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By Root 333 0

the midst of a gently rolling sea of grass, now turning shades of yellow and brown with winter's coming. To the north of them, painted half in light and half in shadow by the low morning sun, a great hill rose out of the lowlands. Much of it had the rounded-off look of a bastion of rock and soil that had stood through hundreds of years of wind and rain, but the top of it was smooth and almost flat. Standing up there, Amira imagined, someone could see for miles in every direction. Greenery crowned the hill and spread in jagged lines, following the ravines. From this distance, Amira could not tell if they were trees or simply large brush.

"Is this it?" she asked.

"Close enough," said Gyaidun. He pointed to the hill. "That is Akhrasut Neth, the Mother's Bed. Lendri will meet us there."

"Mother's Bed?"

"A sacred site to the Vil Adanrath. The belkagenet say it is the place where the Vil Adanrath first came to this world in the time of their greatest grandfathers."

"Is there water there?"

"A sacred spring, yes. Why?" He hefted the waterskin dangling from his pack, then pointed to the two carried by the lead pony. "We have more than enough."

"We spent all day yesterday running," said Amira. "I could use a bath. And so could you."

Gyaidun nodded, his face neutral, but Amira thought she saw a flicker of mischief in his eyes. "Ah, yes. I didn't want to say anything, but…"

Amira scowled. "Lead on."

Pulling the tethered ponies behind him, Gyaidun set off toward the Mother's Bed. Amira followed for a while, then quickened her pace to walk beside Gyaidun. He walked at an easy pace, his eyes scanning the horizon.

"Why do we not ride the ponies?" she said.

"Horses."

"What?"

"They are horses, not ponies."

Amira looked at them. "My family breeds the finest horses in Cormyr," she said. "These look like ponies to me."

"We're not in Cormyr. Tuigan horses are smaller than other horses, but they're hardier, as well. Someone who spent so much time among the Tuigan should know that."

"They spent most of their time trying to kill me, so you'll forgive me if I didn't discuss the finer points of horseflesh with them."

"I forgive you." He said it with a perfectly straight face.

"It's an expression."

"What is?"

"Never mind," she said. "You went to the trouble of taking the-horses, scaring that boy near to death. Why aren't we riding them?"

"Would you rather I'd killed him?"

"Of course not. But why take horses and then walk all this way?"

Gyaidun shrugged. "Climb on one if you wish. I'm used to walking."

"I thought everyone in the Wastes were famed horsemen."

"Not the Vil Adanrath. Horses cannot abide their presence."

"Why?" she said. "They're elves like Lendri, are they not?"

Gyaidun, not slowing his pace, looked at her sideways. "You Cormyrean wizards are scholars of a sort, aren't you?"

"It requires years of study, if that's what you mean."

"And you still haven't realized what Lendri is?"

Amira's eyebrows creased. "I've never heard of moon elves this far east. His build and complexion are all wrong for a sun elf. I took him to be some sort of wild elf. An offshoot family, perhaps?"

Gyaidun snorted. "Do the wild elves run with wolves?"

"I said an offshoot, perhaps. No? Well, what is he, then, he and these Vil Adanrath? The mention of their name certainly made Walloch's hired blades tuck their tails and run."

"The Vil Adanrath are not native to his world," said Gyaidun. "They came here many thousands of years ago."

"That's true of all elves."

"Can all elves take the form of a wolf?"

Amira gasped. She'd heard of such things, down in the Wealdath in Tethyr, but it had been years since she'd studied that particular tome in her old master's library. She scrambled for the memory, and at last it came to her.

"Lendri and the Vil Adanrath, they are lythari?" she said.

"Lythari?" said Gyaidun, and he shook his head. "I don't know this word. The Vil Adanrath are what they are-elves who can walk as wolves. Or wolves who can walk as elves, depending on their mood, I suppose."

"You are not Vil Adanrath, then?"

Gyaidun did