The Ranger Gathering camp is alive with activity. Messengers arrive and depart at a gallop. In the large central tent, its sides rolled up, men are deep in conversation around a table. Halt hurries to the main tent while Gilan and Will find a campsite and wait for further news.

Another Ranger, Merron, sit with them and reports that Morgarath is on the move. A platoon of Wargals broke through sentries and escaped to the north. At about the same time, robustly healthy Lord Lorriac, leader of the kingdom’s main cavalry force, dropped dead for no reason.

Halt returns from the command tent and reports that the Gathering is canceled. Apparently the Wargal escape was a feint while the two remaining Kalkara slipped through the passes and now are on the Solitary Plain. The Kalkara, “somewhere between an ape and a bear” (182), are much smarter than the Wargals, and they love silver, which Morgarath provides to them for their services. Kalkara are excellent assassins: Once given a target, they’re relentless.

Their fur is too thick and matted for arrows; spears and swords can work, but it took three knights to kill a single Kalkara, and two of the warriors died in the process.