Chapter 10

King Trock

They flew like the wind and in no time were at the foot of the

mountain where they’d walked two days ago. There was an orange glow all around them, on and up they went until they could see the cabin, or what was left of it. It was burning fiercely along with some of the scrubby bushes and trees around it.

It looked to Morii as if it would burn itself out without spreading anywhere, as luckily it was mostly stone and scrub up here. It was sad to see their beautifully made, comfy cabin destroyed and it made Lilly really angry.

Morii could just make out a movement by the cave and as they got nearer he pulled at Lilly’s hand. Do you see them…Tarken in the cave, he thought at Lilly.

Yes I see them, how did they find the passage and how did they get over here? Lilly asked him.

They flew to the mouth of the cave and there, standing with the Tarken and looking very anxious was a Norsonian!

By Gamray, Morii thought at Lilly, tis that weasel Ribba...he have shown them Tarken the secret passing place and that be true.

Lilly took them even closer, and they stopped beside a rock. The Tarken were speaking.

‘Tark…get ye off…tark…Ribba…tark…ye won’t be paid til King Trock…tark…say ye be…tark.’

‘Thas not what we did agree on no, that be true’ said the nervous Ribba.

‘Tark…ye mouldy…tark…rat scrap, don’t ye be…tark…arguing with Trugg…tark.’

‘I not be arguing Trugg, I just be tellin ye that what he agreed,’ Ribba looked as if he would cry.

‘Tark…get ye back…tark…to yer wetlands…tark…we be havin busy times…tark…ye may get pay…tark…if King Trock do say ye get pay…tark.’

With that the Tarken disappeared into the cave and leaving Ribba standing alone and looking very scared.

Ribba sat down, put his head in his hands and started weeping.

Lilly glanced at Morii who was looking furious. She thought at Morii… I’m going to see if I can talk to Ribba. 

Morii, looked surprised but nodded his agreement.

Lilly flew them to a spot right in front of Ribba, and concentrated on appearing.

Ribba screamed and tried to scrabble backwards.

‘STOP.’ Lilly commanded. Ribba did, open mouthed and shaking.

‘What do you think you are doing Ribba?’ Lilly asked the frightened man.

‘Please…what are ye…are ye a spirit?’ Ribba managed.

‘Of course I’m not a spirit, but I am Lady Lilly of the Nor-Folk and you will answer me now,’ Lilly said sternly.

Ribba cried and told Lilly he had been tempted to help the Tarken because they had promised him treasure and honours, and he had always wanted to be important.

Lilly told him to stop snivelling and tell her what their plan was.

Ribba said that he didn’t know exactly, but tonight was supposed to be a warning and to frighten people and keep them away from the cave entrance. He thought the Tarken were going back across the lake on the other side to put some kind of fighting creature together, called a trap-shun.

‘They did say there be a few more eve’s til they be ready,’ said the quivering Ribba.

‘You best get back to Kort and explain all of this to King Litan and beg his pardon a thousand times,’ said Lilly sternly and disappeared right in front of the frightened man. Ribba turned and ran down the hill.

Lilly asked Morii if he thought they should fly to the other side of the mountain and see what was happening. They decided to do just that and flew over the waterfall where there was no rain.

On the other side they could see several Tarken milling around the entrance to what had been the ‘secret’ cave. Down by the lake were a dozen more Tarken by a huge raft, unloading crates. One was lying dead on the ground; he must have gotten wet thought Lilly to Morii.

They flew down to the edge of the woods and stood listening. From what they could make out, the Tarken had made some sort of fighting apparatus that could throw fire, but it was going to take them a few days to get everything up through the tunnel and into Norsonia and then get it down the other side and assembled.

Lilly looked at Morii and thought… we should get back, we can do nothing here, we have much to prepare.

Morii nodded and thought at Lilly, ye made that little toad Ribba very frightened, do ye think he will return to Kort as ye ordered him?

Lilly nodded and they set off to fly home.

