[piosenniel]

'The Hidden Way?', asked Child and Bird together. 'What is that?'

'The city of Gondolin was hidden in the Vale of Tumladen.'said Pio. 'In a giant, steep-sided bowl, if you will, formed by the Echoriath, the Encircling Mountains. The Valar themselves, it is said, "wrestled the great mountains asunder, and the sides of the rift were sheer as if axe-cloven". The Hidden Way is through the ravine and tunnel left by a now dried river. It leads to a series of guarded gates which bar the entry into Gondolin.' She turned to one of the charts before Mithadan, and traced the way for them from the intersection of the River Sirion and the Dry River. 'I, too, believe this way is blocked to us.'

Her finger moved northward on the chart to Cirith Thoronath. 'There is another way, however, though I cannot say how safe it will be for Angara to take us there.'

'But first, if you wish to leave soon, then let me go ashore and let me find "when" we are now.'