They picked their way carefully over fallen logs and around jagged rock formations until the thickly grown slope leveled off at its base. Within the forested canopy of the valley, the pathway broadened and then disappeared altogether as the dense scrub brush and fallen timber began to thin. Warm afternoon sunlight flooded softly through the cracks and c.h.i.n.ks of the interwoven branches overhead and lighted the whole of the darkened woodland. Dozens of wide, pleasant little clearings pocketed the valley forest and lent a feeling of s.p.a.ce and openness. The earth grew soft and loose, free from rock and carpeted with a layer of small twigs and leaves that rustled gently as the Valegirl and the highlander walked across them.

There was a sense of comfort and familiarity to this little valley that was foreign to the wilderness that lay about it, and Brin Ohmsford found herself thinking of Shady Vale. The life sounds, insect and animal, the brief traces of movement through the trees, sudden and furtive, even the warm, fresh smell of the autumn woods-all were similar to that distant Southland village. There was no Rappahalladran, yet there were dozens of tiny streams meandering lazily across their path. The Valegirl breathed deeply. No wonder the woodsman Cogline had chosen this valley for his home.

The travelers pa.s.sed deeper into the forest, and time slipped slowly from them. Now and again they caught brief glimpses of Hearthstone through the webbing of the dark forest limbs, itstowering shadow black against the blue of the sky, and they pointed themselves toward it. They walked in silence, worn and anxious to be done with the day's long march, their thoughts concentrated on the terrain ahead and the sounds and sights of the forest.

At last Rone Leah came to a stop, one hand fastening guardedly on Brin's arm as he peered ahead.

"Hear that?" he asked quietly, after listening for a moment.

Brin nodded. It was a voice-thin, almost inaudible, but clearly human. They waited a moment, gauging its direction, then began walking toward it. The voice disappeared for a time, then returned, louder, almost angry. Whoever was speaking was directly, ahead.

"You had better show yourself and right now!" The voice was high and strident. "I've no time for games!"

There was some muttering and cursing, and the Valegirl and the highlander looked at each other questioningly.

"Come out, come out, come out!" the voice shrilled, then trailed off in an angry murmur.

"Should have left you back on the moor...if it wasn't for my kind heart..."

There was more cursing, and the sound of someone crashing through the underbrush reached their ears.

"I've a few tricks myself, you know! I've got powders to blow the ground right out from under you and potions that would tie you in knots! Think you know so much, you...Let's see you climb a rope! Let's see you do that! Let's see you do anything besides cause me trouble! How would you like me to leave you here? How would you like that? Wouldn't think yourself so smart then, I'll wager! Now get out here!"

Brin and Rone stepped through the screen of trees and brush blocking their view and found themselves at the edge of a small clearing with a wide, still pond at its center. Across from them, crawling aimlessly about on his hands and knees was an old man. He scrambled to his feet at the sound of their approach.

"Ha! So you've decided...!" He stopped short as he saw them. "Who are you supposed to be? No, never mind who you are. It doesn't make a twig's difference. Just get out of here and go back to wherever it was you came from."

He turned from them with a dismissive gesture and resumed crawling along the forest's edge, his skeletal arms groping left and right, his thin, hunched body like a twisted bit of deadwood. Great tufts of ragged white hair and beard hung down about his shoulders, and his green-colored clothes and half-cloak were tattered and worn. The Valegirl and the highlander stared blankly at him and then at each other.

"This is ridiculous!" the old man stormed, directing his wrath at the silent trees. Then he looked around and saw that the travelers were still there. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get out of here! This is my house, and I didn't invite you! So get out, get out!"

"This is where you live?" Rone asked, glancing about doubtfully.

The old man looked at him as if he were an idiot. "Didn't, you just hear me say so? What else do you think I'd be doing here at this hour?"

"I don't know," the highlander admitted.

"A man should be in his home at this hour!" the other continued in something of a scolding tone. "As a matter of fact, what are you doing here? Don't you have homes of your own to go to?"

"We've come all the way from Shady Vale in the Southland." Brin tried to explain, but theold man just stared-blankly at her. "It's below the Rainbow Lake, several days' ride." The old man's expression never changed. "Anyway, we've come here looking for someone who..."

"No one here but me." The old man shook his head firmly. "Except for Whisper, and I can't find him. Where do you think...?"

He trailed off distractedly, turning again from them as if to resume his hunt for whoever it was that was missing. Brin glanced doubtfully at Rone.

"Wait a minute!" she called after the old man, who looked around sharply. "A woodsman told us about this man. He told us he lived here. He said that his name was Cogline."

The old man shrugged. "Never heard of him."

"Well, maybe he lives in some other part of the valley. Maybe you could tell us where we might..."

"You don't listen very well, do you?" the other interrupted irritably. "Now I don't know where it is that you come from-don't care either-but I'll wager you don't have strange people running around your home, do you? I'll wager you know everyone living there or visiting there or whatever! So what makes you think it's any different with me?"

"You mean this whole valley is your home?" Rone demanded incredulously.

"Of course it's my home! I just told you that half a dozen different times! Now get out of it and leave me in peace!"