Lilly and Morii got back to Bell-da-Hallan a short time later and explained to King Litan what was happening. He was furious and very worried. Lilly told him not to be too concerned as she’d had an idea for a plan of action. ‘I think it’s best if we meet up in a couple of day’s to discuss it, once I’ve spoken to Leekan and some others your Majesty,’ she told him.

‘Do ye think we have that long Lady Lilly?’ King Litan asked.

‘I think we have about five or six day’s, seven at the most. The Tarken seem to be quite slow and it’s a difficult journey for them with the size of those crates and the number of them,’ she replied. ‘We certainly have two to three day’s before they will be down this side of the mountain with whatever it is…their ‘trap-shun’ and then they have to put it together.’

King Litan thought Lilly’s idea about meeting in two day’s time excellent and told her that he would give out a decree that everyone should co-operate with what ever she asked of them. Lilly thanked the King and went off with Morii to tell Leekan all the nights news.     

Lilly was up early the next day and out in the gardens. Her idea involved the Wyverns and she was trying to get them to come down from the Kort roof and talk to her.

She had asked which of them was the oldest and that had been a huge mistake, they were now arguing with each other about who was the oldest!

Lilly called up to them, ‘Look it really doesn’t matter which one of you is older than the other… I just need to talk to all of you…please for the love of the Gamray…COME DOWN NOW’, she shouted at the silly creatures.

Rather huffily the Wyverns stopped arguing, flapped their wings and jumped one after the other off the Kort roofs and soared down to the lawn where Lilly stood.

There were about thirty of them in total, more than Lilly had thought and this pleased her, she needed as many as possible if they would agree to her plan.

Up close Lilly could see that each Wyvern was about a metre tall with about the same size wingspan. They were like small dragons with leathery wings and just one pair of legs, like a bird, no arms or front legs. They had beady red and black eyes and quite tiny teeth. Their skin, which was scaly, was the colour of wet green grey slate and they smelled of damp earth.

‘Thank you’ Lilly began, ‘I have asked you to come and talk to me as the whole of Norsonia is under threat from the Tarken, who are bringing fire and destruction here even as we speak. I need you to help me fight them.’

The Wyverns snapped their jaws and looked about them nervously.

Lilly continued ‘They are nowhere near Bell-da-Hallan yet, they are still at the Mountains of Flax far to the south of here; but we only have a few days to make a plan and put it into action. We must succeed for all of our sakes and for this beautiful land to survive into the future’.

The Wyverns looked a triffle less scared. One of them stepped forward and said, ‘and what do ye want us for, we don’t know nothing about fighting and we don’t know nothing about Tarken.’ The other Wyverns agreed, nodding their little heads and snapping their little jaws.

Lilly looked from one to another slowly and said, ‘I can see you are creatures of peace and of course you know nothing of fighting…I do not want you to fight, I need you to be bombers…water bombers.’

The Wyverns shuffled a bit, looked at each other and waited for Lilly to explain. ‘My plan is to get lots and lots of small skin water bags made up, and for you to fly them over the Tarken and drop them on their heads; you know that water kills them don’t you? If you will help me and I can get the hawks and other birds of prey to do the same it will help those of us fighting them on the ground.’

The Wyverns went off a few feet and into a little huddle, Lilly could hear whispering and saw a few heads shaking and then nodding. They shuffled back to Lilly and after a couple of moment’s silence one of them spoke.

‘Lady Lilly of the Nor-Folk, we Wyverns are as ye say, creatures of peace and some do call us lazy,’ he said looking around at his companions, ‘but we do see yer need for us and we be agreed to help ye…if we can.’ He snapped his jaw. ‘I am named Vartik and I be the speaker for us all, if ye will tell me what ye need I will see tis done and that be true.’

Lilly smiled at the strange creature and said, ‘I thank you Vartik and your friends on behalf of all Norsonia. I will visit with you later and tell you what has been arranged. May I suggest that you all practice diving at a target and maybe using pebbles or pine cones to try your skills at hitting the centre.’ Vartik nodded and most of the Wyverns looked quite excited at the thought of having something to do other than sitting on the Kort roof.

