It was hard to tell that Garon had made any progress on the tree. Its broad trunk was still lying across the road. Garon seemed to have given up for the moment at cutting straight through and instead started removing some of the protruding branches. There was now a tangle of cut twigs and branches piled alongside the road.

Kiri led the horses out of the trees onto the road on the other side of the tree from Garon, just to drive her point home that little bit more that they didn’t actually have to move this tree to make progress. He didn’t notice her at first, partially obscured by the tree’s leaves, so she called out. “How are you going to get it off the road?”

Garon buried his hatchet into the wood. He didn’t raise his face to Kiri, but instead bent close, looking over his work. The sorry wedge he’d manage to cut from the trunk, the slightly-sparser foliage with the stubby ends of cut limbs, and the small pile he had made bore testimony to its futility. Kiri kept her mouth shut and waited for him to come to the obvious conclusion. Without speaking to or looking at her, he went over to his pack and hefted it onto his shoulders. With a hard jerk he pulled the hatchet back out of the tree. Finally he looked at Kiri.

“Back up. I’m coming over.”

Garon scrambled over the tree, using the hatchet to hack away at the grasping branches in his way. In less than a minute he was standing next to Kiri.

“What happened to our responsibility as travelers? Are you really going to leave this for the next people to come along?” She looked at him mock-seriously.

“All right, you were right,” Garon said. “There is no way I can get that tree off the road by myself.”

“By yourself?” Kiri said. “And I’m just a helpless woman?”

“You weren’t helping.”

“Hmm.” Kiri yanked off her glove and stepped away from the horses. She called over her shoulder, “I found the Eldan road, by the way,” and then raised her hand, palm pointing out at the log. White lightning shot out of her hand and she traced it down one side of the log, then the other, neatly cutting out the large segment on the road. Well, mostly neatly.

“Whoa!” Garon yelled, leaping past Kiri with one of the saddle-blankets in his hands. How he’d gotten it so quickly, Kiri couldn’t imagine. She swept her cloak off her shoulders and together they beat out the flames building in the brush at the roadside. The blanket got a little singed at the edges, but they soon had the fire extinguished.

“There!” Kiri said, laughing a little. “See, I’m a big help!”

“It’s still on the road,” Garon said.

“Right!” Kiri leaned into the log, pushing with her full weight. She put her back against it and shoved as hard as she could. Garon, seeing what she was doing, joined her. The tree moved, just a little, then stuck still and wouldn’t budge again. Kiri sighed and stood away from it. “Well, at least we got the fire out. There’s no way we’re going to move it out of the way.”

Garon tried to shove the tree one more time. He threw a frown at Kiri before going over to the horses to fix his horse’s saddle, putting the blanket back in place.

Kiri checked that her mare was properly saddled and mounted up herself. And then she saw that Garon was not mounting alongside her. He was walking back over to the still-smoking tree trunk, carrying a rope.

“Oh, come on!” she said. “We tried! Let’s just go.”

“The horses should be able to drag it off,” he said. “Here, tie them on and I’ll get this end around the tree.”

Gritting her teeth, Kiri dismounted and took the rope-end Garon was offering. “You know I have no idea how to hitch up horses for pulling stuff, right?”

“Then you just won this job,” Garon nodded toward the tree. “Make it secure; there’s going to be a lot of force behind it.”

“Yeah, uh-huh,” Kiri said. She forced a smile, which was wasted on Garon, since he was already starting to tie up the horses. Oh, well, if he insisted on wasting time with this, at least he wasn’t dawdling about it.

The trunk wasn’t perfectly straight, and the larger branches held it partly away from the ground in a few places as well, so it was easy enough to find a gap to pass the rope through. It was still tricky to tighten it without catching other branches in the knot, and Kiri had to crawl through a maze of sticks to get everything in place and work the knot tight.

“All set!” she called to Garon as she dropped back down onto the road and gave the rope a sharp, testing, tug.

“All ready here,” Garon called back. “Come up here and help me get these horses moving.”

The mares were agreeable, but not good draft horses. It took a great deal of urging to convince them to pull the weight. They seemed inclined to just wait to be untied. Eventually they coaxed the horses into pulling the section of trunk forward and off toward the side of the road. Kiri rewarded them each with a sugarcube from her secret stash.

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“Good work, Kiri,” Garon said. “Thanks.”

“Sure,” Kiri said. “I don’t mind helping other people out, you know. It’s what I do, actually. It’s just we have a job to do. Did you hear me say I found the Eldan road?”

“Yeah,” Garon said. “I didn’t think it would be so close.”

“I'll untie the rope,” Kiri said. “And we’ll be there before supper.”

Garon nodded and started untying his horse.

It was harder to get the rope off the tree than it had been to tie it on. The horses pulling had drawn the knot very tight. Kiri straddled the tree trunk and bent forward. Her fingers strained, trying to pull the knot apart. The sunlight came straight down onto the knot out of the clear blue sky, making the knot easy to see. The fallen tree had made a rare open spot in the forest’s canopy. But then the light went away, momentarily darker. Then it was light, dark, light again, like a series of tiny clouds had crossed in front of the sun. Kiri didn’t pay much attention, focusing on the knot. There was a swishing sound, and the trees around Kiri creaked as if in a wind, but the air was still. That was strange enough to take Kiri’s attention from the knot and she raised her head.

