prearranged signal with Agradeleous to mark where he should not loose his devastating fires.
Around the back corner of the building, Brynn turned to see three men running her way. Confident that they had not noticed her, she slipped back around the corner, sword in hand, and concentrated on their footsteps and chatter.
Brynn stepped out right in front of them, skewering the man on the left and tripping the one on the right. She stepped and turned past the stuck man, tearing free her sword and coming around all the way in perfect bal-ance to bring her fine weapon in hard against the side of the third, trailing man. Brynn winced, and the outposter collapsed screaming, as his arm fell free to the ground.
Brynn heard the charge from behind, and purely on instinct brought her sword up horizontally over her head, intercepting a downward chop fr the man she had tripped up. She spun and slashed, opening his belly tK stabbed ahead once, slipping Flamedancer deftly past his feeble parry into his chest. Then she retracted it quickly and stuck him again, this ti in the throat. He fell away, and Brynn retreated back into the shadows the alleyway.
Agradeleous came across then with his second devastating pass, and line of buildings on the opposite side of the village went up in flames.
By the time Brynn came out the other side of the alleyway, no semblanc of organization remained within the doomed village. Outposters raced all about, screaming and crying. Many headed out over the wall, or through the smashed gates, fleeing desperately into the cold dark night.
Brynn caught another duo running her way, but looking back over their shoulders at the dragon, who had set down near the rear wall and was even then slaughtering outposters by the dozen. By the time the second man even looked ahead again, his companion lay beside him, mortally wounded and Brynn's sword was rushing for his chest.
He fell beside his friend.
It was over quickly, with the village deserted and most of it in flames. Brynn and the dragon did not give pursuit; the woman wanted those who had fled to bear witness to the sudden and devastating strike. The dragon, so excited from the destruction, had to be reminded of this tactic, but to Brynn's surprise, he agreed.
He went out from the village then, not to hunt down the fleeing Behrenese, but to retrieve the netting and skins, then joined Brynn at the warehouses.
As the pair rose again into the night sky, they noted the torches of the nearest section of the great Behrenese army, rushing for the dying outposter settlement.
It took Brynn a long time to convince Agradeleous to hold his course steady, to the south and the west.
Just before dawn, Brynn walked into the encampment of To-gai-ru once more, bidding the perimeter guards to follow her out into the darkness, to a mound of foodstuffs and other supplies.
"There will be more," she promised grimly. ?Every night. But keep your eyes out far, for the Behrenese army will be marching swiftly, trying to find you, and to find me. Stay ahead of them - I will find you and feed you."
With that, she was gone, and the legend of the Dragon of To-gai had grown a bit more.
Over the next few weeks, Brynn and Agradeleous hit settlement after settlement, scattering their attacks far and wide to avoid any organized at-tempt by the Behrenese army to trap them. As the woman had promised, she returned often to the To-gai-ru encampment, delivering stolen supplies-And so the To-gai-ru grew stronger while the Behrenese chased ghosts and died by the score. And the word went out, throughout To-gai and into that the Dragon of To-gai and her army had returned to the steppes of their homeland.
n western Behren, the news was received with mixed feelings, more re trepidation. Though Brynn was running unchecked throughout steppes, and many Behrenese were being slaughtered, at least she was of Behren, they believed, where the army had been unable to find and jestroy her, and every city seemed vulnerable.
In Avrou Eesa, Yatol Bardoh took the news as an invitation to brag that he and his soldiers had chased the Dragon of To-gai away, often punctuat-ing his long-winded speeches with promises that he would march out in the spring and finish the Dragon of To-gai once and for all.
Many To-gai-ru slaves in Avrou Eesa heard those boasts, and relayed them out of the city. Thus Pagonel and the To-gai-ru army, wintering safely and quietly in the fields scattered within the Mountains of Fire, heard them, too.