Lilly went off and found a large pot from the edge of the garden, she tipped out the plant that occupied it and dragged it to the middle of the lawn. She then made a circle of white pebbles around that and asked the Wyverns if they thought they could drop stones into the centre of the pot.

‘We will spend all the day trying my Lady,’ said Vartik.

Lilly left the Wyverns discussing tactics and collecting small pebbles and went to meet with the scholar knights.

As she rounded the wall of the Scholar Knight School, Lilly could hear the sounds of arrows zipping from bow strings and sure enough there were about thirty kids all around Morii’s age, girls and boys, practising with various sized bows. Morii raised a hand to stop the practise firing as Lilly came into the courtyard.

The scholar knights all bowed low to the ground and slowly stood upright smiling and cheering Lilly.

Morii took Lilly’s hand and said, ‘My Lady we all await yer instructions.’

Lilly replied, ‘I think I should like to be taught the art of firing the bow and of course to meet all of you,’ she turned to the group as she said this.

Morii introduced her to all of the older scholar knights and in particular to Tryp, Edie, Godda and Wilf. The two girls and two boys were, Morii told her, the schools best archers and would be happy to show her the basics of drawing and firing the bow. He explained that the other younger students were in the school rooms and that she would meet them in due course.

Lilly spent the rest of that day and most of the next learning what she could about archery, she had very sore fingers by late that afternoon but had made firm friends with Tryp, Edie, Godda and Wilf.

Lilly had earlier that day left instructions for the Kort staff and anyone else that could help, to make hundreds of thin skin water bags.

This was well in production by the time Lilly and Morii went at evetime to see how they were progressing, the skin bags were being stacked up in little piles around the Kort kitchen which was doubling as a water bag making factory. Gleryn kept them all going with lots of her tasties and jugs of storb juice and singing them traditional Norsonian songs. Gleryn informed Lilly that she was busy making one up about the ‘Lady Lilly saviour of the Runes’. Lilly thanked Gleryn and said that she only hoped that all the plans would work. Lilly felt as though so much was resting on her shoulders and tried not to think about it.

After they had eaten a little snack, Morii and Lilly went up to Lilly’s rooms and opened the box with the Rune stones inside. It was the first proper chance Lilly had had to get a good look at them.

On first inspection, they could have been just a pile of pebbles and Lilly immediately thought that the best place to hide them would probably be the garden. However on closer inspection Lilly could see that each one bore a different symbol and you only had to pick one up to feel the power it contained, a kind of deep vibration and warmth came from each one.

Lilly was about to do what the old Gamray had told her to and ask the stones what she should do now. To do this she tipped the stones from the box onto her dayroom floor and there for her and Morii to see, some of the stones landed upright.

Morii took a couple of moments to read them. ‘Long journey for man and need for light and knowledge.’ He told Lilly. Lilly looked at Morii and said, ‘you know what this means don’t you?’

‘Aye, I believe I do,’ replied Morii, ‘we have to go and see what King Trock be doing.’

 Lilly nodded, ‘exactly what I was thinking. Lets go this evening and this time we’ll find his camp and see what he’s up to.’

Lilly had a couple of things to attend to so she arranged to meet Morii as soon as Gamray’s daughter had departed.

Lilly went down to the Kort gardens to see how the Wyverns were doing. Vartik came over as Lilly appeared. ‘Goodeve my Lady and how goes things with ye?’

‘Very well thank you Vartik and yourselves?’ she asked him.

‘We be doing good target practice and do have ninety-five out of one hundred drops on the target.’ Vartik told Lilly proudly, snapping his jaws and nodding his head.

‘Well done!’ exclaimed Lilly; she was actually quite surprised at the hard work the Wyverns were putting in. She continued, ‘I’ve come to ask you Vartik, if you would come with Morii and myself this eve when we go to see what King Trock and his cronies are up to? I could do with you to have a listen at the secret passage while we go on into the Drylands if we have to.’

