XIVSeven nights after the wanderers had come to Lis Pengwern, fires were lit along the hilltops surrounding the settlement. They blazed fiercely in the night wind, causing cries of wonder from the children of the tribe. Medrodus asked why these fires had been lit.
Cei, a warrior in the band of Artos, answered, “They are to guide the feet of the antler-men.” Then he turned away, grim-faced, and pretended to busy himself taking a stone from his horse’s hoof. Medrodus cursed him silently for a barbarian, but all the same kept his eyes on the hilltops, wondering what was about to happen.
At length a great load of brushwood was dragged in on sledges and erected as a mound at the centre of the hard earth compound where the horsemen did their training. Men stayed round the heap, expectant and p
