Fires of Azeroth by C. J. Cherryh

departed together to the pen where the horses were.
    A small shadow stirred there as they opened the gate . . . Sin, who slept near the horses. The boy came forth and made no sound to alarm the village ... shed tears, and yet lent his small hands to help them saddle and tie their supplies in place. When all was done, Vanye gave his hand as to a man .. . but Sin embraced him with feverish strength; and then to make the pain quick, Vanye turned and rose into the saddle. Morgaine set herself ahorse, and Sin stood back to let them ride out.
    They rode the commons quietly, but doors opened along their way all the same. Sleepy villagers in their nightclothes turned out to watch, silent in the moonlight, and stood by with sad eyes. A few waved forlornly. The elders walked out to bar their way. Morgaine reined in then, and bowed from the saddle.
    "There is no need for us now," she said. "If the qhal-lord Lir is your friend, then he and his will watch over you."
    "You are not of them," said Bythein faintly.
    "Did you not suspect so?"
    "At the last, lady. But you are not our enemy. Come back and be welcome again."
    "I thank you. But we have business elsewhere. Do you trust yourselves to them?"
    "They have always taken care for us."
    "Then they will now."
    "We will remember your warnings. We will post the guards. But we cannot travel Shathan without their leave. We must not. Good journey to you, lady; good journey, khemeu. n
    "Good fortune to you," Morgaine said. They rode from the midst of the people, not in haste, not as fugitives, but with sadness.
    Then the darkness of the forest closed about them, and they took the road past the sentries, who hailed them sorrowfully and wished them well in their journey-then down to the stream, which would lead them.
    There was no sign of any enemy. The horses moved quietly in the dark; and when they were far from Mirrind, they dismounted in the last of the night, wrapped themselves in their blankets and cloaks and slept alternately the little time they felt they could afford.
    By bright morning they were underway again, travelling the streamside by trails hardly worthy of the name, through delicate foliage that scarcely bore any mark of previous passage.
    From time to time there came a whispering of brush and a sense that they were being watched: woodswise, both of them, so that it was not easy to deceive their senses, but neither of them could catch sight of the watchers.
    "Not our enemies," Morgaine said in an interval when it seemed to have left them. "There are few of them skilled in woodcraft, and only one of them is Chya."
    "Roh would not be here; I do not think so."
    "No, I do doubt it. They must be the qhal who live here. We have escort."
    She was uneasy in it; he caught that in her expression, and agreed with it.
    A hush hung all about them as they went farther. The horses moved with their necessary noise, breaking of twigs and scuff of forest mold . . . and yet something insisted there was another sound there, wind where it should not be, a whispering of leaves. He heard it, and looked behind them.
    Then it was gone; he turned again, for the trail bent with the stream, and they were entering a place not meant for riders, where often branches hung low and they must lean in the saddle to pass under ... a wood wilder and older than the area where they had entered the forest, or that which surrounded Mirrind's placid fields.
    Again something touched at hearing, leftward.
    "It is back," he said, becoming vexed at this game.
    "Would it would show itself," she said in the qhalur tongue.
    They had ridden hardly around the next bending when an apparition stepped into their path-a youth clad in motley green, and tall and white-haired ... empty-handed.
    The horses snorted and shied up. Morgaine, in the lead, held Siptah, and Vanye moved up as close as he could on the narrow trail.
    The youth bowed, smiling as if delighted at their startlement. There was at least one more; Vanye heard movement