"I've always wondered how something so far north could get the name, `South Valley,'" said Brogan.
"It was so named by those of the ancient elf kingdom which lay to the northeast," answered Belloc.
"You promised to tell me about Mo- ," began Lily, speaking to Anest.
"Shush!" he cut her off, "Please don't speak that name so near to the Black Wood. Wait at least until we are under the open sky, and I'll tell you what I can." He gave her a gentle squeeze to soften his brusqueness with her.
Thunder had borne then halfway across the ford, when Lily's sharp intake of breath caused Anest to bring them to a halt.
"What is it? Why are you looking at the water that way? The lights are harmless."
Belloc, too, had turned to observe this occurrence.
Gaping, her features suffused with the suppressed extremity of some nameless emotion that may have been akin to grief and bitter loss, Lily stared fixedly at the pale rainbow-hued gauze-like strands of light, unable to tear her eyes away. Distantly, she muttered, "I know them . . ."
As though in response to Lily's presence, the flickering ribbons became more numerous, palpable, and brighter, gathering around the great horse's legs as though meaning to engulf them. But they remained tenuous, ineffectual.