`Will it be the same,' she wondered, and in the same breath, `Will anything ever be the same again?'

"At least you will like the stables, Danin," and her mount pricked up his ears at hearing his name. "We are almost out of the Black Wood now . . . and look! There is the little ford of Stony Book! It won't be long, now."

The little white northern horse picked up his pace, anticipating a rubbing down, and a sweet bunch of carrots.

As they reached the ford at Stony Brook, an escort appeared as though having materialized out of the forest. To Lily's disappointment, the first sight she got of Belloc's house was of soldiers camped in the fields, all the way to the garrison house atop the hill beyond. A series of long rows of crude but serviceable lean-to's had been built from beside the barn all the way to the garrison house, to stable the occupying army's five-thousand horse and two-hundred-fifty spares. Few soldiers were visible. Perhaps they patrolled on foot?

To Lily's lasting relief, when she was relieved of Danin, the young stablehand who took his reins assured her that a good rubbing-down and some carrots sent all the way from the farms of Brand awaited him. As she and her husband began making their way towards the house, Lily couldn't suppress a smile at the frankly awed, admiring look of the stablehands as they appraised Danin, Thunder, and the sleek elven horse owned by Palindor, a smokey-grey stallion that looked as




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