‘I shall be honoured my Lady, where do we meet?’ replied Vartik.

‘At the passing of Gamray’s daughter can you fly up to my balcony?’ Lilly asked him.

‘I shall be there my Lady,’ Vartik told her. Lilly thanked all the other Wyverns, who were reluctant to leave off their target practice for the night; they were really getting into this thought Lilly with a smile. She went to see Leekan.

In Leekan’s yurt, Lilly had a quick word with Gurta who was preparing things for her departure back to the Kort.

‘I shall miss young Lord Leekan, now the Gamray. I be with him for ten year past and he is but a babe,’ Gurta was telling Lilly, ‘I don’t know what I’ll do with myself. Could I be of any use to ye Lady Lilly, to clean for ye and do yer hair?’ she asked Lilly.

Lilly looked surprised, ‘I’m sure I don’t know Gurta, I’m not used to the Kort life yet, but yes you are most welcome if it suits King Litan.’

Lilly liked old Gurta and felt she might like to have her around.

She left Gurta and went in to see Leekan; he was floating just above the ground on his little cushion. Lilly noticed it had a Rune word embroidered on the front.

What does the Rune say Leekan? She asked him in thought.

It be the name Gamray, Leekan replied and added, how are the plans going Lilly?, I feel ye be going on a mission this eve.

Lilly smiled, we are. Morii, Vartik the Wyvern and myself, we’re going to find King Trock’s camp and hear what his plans are, at the very least we may find out what we’re up against and find out how long we’ve got ‘til they attack. Lilly told him.

Leekan held his chubby little hand out to her and Lilly took it, her fingers were so sore from the bow that she winced slightly in pain. Leekan turned her hand over and blew gently onto it. Lilly stared in amazement; her hand was suddenly completely unmarked and no longer hurt.

‘Oh Leekan, thank you,’ she said out loud. Leekan giggled a child’s laugh and thought at Lilly… Leekan has many powers.

Now Lilly laughed. ‘You certainly have Leekan, that’s wonderful. I can practise even more tomorrow.’

Lekaan looked at Lilly and told her that she would master the bow by tomorrow eve. ‘Really?’ exclaimed Lilly, ‘well that’s not a moment too soon as I’m sure you know Leekan.’

Leekan nodded and wished Lilly all speed for her journey; he told her he would be with her in mind.

Before I go, Lilly thought at Leekan, I have an idea I’d like to ask you about.

Leekan thought back at her… no need to tell Leekan, I already know what’s in yer mind Lilly, tis a good plan and I will do as ye need.

‘Of course you know, I keep forgetting. Thank you Leekan.’ Lilly said as she went to meet Morii and Vartik.

As Gamray’s daughter departed the sky, Morii came into Lilly’s day room and a little flutter on the balcony announced the arrival of Vartik. Lilly had changed into some dark trousers and a jacket and wound her plaited hair up in a scarf.

Come in Vartik and meet Morii, if you haven’t already, she looked from Vartik to Morii. They both shook their heads and did little bows to each other. ‘Vartik is coming with us to see if he can overhear what’s happening at the secret passage.’ Lilly told Morii.

‘That be good of ye Vartik,’ Morii said and added, ‘I been seeing to that useless Ribba who now be in the dungeons thinking over his bad behaviour, an eve or two in there will most likely do him some good.’ Lilly looked a little worried. ‘Will he be alright down there? I know he did wrong but…’

‘Oh Lilly, ye would feel sorry for the Tarken if ye could.’ retorted Morii.

Lilly just smiled and said, ‘I don’t think I’ll ever feel sorry for them, it’s mostly their fault that Ribba’s in the predicament he’s in.’

She turned to Vartik. ‘Now do you think you can get close to them and not be seen?’ she asked.