He stamped one sandaled foot vehemently and waited for them to go. But the Valegirl and the highlander just stood there.

"This is Hearthstone, isn't it?" Rone pressed, growing a bit angry with this cantankerous oldster.

The fellow's thin jaw stiffened resolutely. "What if it is?"

"Well, if it is, there is a man living here by the name of Cogline-or at least there was up until two years ago. He'd been living here for years before that, we were told. So if you've been out here for any length of time, you ought to know something about him!"

The old man was silent for a moment, his craggy brows tightening in thought. Then he shook his wispy head firmly. "Told you before, I never heard of him. No one around here with that name now or any other time. No one."

But Brin had seen something in the old man's eyes. She took a step closer to him and stopped. "You know the name, don't you? Cogline-you know it."

The old man stood his ground. "Maybe I do and maybe I don't. In any case, I don't have to tell you!"

Brin pointed. "You're Cogline, aren't you?"

The old man erupted in a violent fit of laughter. "Me? Cogline? Ha-ha, now wouldn't that be something! Oh, I would be talented, indeed! Ha-ha, now that's funny!"

Valegirl and highlander stared at him in amazement as he doubled over sharply and fell to the ground, laughing hysterically. Rone took Brin by the arm and turned her toward him.

"For cat's sake, Brin-this old man's crazy!" ha whispered.

"What did you say? Crazy am I?" The oldster was back on his feet, his weathered face flushed with anger. "I ought to show you just how crazy! Now you get out of my house! I didn't want you here in the first place, and I don't want you here now! Get out!"

"We didn't mean any harm," a fl.u.s.tered Rone tried to apologize.

"Get out, get out, get out! I'll turn you into puffs of smoke! I'll set fire to you and watch you burn. I'll...I'll..."He was jumping up and down in uncontrollable fury, his bony hands knotted tightly into fists, his tufted white hair flying wildly in all directions. Rone came forward to calm him.

"Stay away from me!" the other fairly shrieked, one thin arm pointing like a weapon. The highlander stopped at once. "Stay back! Oh, where's that stupid...! Whisper!"

Rone glanced about expectantly, but no one appeared. The old man was beside himself with anger now and he whirled about, shouting into the forest darkness and flinging his arms about like windmills.

"Whisper! Whisper! Get out here and protect me from these troublemakers! Whisper, drat you! Will you let them kill me? Should I just give myself over to them? What good are you, you fool...! Oh, I never should have wasted my time on you! Get out here! Right now!"

The Valegirl and the highlander watched the antics of the old fellow with a mixture of wariness and amus.e.m.e.nt. Whoever Whisper was, he had apparently decided some time back that he wanted nothing to do with any of this. Yet the old man was not about to give up. He continued leaping about hysterically and shouting at nothing. Finally, Rone turned again to Brin.

"This is getting us nowhere," he declared, keeping his voice purposefully low. "Let's be on our way-look about on our own. The old man's obviously lost his mind."

But Brin shook her head, remembering what the woodsman Jeft had said about Cogline: an odd duck, crazier than a fish swimming through gra.s.s. "Let me try one more time," she replied.

She started forward, but the old man turned on her at once. "Wouldn't listen to me, is that it? Well, I gave you fair warning. Whisper! Where are you? Get out here! Get her! Get her!"

Brin drew up short in spite of herself and looked about. Still there was no one in sight.

Then Rone stalked past her, gesturing impatiently.

"Now look here, old man. Enough is enough. There's no one else out here but you, so why don't you just stop this..."

"Ha! No one else but me, you think?" The old man leaped into the air with glee and landed in a crouch. "I'll show you who's out here, you...you trespa.s.ser! Come into my house, will you? I'll show you! Whisper! Whisper! Dratted...!"

Rone was shaking his head hopelessly and grinning when all of a sudden the biggest cat he had ever seen in his life appeared from out of nowhere right in front of him, no more than half a dozen yards away. Dark gray in color with spreading black panels on its flanks that ran upward across its sloping back, a black face, ears, and tail and wide, almost c.u.mbersome-looking black paws, the beast measured well over ten feet and its ma.s.sive, s.h.a.ggy head rose even with his own.

Corded muscles rippled beneath the sleek fur as it shook itself lazily and regarded the highlander and the Valegirl with luminous, deep blue eyes that blinked and narrowed. It seemed to study them for a moment, then its jaws parted in a soundless yawn, revealing a flash of gleaming, razor-sharp teeth.

Rone Leah swallowed hard and stayed perfectly still.

"Ah-ha! Not so funny now, I'll wager!" the old man gloated and began chuckling merrily, his thin legs dancing about. "Thought I was crazy, did you? Thought I was just talking to myself, did you? Well, what do you think now?"

"n.o.body meant you any harm," Brin repeated as the big cat looked Rone over curiously.

The old man edged forward a step, his eyes brightening beneath the tufted hair that hung down about his wrinkled forehead.

"Think he might like you for supper? Is that what you think? He gets hungry, old Whisperdoes. The two of you would provide him with a nice bedtime snack! Ha! What's the trouble? You look a little pale, like you might not feel so good. That's too bad, too bad now. Maybe you ought to..."

