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.Faster went they, eagerly.Now through the treesstreamed the long, amber light of sun-fall.Joyousness seized them they had almost made it to the faredge of the forest!Tahquil's hand flew up.A shock went through the ring, and a ping! as though a sharp blow had struck it.Almost simultaneously, Viviana jumped sideways with a shouted exclamation, losing her grip on theimplements hanging from her belt."Something hit me! It hit my knapsack!"An agitation whipped the bushes all around.Like vengeful wasps, invisible projectiles shrilled through theair.Puffs and eddies of leaves showed where they were hitting the ground.Disturbing the undergrowth,red caps like tall mushrooms poked up.Beneath them were the sly faces of tiny archers.The travelers bolted.Sharp points whizzed past their ears.Unseen darts struck their thick cloaks, anddeflected off Tahquil's ring.One ricocheted off Caitri's belt and another off Viviana's chatelaine.The softmulch hampered their running feet like sludge, weighed down their boots, stuck to their leggings.Itseemed certain, after all, that they would never get out of Khazathdaur, when abruptly the tree-stemsdiverged and fell back on either side.They burst forth into the open.Caitri uttered a sharp cry and fell sprawling."Get up! Come!" her companions urged, endeavoring to drag her to her feet.Ælf-shot whistled allaround.Caitri writhed on the ground, clutching her shin.Tahquil threw off her pack, heedless ofscattering foodstuffs.She hoisted the little girl under the armpits and dragged her away.Viviana snatchedthe knapsack and followed, using both packs as a shield against the darts that zoomed from the forest.Down a grassy slope they struggled.Caitri now hung limp in Tahquil's arms, a dead weight.The shootingdecreased as the targets drew out of range, and finally, when for the space of about fifty yards there hadbeen no more thumps of eldritch arrows hitting bundles, Tahquil heard Viviana cry, "Hola! The attack isover.Stop, so that I may help you."Beside dense low clusters of yellow-flowered gorse Tahquil gently laid Caitri down on the gray-greengrass and leaned over her."She has taken a stroke!" wailed Viviana."She will be paralyzed!""Cait, can you hear me?" Tahquil said tenderly.Caitri's eyelids fluttered open.Her face was gray and drawn."I am hale," she whispered thickly.She tried to rise, but collapsed with a groan."There is no feeling inmy leg, my arm.""Bide," said Tahquil."We shall lift and bear you."She did not mention that one side of the little girl's face was dragged down and half her mouth remainedslack when she spoke.The child looked like a doll fashioned half of porcelain and half of rags, limp downone side.Tahquil knew they must bear her away from the dangers of the forest.But where could theygo?Page 41 Against the slanting, nasturtium-tinted rays of the westering sun Tahquil stood, shading her eyes with herhand.A light, fresh breeze faced across the grassy hillside.Rank upon rank of silvery grass-blades benttheir backs to it in waves tumbling down to a wide vista below.Tahquil looked to the north.From her feet the land ran down in a gentle slope toward a long, narrowinlet.Here, the sea sliced into the land from miles away on the western coast, cutting a deep valley filledwith still waters the color of steel.Half tinged gold in the fallow afternoon, clean flinty rock-cliffs fell steepand stark from the heights into the firth.Seabirds glided on outstretched wings, in the shape of margran ,the M- Rune.Low hills rose to the east and west and also across the firth to the north.At the head of theinlet the land rose gently to a marshy vale watered by rills that fed a fast-flowing brook chattering downout of the hills to the ocean.Near at hand, toward this vale, the countryside was checkered with little verdant meadows.They werebordered by blossoming hawthorn hedges, screened by sallows and alders.Clotted with the flowers oflate Spring were they, and so lush that already the grass stood high.Down along the inlet's edge a fewthatched roofs peeped from dark-smudged lines of trees.Smoke issued from chimneys like wisps ofwool, and were teased out by the breeze."A village," croaked Tahquil, hoarse with relief."An abode of Men in the wilderness.We must go there.I'll warrant they sustain a healer a carlin or a dyn-cynnil." She glanced back and up at the tall, sinistereaves of the forest from whose dominions they had so narrowly escaped.The trees leaned forward."Via, we must cross our hands over and grasp each other's wrists, in this manner, to form a seat.Wemust hold Caitri's poor arms about our shoulders and thus we may bear her down the hill."Just then the sun sank into the dyed ocean far beyond the hills and a deep, throaty voice said: "Stay!"The admonition issued from a large, hairy creature like an oversized bruney.He was dressed raggedly,like a household wight, but about five feet tall, deep-chested, massive across the shoulders.His superbphysique indicated enormous strength."Run!" contradicted Viviana.Starting forward, she began to drag Caitri along, a helpless burden.Without appearing to move, the wight barred their path."They call me seelie," he said."Down by Ishkiliath, they do.I can cure the aelf-stroke, I can.Give methe girl." He grinned a gaping, thick-lipped grin."Set her down, Via," said Tahquil, deliberately avoiding the use of her friend's full name.She did not takeher eyes from the wight as Viviana lowered Caitri to the grass.To him she said, "Can you in truth do as you say?""Aye, that I can.""Do not let him touch her," hissed Viviana.Tahquil hesitated."What else do they call you, down there in the village?"The uncouth fellow bowed."Finoderee at your service, miss.I plow, I sow, I reap, I mow.I herd cattle and sheep, I thresh and rakePage 42 and carry, I build stacks.I can clear a daymath in an hour and want nothing better than a crockful ofbithag afterwards.I work all night, but at the top of Glen Rushen, above the curraghs, that's where I curlme up in my hiding place each day.I can heal a weal and cure an ill too, and I can cure this mortal girl.""Well, sir, you give a thorough account of yourself and no mistake," said Tahquil guardedly."A strongfellow I see you be, with a kindly feeling towards humanity.If I let you cure her, what will you ask inreturn for your pains?"Finoderee's chunky jaw dropped open, his eyes widened in shock."Alas, poor Finoderee, don't send him away! He only wants to help!""No reward, then," said Tahquil quickly, alarmed at his unpredictable distress."Howbeit, if you can cureher and not harm her in the process.""I'd like a word wi' ye if I may, lassie," politely said the urisk, who was sitting beneath a gorse bush
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