‘My Lady,’ replied Vartik, ‘I, along with all Wyvern are masters at being ‘as stone’, in other words I can be so still that I can blend into any background. I do be more concerned about ye my Lady.’

‘Do not worry about us Vartik, I have the power of invisibility and I pass that on to Morii when I fly with him.’ replied Lilly to the relieved looking Vartik.

Lilly asked Vartik to follow the shimmer they made and suggested that if he lost them to thought contact her.

When they had all agreed they were ready, Lilly took Morii’s hands and the two of them drifted up and out of the balcony doors. Vartik watched the two small shimmers of light and flapped his way outside to follow them. They flew over the city and countryside, passing small hamlets where people were just lighting their outside lamps and getting in their ground peckers and Uruz or Aurochs. They followed the river and before long were at the mountain side. Lilly brought them to a stop and waited for Vartik, who could not fly quite as swiftly as she. He caught up to them a few moments later.

Lilly thought at him, up there Vartik, there is the entrance to the caves and passage, go and see what you can. We will meet you back in my rooms later and please Vartik, don’t scare Pel if he‘s there. Pel’s my Squib friend.

Vartik nodded and gave what passed for a smile in Wyvern terms. He flew off in the direction of the caves.

Lilly and Morii took their usual path, over the waterfall and across the marsh on the Drylands side. They passed a Tarken camp and after a brief look to make sure King Trock was not there, flew on into the Drylands. They flew deeper and deeper, following a sort of track that Lilly guessed the Tarken hoards had made taking all their crates and stuff to the river.

After a fairly long time flying Lilly tugged on Morii’s hand. There, do you see it? she thought at him. Morii nodded, there in the distance was an enormous tent village with a sectioned off bit that was obviously the ‘royal’ enclosure. An enormous pavilion dominated that compound and had blue and black banners flying from its roof pinnacles.

Lilly looked at Morii and raised her eyebrows questioningly, are you ready? She thought at him.

I am Lilly, he thought back.

They flew up to the Kings compound and floated down in front of the large pavilion. It was very quiet in the compound with hardly a soul around. There was a smell of thick wood smoke and Lilly had to cover her mouth to keep from choking. Holding on to Morii’s hand but keeping him behind her Lilly edged toward the door flap of the pavilion. She could hear voices inside and she gently pulled the flap aside and peered in.

Sitting on an enormous wooden throne on a raised platform sat, Lilly presumed, King Trock. He was surrounded by fifteen other Tarken all of them standing in a semi-circle in front of him. They were deep in discussion and Lilly felt it was safe to go further in, especially as there was a large pile of furs and animal skins to her left. They floated in and crouched behind the pile.

King Trock was holding a long wooden spear and every so often he banged it on the ground. Lilly realised that it seemed to signal when he wanted the others to stop speaking and listen to him. He did this now and the fifteen Tarken shut up.

‘Fellows of my tribe,’ he began, ‘Tark…we are almost finished…tark…and the day will soon dawn when we shall rule the land of Norsonia…tark…Ye have reported to me that all parts of the ‘fire giver’ are…tark…safely delivered to the other side…tark…and ready to be taken through the caves…tark.’

The other Tarken nodded and grunted agreement, Lilly looked at Morii. The King continued, ‘Ye have told to me…tark… that we can not put together the ‘fire giver’…tark…until it be at the bottom of the Norsonia side of the Mountains of Flax…tark…and free of the woods there…tark.’  Again the others nodded and mumbled.

King Trock stared evilly around the pavilion and some of his soldiers shivered.

‘Why is my ‘fire giver’ trap-shun not already there?…tark…Tark.’ He screeched. ‘Tark…why does it take so long?…tark’. King Trock banged the floor with his spear. One of the Tarken soldiers gave a little shriek.

King Trock reeled on him and threw his spear so that it pierced the poor creature right through the chest. The Tarken fell to the ground with a thud. The others coughed a little, moved away slightly and tried to look anywhere but at King Trock.

