Niles smiled wryly at the irony, then. "He means well . . . it was his desire to teach me a hard lesson . . . but he was beat to it by the citizens of Alin!
"All of us here are now bearing tokens of the hope and faith of the Four Kingdoms . . . gifts bestowed upon us who until these last days had neither. These people hope against hope that we will succeed. They do not believe that our lives are without worth, and that we are fit only to die, alone and forgotten is some forsaken place far from our homes.
"And so it is that we must fight, not only for ourselves, but for these people, who can teach us much about hope, and the value of freedom."
Four days later, as they followed the White River eastward, the grey skies broke, and the sun came out like a fanfare of trumpets. Niles and his men were not heartened by this, so near to Morlock's demense, but their sense of purpose grew even more.
Five days more and they knew they were well past Morlock's castle. Yet not a single enemy had they seen. They began to head northeast, beginning a wide loop that would take them to the rear of Morlock's castle.
Immediately, they began to see signs of the enemies' presence . . . grass that had been tramped by many feet, ruts from wagons, bits of discarded debris.