At least four huge figures had landed in the trees around them. Kiri whipped her head around to make sure there were no more of them. They were not birds, or at least not only birds, because they did have legs and wings and bodies of giant eagles. But where the eagle's head should have been the creatures had the torsos of human women, if there were ever a human woman so hideous. Their hair seemed to be made of feathers and their fingers ended in curving talons, but their faces, twisted in ugly, hateful expressions though they were, were human enough.

Kiri balled her hand. She hadn’t put the glove back on yet, and the heat built quickly. She dropped down off the tree and edged toward Garon, trying to move so that she could keep all of the creatures in her sight without startling them to action. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Garon moving, too. He had mounted his horse. Kiri reached her mare and saw that it was still tied. Not wanting to take the time to untie her, Kiri pulled out a small dagger from her belt.

One of the harpies threw back her head and screeched, so loud that Kiri wanted to cover her ears. All four of the creatures spread their wings and swooped down towards Garon and Kiri. Kiri moved to cut her mare free, but Garon caught her wrist.

“Come on!” he yelled, and with a strength that surprised her, hauled her onto the back of his horse.

The mare shot forward. Kiri wouldn’t have thought the old horse could go so fast, but the screeching harpies had given her real motivation. The other mare, still tied to the tree, responded with a blind panic of her own, but they had no time to do anything for her.

The mare was going as fast as she could, but the harpies closed the distance. The nearest harpy reached out with a claw-hand and grasped at Kiri’s back. Her talons closed around the cloak. Kiri hadn’t properly fastened it after using it to put out the fire and it came away easily. The harpy tossed it away in frustration. Before she had a chance to reach out again Kiri unleashed the lightning from her hand. It struck the harpy, and she spun, shrieking, and fell onto the road. Little bits of lightning flew out from her in every direction. The other harpies screeched, and scattered, but Kiri could see they were not yet deterred. They were still following

“Go right!” she yelled at Garon. Immediately the mare veered into the trees, but she kept up her speed. Kiri feared they now had as much danger of crashing into a tree as being caught by the harpies. The mare was in a panic, going much faster than she should. At least the harpies would have trouble catching them in this dense wood.

Kiri heard crashing and screeching coming up behind them. She could see one of the harpies nearing them. The creature was leaping and swooping from tree to tree. The heat was building in Kiri’s hand again, but the harpy was zigzagging such that she couldn’t be sure she would hit it if she tried. It took a little while after letting the lightning go for it to come back; Kiri couldn’t risk missing. So she waited, chewing the inside of her cheek as she watched the harpy, jump, jump, swoop. She could see the glint of its eyes now, angry black chips of glass in its inhumanly bluish face. The harpy was finally within striking distance, and knew it. She let out a triumphant shriek as she swooped down on Kiri, her claw hands stretched out, one claw dug into Kiri’s shoulder, and they both screamed as Kiri let loose with her fire straight into the creature’s chest. The harpy fell. Her claw tore loose from Kiri’s shoulder, pulling her off balance, but she didn’t fall after the harpy. Somehow Garon managed to grab her, twisting in the saddle, while still keeping his grip on the reins. The mare veered a little to the side as he pulled Kiri back up straight.

“Kiri?” He said through gritted teeth. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah,” Kiri said between gasping breaths. “Fine. Thanks. Go.”

She felt unsteady, but only dared to hold onto Garon with one hand. She needed the other. She squeezed her fist again. Her fire was their only chance to fight off the harpies. They were still coming. She could hear them crashing towards her from the left and the right now.

“We’re almost there.” she whispered to Garon. “Go a little more right.”

Garon leaned forward, and the mare actually sped up. Kiri would’ve thought she was going as fast as she could already. The crashing grew closer. Kiri caught glimpses of the harpies in the trees. And then abruptly the mare’s hooves were running on stone, her shoes clicking against its hard surface. She went faster now, with firm ground under feet. It helped that she was not having to dodge, but Kiri missed the cover of the trees. The harpy from the left swooped nearer, and Kiri raised her hand, waiting again for that last moment to strike. But, right at the edge of the stones, the harpy wheeled and stopped, lighting on a tree. She opened her mouth wide and screamed at them, but she didn’t come any nearer. On the other side of the road, a few moments later, another harpy did the same thing.

“They won’t come on the road!” Garon called.

“I see that!”

The mare slowed and Kiri yelled again, feeling a little panicked, “We have to get away from them! Go!”

“We’re going, Kiri,” Garon said. “I don’t want to kill the horse.”

Kiri watched over her shoulder as they continued to put distance between themselves and the harpies. The harpies didn’t follow along the side of the road, but stayed for a few minutes at their perches, screaming and stomping, until they finally gave up and flew back the way they had come.