‘YE THERE…TARK…’ he shouted at one of the soldiers closest to him, ‘FETCH MY SPEAR…TARK.’

The Tarken soldier ran to his dead companion and wrenched the spear from his body; it was covered in a black sticky substance that Lilly thought must be Tarken blood.

Lilly was quite horrified at what king Trock had just done with so little provocation.

The King was now yelling at the soldiers to get out of his sight and to get a move on with the operations and that he didn’t want any more excuses.

The soldiers ran out of the pavilion and King Trock yelled for someone else.

‘MOLLIN…tark…MOLLIN WHERE BE YE?…tark… YE STINKING SAND WORM.’

After a moment or two, the pavilion door flap swished aside and the ‘stinking sand worm’ or Mollin appeared. He was a Norsonian, quite old and rather bent over.

Morii thought at Lilly, he be one of the captured ones, from Storbenn.

Mollin shuffled up to King Trock, giving the dead Tarken a wide berth. ‘Ye want something?’ he asked Trock.

‘Tark…where be me Storbvin…ye stinking worm…and get rid of that…tark…quick now…tark…I be thirsting…tark.’ said Trock pointing to the dead Tarken.

‘I can’t be doin both at once,’ answered Mollin peevishly, ‘what ye want first… yer drink or the corpse gone?’

King Trock was shaking with temper now. ‘Get me my Storbvin…tark…and find one of those useless…tark…guards to fetch him out…tark.’

Mollin shuffled slowly out of the tent and King Trock slumped on his throne and started banging his bloody spear on the ground.

Lilly pulled at Morii and they left the pavilion. Outside Mollin was telling a Tarken guard to get himself in to King Trock and do his bidding.

The Tarken guard said, ‘Ye be lucky the king…tark…do need ye…tark…or I would be spearing ye…tark…myself.’

Mollin just laughed and carried on to a tent on the far side of the compound. Lilly and Morii followed him inside.

Mollin was alone in there, it was like a brewery and had brewing equipment; barrels and jugs all over the place. Lilly nodded at Morii and they both concentrated on making Morii appear.

A couple of moments later Morii stood behind Mollin and coughed gently. Mollin swung round and nearly yelped in surprise. ‘By Gamray… Lord Morii?…be it ye…be it true?’ the poor man managed.

‘Aye, old man, tis Morii, though I be grown a bit since we last met and that be true.’ said Morii.

‘Aye so ye have, what be ye doing here in this dirty hole, tis not safe for ye,’ said Mollin with genuine concern.

‘Don’t ye worry for me, I come to ask yer help, we have the Lady Lilly of the Nor-Folk on side and she be making a plan to fight the Tarken.’ Morii told the old man.

‘Gamray be blessed, ye have the Lady Lilly from the sagas as foretold…in Norsonia?’ said a surprised Mollin.

‘She be here with me, but I have no time to explain right now, listen and do as I ask,’ said Morii.

They talked for a little and soon Morii went back to find Lilly and disappeared with her. Mollin will do as I have asked, Morii thought at Lilly.

Lilly nodded, let’s have some fun before we go shall we? Lilly thought at Morii.

They flew up and Lilly started on her sabotage techniques, making tents collapse, throwing piles of stacked weapons in all directions, starting a few fires here and there and, best of all… making a large hole in the food provision tent and letting all the starving Tisks out of their pen to eat anything they wished, they were surely hungry.

The few Tarken that tried to pull the Tisks out and off their food got bitten and tusked in the legs. The Tarken were hopping around holding battered and bitten legs and trying to avoid all the spears and axes flying around of their own accord.

King Trock came raging out of his pavilion to see what was going on, took one look at the chaos and rampaging Tisks and quickly ran back inside. Lilly concentrated with all her might and slowly King Trock’s huge pavilion started to collapse around him. The large shape of the Tarken king was stumbling and cursing from under the pavilion canvas, he was well and truly stuck.

Mollin stood in the doorway of his brewery tent wiping tears of laughter from his face with his apron.

