[Envinyatar]

Rhûnnaro mounted his horse quickly and drew Turos up behind him. Again Tenzin took the lead with Fionel mustering the women to get quickly to their feet and follow swiftly.

He pushed their pace as fast he dared, knowing that they were footsore already, and had not had time to eat enough to regain some strength. An hour flew by, and then another, more slowly. And then one more. Tenzin gave a sharp whistle and called a halt at the entrance to a clearing. Rhûnnaro moved forward, reaching down with his hand as he passed the line of women to motion them to gather closely near Tenzin.

The women sat down, exhaustion playing on the features of their faces. Turos was let down to hand round the water skins and the small sacks of dried food.

‘What do you think, Rhûnnaro. Would this not be a good place to meet them?’ He pointed to each side of the clearing, hemmed in by low lying thickets. ‘There are places there on each side for the women to hide and harry the riders and their horses.’ ‘And there,’ he pointed just to the side of the great tree at the end of the clearing, ‘there is a small rise of rocks, I can get a clear aim at anyone who enters with my bow.’

Rhûnnaro nodded his head slowly his eyes taking in the positions pointed out. ‘But we will need some way to draw them in. I would be wary were I to approach something like this.’ His eyes fell on Turos as the man limped round the circle of women.

‘We will need to bait the trap.’