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Adrik nodded. "Sure, sure… where are we going, specifically, within the forest? It is a wide, trackless place. Let's see the map."

"I have no map."

The sorcerer cocked his head. "No map? Well, what land-marks shall we steer by?"

"I only know that my vanished mother came from these woods."

"You only know…" Adrik s smile faltered. "That's all, nothing else? I'm not sure… but perhaps we can work with that. From what Yuir village did she hail?"

"I know not."

"What about her name? You must know that. We can ask around…"

Raidon was already shaking his head. "To me, she was Mother. One day, she told me her old home called her back- the Yuirwood. She gave me something to remember her by-a forget-me-not-and she departed, twelve or so years ago. That is the sum of what I know."

Adrik's smile wholly departed and became a frown. The sorcerer's gaze fell to the heap of gold Raidon still proffered. A ghost of the grin returned.

"Right," he said, scooping up half the coins. "Looks like we still need a guide. I don't know this forest from the Rawlinswood."

Daylight turned dull needles emerald and snow into heaps of glittering diamonds. In the chilly twilight beneath the sunlight canopy, three figures followed a narrow and faintly marked forest path.

Necalama, an elf, walked at the head of the procession. Perhaps he was a half-elf-Raidon couldn't be sure. Regardless, he moved with an easy, certain stride, rarely looking behind to see whether the monk and sorcerer still followed. Necalama had agreed to lead Raidon Kane and Adrik Commorand through the forest to the well-known if less well-traveled elf refuge of Relkath's Foot.

Raidon offered their guide payment, but Necalama had shrugged and indicated he was going anyway; the two travelers might as well accompany him. Eithet way, he explained, it was an easy trek along a well-blazed path.

Raidon wasn't certain he agreed with the man's assessment of the road-the path they followed, when he could discern it, was nothing like the trade routes he'd traveled since leaving Telflamm. Half the time, it seemed they walked no path at all through the snow-sprinkled forest.

In fact, walking among the Yuirwood trees was an entirely novel experience to the Shou Town native. He was used to lanes bristling with fellow city dwellers, hurrying this way and that, intent on business or pleasure or both. Colorfully dressed citizens and dual-story buildings clogged perspective whichever way you looked, and the clamor of thousands living next to each other could never be drowned out.

Here, wind brushed through the trees, whispering green secrets Raidon couldn't decipher, though he suspected messages of ttanquility. On more than one occasion, white-coated hares broke from hiding in a flurry of snow and bounded away, racing toward some private comer of the woods. A hawk's cry sounded above the canopy, and once, more distant and higher, a mighty roar stopped Raidon and Adrik in their tracks, though the noise barely drew an upward glance from Necalama. When the elf in the lead showed no sign of pausing or providing any explanation about the origin of the great snarl, Shou and mercenary exchanged a shrug and continued.

Their guide explained that Relkath's Foot lay across almost the entire breadth of the Yuirwood from where they entered the forest south of Emmech. Such a trip might stretch to four or more long days of travel, or so Raidon initially expected. However, the elf claimed he knew secret paths through the Yuirwood deeps that would end up shaving a day or more off their trip. The sorcerer asked about the possibility of seeing some standing stones matked with ancient glyphs along the way. Ndcalama had smiled and said they certainly would, else the savings in time would never come to pass.

On more than one occasion, Raidon found himself listening to the ever-talkative Adrik, who seemed compelled to speak of his many pursuits, a few of which the monk was surprised to find vaguely compelling.

For instance, Adrik told of how he once emerged from a moldy tomb clutching a spell-twined