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"What about the leechings?" Thoronmir asked the prisoner. "We've seen evidence of them down below ground, so out with it."
"You're gettin' nothin' more out of me."
Thoronmir knelt down beside him, and drew out his knife again, and laid it on the prisoner's cheek. "Do I have to show you again that I mean business?"
The prisoner winced and began to sweat. "I'll talk! I'll t-" An arrow pierced his throat. He fell over and lay bleeding on the ground. The party members looked to where the arrow had come from. A man jumped down from the wall behind the manse, and was lost to sight. They heard his running feet.
"After him!" Thoronmir cried. He gave chase, passing through the manse. Falowik and Uien were on his heels. Falco, surprisingly quick on his feet for all the weight he carried, went around the right side of the manse, followed by Gorby and Anson. Lira started to run, but looked back and saw that Eswen had not moved.
"Go!" Eswen waved her on. "I shall wait here for Lumiel and Finéwen."
Lira ran around the left side of the manse, and caught up to Anson and Gorby as they slipped through the bottleneck of the back entrance. She passed them by and soon overtook Falco.
Falco, for all his quickness, was gasping before long, and Anson and Gorby passed him by.
"Slow down, shirrif, and think." He came to a stop and looked around and listened. He could hear more than one set of hooves retreating into the distance. They knew this Boris was still alive, and they knew he'd talk, so they came back to shut him up. Clear enough. An' now they're headed off west. That's clear enough too, the bumpkins. Ruffians never were very smart, none that I ever knew anyways. The others'll be comin' back soon enough. I'm back to the manse to see what the other Big Trouble have found. With that he retraced his steps and found Lumiel and Finéwen relating their discovery to Eswen. Falco asked for a repeat of their tale, which they were quite ready to give.
"So this skull and snake keep showing up, eh?" Falco said. "It's as if somebody's got it in his head that he's the new dark lord or some such."
The two elves and one human turned and gave him looks that put him on edge.
"What'd I say?
"Someone styles himself a new dark lord, you said," Eswen remarked. Her eyes were slitted, watching him. "Do you know something, or were you thinking aloud?"
"Just thinking! Just thinking! Why? Do you think I'm right?"
"Time will tell," was Eswen's mysterious response. Lumiel and Finéwen visibly shuddered.
The others returned and reported pretty much what Falco had figured using his own wits. And he told them so. It was in his mind that these folks ought to know that he had a good head on his shoulders for figuring things out. They didn't seem too convinced, though.
Lumiel repeated their discovery to the rest of the party.
"It's time to move on," Thoronmir said. "Let's to our horses and follow the riders to their hiding place."
"I hope it's not too big a hiding place," said Falco, "nor a fortress, for that matter. And what about some of us going back?"
"Not now," Thoronmir answered. "It's time to give chase. Let's go!"
Uien insisted that the prisoner at least deserved burial. Thoronmir allowed them the few moments necessary to gather brush and other debris from around the manse, to cover the corpse. Then they mounted their steeds and gave chase.
They had already lost perhaps fifteen to twenty minutes. Falco was pretty sure that they were not going to catch the fleeing horsemen, and said so. They did not slacken their pace, but they did not go faster than the hobbits' ponies could stand.
After an hour, the hoof prints divided, going two different directions around a hill. Thoronmir chose the path taken by the most horses. At the next hill there was another split.
Thoronmir called a halt. The sun was westering.
"I do not like this," Thoronmir said. "We are in their land, I wager, and our enemies could be anywhere."
As if on cue, rows of horsed brigands appeared atop the hills on both sides of the party, as well as on the hill before them. Sixty strong, at least.
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