"Human, get away from there!" Jouka snapped. Mindful she was only a guest, but still curious, Martine started to close the shutter but kept her eye glued to the peephole. Squinting, she strained against the sun-dazzled snow to make out anything clearly. A frosty morning haze hung over the berry canes at the meadow's edge.

Martine could hear Jouka's grumbling grow louder with every passing second, and she was about to give up when she spotted a movement among the canes. "Jouka, look there," she whispered eagerly as she stepped aside. "By that uprooted pine."

The gnome pressed his eye to the slot. "I don't see you mean the big white thing?"

The ranger nodded. Wreesar."

The rasping horn blew again, sounding louder through the opening. Standing next to the distant elemental was a gnoll blowing a curved horn. The winter wind whipped the gnoll's ragged clothes.

"It followed you here!" Jouka accused Martine as Elder Sumalo stepped forward to have a look.

"Not me," Martine said with a shake of her head. "I've never used this entrance. Buri, perhaps."

Jouka grunted, unwilling to divert the blame. "You brought them to this valley," he insisted.

The Harper couldn't deny that. The accusation reminded her of Jazrac's words last night. In solving one problem for the Harpers, she'd created another, and it was just as much her duty to solve this one.

"We should hear what Vreesar has to say," the woman said when Jouka gave no orders to open the gate.

The dour little man snorted. "There is nothing to say. I say we kill it when it comes closer."

Martine's first reaction to the gnome's suggestion was that it would solve the problem, and in the instant when words come before thought, she almost agreed aloud. How

ever, second thoughts followed, and she recoiled at what she had almost done.

"No, Jouka. The woman speaks wisely. We must hear the creature out," Elder Sumalo said disapprovingly. "Heikko, open the door."

The golden-bearded warrior nodded and shot back the massive bolt in its track. Martine, Jouka, and Sumalo fell back among the ranks of gnomes as the gate swung inward, releasing a shower of icy chunks from the bank overhead. The hardened snow shattered on the wooden floor and lay there to crackle underfoot. Warmth fled the hallway, fluttering the long beards of the little warriors braced for attack.

Across the snowfield, the elemental stood hunched and motionless at the edge of the woods. Behind him, in clusters of two or three, Martine saw in the haze the phantoms of Burnt Fur warriors among the brambles and trees. Like the elemental, they did not move.

"People of the dirt!" the elemental croaked in its peculiar buzzing accent. "I am Vreesar, prince of ice and master of the Burnt Fur. Who speakz for the little dirt people?"

Without hesitation, Elder Sumalo stepped from the line of militia advanced to the doorway. "I am Elder Sumalo. I speak for the Vani." The old gnome's normally thin voice penetrated the distance across the clearing with authority.

The elemental's icicled brow flared in the sunlight, and it cocked its head to survey the small figure that faced him. "Su-ma-lo," the creature said with difficulty, shaping the soft syllables with its harsh lips. "Su-ma-lo," it repeated, striding across the snow. "Come out and we will talk."

"Watch for any sign of treachery," the priest said softly to Jouka. The warrior nodded, then motioned several spearmen to the edge of the door where they had a clear view.

The old priest waded through the drifted path to the center of the small field between the warren and the woods, where the elemental already stood. Barely had they met when the elemental pointed toward the entrance. "The female comez, too," it shrilled. Martine realized its icy finger was pointed at her. Jouka eyed her darkly, suspicious of the link between the woman and the fiend.

Unbuckling her sword, Martine joined Sumalo on the frozen meadow. Away from the shelter of the doors, the wind blasted her cheeks and cut through the light clothing she wore.

"Speaker of the Vani, listen to me," Vreesar was saying as Martine approached. "Give me the woman and the stone she haz stolen, and I will leave you in peace. She waz Hakk'z mate, and now she iz mine. She stole the stone from Hakk."

Sumalo stared up at the towering elemental. 'Mere are far more stones in the earth than Vani. I do not know which one you mean."

"The woman knowz! Ask her," Vreesar hissed, voice crackling with frost. The creature squatted down till its angular face was level with the old priest's.

The tired veins on Sumalo's neck traced blue-black lines as the priest tensed. His eyes narrowed, the gnome turned to the Harper. "What does he mean, Martine of Sembia?"

"It was a rock I found on the glacier," the Harper lied. "I don't have it now. Last I saw it was in the chieftain's lodge." Suddenly she was thankful for the cold, for her shivering disguised her trembles of fear.

"Liez! I know it iz the key! That iz why you stole it, human!" The elemental almost reached for her, then restrained itself, perhaps deterred by the line of spear points behind her.

Martine trembled. Damn! The creature knows! I was too obvious. I can't let it get the stone. "I don't have it," she repeated fiercely.

Vreesar changed his tactics. "My slavez say, `People of the dirt hate the Burnt Fur. You must lead uz in war against

them.' But I, Vreesar, do not want war. You do not want war. I give you thiz chance to make peace, Su-ma-lo. Do not be tricked by thiz human. She haz the stone. Give them both to me." The creature's icy face crackled in expectation.

"Me woman is our guest. I will not break the laws of the warren."

"She liez!" Vreesar's razor edges glinted in the sunlight. "She haz stolen the stone. She must be punished!"

"Your law is not our law, creature," Sumalo snapped back, his anger rising with each threat. "We did not start this war. You invaded our valley."

The elemental drew itself up. "We see no totemz, no claim stakez," Vreesar said with a sneer.

"Our homes are our claims," Sumalo replied. "You murdered Elder Hudni! The crimes are yours, not the Vani's." The fiend buzzed in a mockery of laughter, its needled mouth cracking in a perversion of a smile. "When all of you are dead, I will bring my brotherz to amuse themselvez here. No more talk! I kill some of your people. Th en we talk again.*

The elemental turned and strode back toward the woods and the waiting gnolls. At the edge of the forest, it stopped and looked back. "People of the dirt, remember who started thiz war!" With that, the wind embraced the pale creature in a cloak of driven snow, swirling him out of sight.

"Shut the doors," Sumalo rasped as they entered the warren. The puffs of his breath hung like cold charms in the air. Martine held out one arm to help the old gnome along, but he paid her no attention. When they reached the foyer, the others quickly labored to close the broad wooden gates. The doors met with a loud thump, and the bar rattled into place.

Sumalo pointed at the gnomes nearest the door. "Stay here and guard. Three others each guard the cliffside and the east entrances. Vani, arm yourselves and prepare for war!"