That’s put a spanner in the works, thought Lilly at Morii.

Morii looked at Lilly, I know not of spanners and work, but ye have done well, he thought back and grinned widely as he and Lilly turned and headed back across the desert.

After a little while of flying, Lilly realised that causing all of that sabotage and materializing Morii had left her feeling very tired and she was getting worried that she might not be able to keep them up in the air. She turned to Morii and thought, I think I need to rest for a while, do you mind? Morii thought back that he didn’t. They floated down into the dry and parched sand, where there were a few scrubby little bushes around and Lilly lay next to one of these.

Morii looked concerned, are ye able to get us back this eve Lilly? He thought at her.

Yes Morii, I’m sure I’ll be fine in a few minutes, it just makes me feel tired when I do all that concentrating on messing up their tents and throwing their weapons around, Lilly thought in reply. If I could do that all the time we wouldn’t even have to think about fighting them in any other way, I could just mess them up and leave them to sort it out. Maybe I’ll get better with practice and if they ever try in the future…well who knows, we don’t actually know that we’re going to succeed this time, but I have a feeling that we will Lilly thought wearily to Morii.

They rested a little while and then, when Lilly felt she could, flew them back to the Kort.

On their return Lilly and Morii found Vartik waiting for them as he had promised, him and Pel were sitting together on the balcony eating pieces of fruit that Lilly had left out for Pel earlier.

‘Welcome return Lady Lilly, Lord Morii,’ said Vartik, ‘I trust by Gamray that all went well?’ he enquired.

‘Yes Vartik, we managed to find out that the ‘trap-shun’ is a fire throwing apparatus and that King Trock has a violent temper. He’s not pleased at what seems to be a delay in getting through the mountains either,’ Lilly said.

‘Quite so my Lady,’ Vartik nodded, ‘I did see for myself that the Tarken are having great difficulty in getting their crates into the cave and up the steps, they did break two whilst I was watching, everything spilled out and got damaged. They did panic about what King Trock would do to them.’

‘Well done Vartik, did ye learn of any other thing?’ asked Morii.

‘My Lord, I did learn that several of them have died trying to cross the water and that none of them really think King Trock can capture Norsonia…they were mostly talking about how much Storbvin they would get to drink when they fire Storbenn.’

‘So that’s their first place of attack is it?’ Lilly said quietly, ‘That makes it easier for our plan, Storbenn is surrounded by woods and we can hide out there quite comfortably. Did you get any idea of when they might be ready, Vartik?’

‘It did seem to me that they will take four or five day’s to get the ‘fire giver’ through the mountains and then they need one whole day to put it together, that be what their captain was saying, that be true.’ Vartik replied.

‘In that case we have four days to complete all our tasks and training and one day to travel and make camp outside Storbenn,’ Lilly reasoned.

Morii spoke, ‘I will ask my father to call a special meeting on the morrow eve in the Meeting Hall, that way everyone can attend and we can let everyone know what we plan to do.’

Lilly nodded. ‘Good idea Morii. Vartik, can I ask you to call on any other flying creatures here that would be able to carry and drop the water skins on the Tarken, at least now we know that you won’t have far to carry them as we’ll be camped just outside Storbenn, everything can be taken there and stored ready for use. We can use the nearby river to fill them as we need them.’ Lilly told the little group.

‘My Lady, I will ask the hawks to help, there are many of them and their aim be very true.’ said Vartik.

‘Excellent,’ said Lilly, ‘and now I think we all need to get some rest.’

‘illy…Pel help too’ said Pel. ‘Of course you can help Pel, we’ll find you a special job I’m sure,’ Lilly told him and gave him a little pat.

Vartik went back to his roof perch, Pel went and curled up on one of the sofas and Lilly and Morii went off to the kitchens to find something for their supper and ask Gleryn if she would be able to provide a cart load of bread, cheese and tasties for their camp at Storbenn woods. They had a very busy time ahead of them.