The grin vanished suddenly from his face. "Whisper, no! Whisper, no, wait, don't do that...!"

And with that, the big cat simply faded away and was gone, much as if he had evaporated.

For a moment all three stared wonderingly at the s.p.a.ce he had previously occupied. Then the old man stamped his foot angrily and kicked at the empty air in front of him.

"Drat you! You quit that, you hear me! Show yourself, you fool animal or I'll...!" He trailed off wrathfully, then looked over at Brin and Rone. "You get out of my house! Get out!"

Rone Leah had had enough. A crazy old man and a disappearing cat were more than he had bargained for. He wheeled without a word and stalked past Brin, muttering for her to follow.

But Brin hesitated, still not willing to give it up.

"You don't understand how important this is!" she exclaimed heatedly. The old man stiffened. "You cannot just turn us away like this. We need your help. Please, tell us where we can find the man called Cogline."

The old man regarded her silently, his sticklike body hunched and bent, his s.h.a.ggy eyebrows knitting petulantly. Then abruptly he threw us his hands and shook his white head in resignation.

"Oh, very well-anything to get rid of you!" He sighed deeply aced did his best to look put upon. "It won't help you a whit, you understand-not a whit!"

The Valegirl waited wordlessly. Behind her, Rone had turned back again. The old man c.o.c.ked his head, reflecting. One thin hand ran quickly through the tangled hair.

"Old Cogline is right over there at the foot of the big rock." He waved his hand almost casually in the direction of Hearthstone. "Right where I buried him almost a year ago."

30.

Brin Ohmsford stared fixedly at the old man, disappointment welling up inside and choking back the exclamation forming in her throat. One hand lifted in a helpless gesture.

"You mean that Cogline is dead?"

"Dead and buried!" the truculent oldster snapped. "Now be on your way and leave me in peace!"

He waited impatiently for the Valegirl and the highlander to go, but Brin could not bring herself to move. Cogline dead? Somehow she could not accept that he was. Would not word of that death by some means have gotten back to the woodsman Jeft or to others who lived in the forests that lay about the Rooker Line Trading Center? A man who had lived for as long as Cogline had in this wilderness, a man known to so many...? She caught herself. Possibly not, for woodsmen and trappers often stayed apart for months at a time. But who then was this old man?

The woodsman had made no mention of him. Somehow it was all wrong.

"Let's go, Brin," Rone called to her gently.

But the Valegirl shook her head. "No. Not until I'm sure. Not until I can..."

"Get out of my house!" the old man repeated once again, stamping his foot petulantly. "I have put up with enough from you! Cogline is dead! Now if you're not gone from here by the time I..."

"Grandfather!"

The voice broke sharply from out of the wooded darkness to their left where, in the distance, the rugged pinnacle of Hearthstone loomed blackly through the interwoven branches of the silent trees. Three heads jerked about as one, and the forest went suddenly still. Whisper reappeared to one side of them, his blue eyes luminous, his great, s.h.a.ggy head raised and searching. The old man muttered to himself and stamped his foot one time more.

Then there was a soft rustling of leaves and the mysterious speaker appeared, stepping lightly into clearing. Brin and Rone turned to each other in surprise. It was a girl, barely older than Brin, her small, supple form clothed in pants and tunic and wrapped loosely in a braided short cloak of forest green. Long, curling ringlets of thick, dark hair hung down about her shoulders, softly shadowing a sun-browned, faintly freckled pixie face that was strangely beguiling, almost compelling in its look of innocence. It was a pretty face, and while not truly beautiful in the way of Brin's, appealing nevertheless with its uncomplicated freshness and vitality. Dark, intelligent eyes mirrored frankness and honesty as she studied the Valegirl and the highlander curiously.

"Who are you?" she asked in a tone of voice that suggested that she had a right to know.

Brin glanced again at Rone and then back to the girl. "I'm Brin Ohmsford from Shady Vale and this is Rone Leah. We've come north from our homes in the Southland below the Rainbow Lake.

"You have come a long way," the girl observed. "Why are you here?"

"To find a man named Cogline."

"Do you know this man, Brin Ohmsford?"

"No."

"Then why do you look for him?"

The girl's eyes never left hers. Brin hesitated, wondering how much she should tell her.

There was something about this girl that warned against lying, and Brin had not missed the wayin which her sudden appearance had quieted the old man and brought back the disappearing cat.

Still, the Valegirl was reluctant to reveal the whole of her reason for their being at Hearthstone without first finding out who she was.

"We were told that Cogline was the man who best knew the forestland from Darklin Reach east to the Ravenshorn," she replied guardedly. "We were hoping he would offer his services on a matter of great importance."

The girl was silent for a moment, apparently considering what Brin had told her. The old man shuffled over to where she stood and began fidgeting..

"They're trespa.s.sers and troublemakers!" he insisted vehemently.

The girl did not reply nor even look at him, her dark eyes still locked into grin's, her slim form motionless. The old man threw up his hands in exasperation.