Akaru had his soldiers destroy every trace of his army's activities. The less the Enemy suspected, the better. Meanwhile, he consulted his chief captain, Stanick of Middleton, who had commanded the foot-soldiers. Stanick was a sour-looking elf, with no sense of humour. But he had a genius for making Akaru's plans work, even under horrendous circumstances. Akaru had learned to trust his judgement.
"Well, Stanick," he said, "what will come next, do you think?"
"As of this moment," replied Stanick, "we are thought to be holed up at some narrow pass up the valley. After about a week, we should be tired, running short of armaments and supplies, and beginning to feel our losses. Retreating from a bottleneck is a dangerous move, because being outnumbered and tired, and heading for wider ground, we could easily be overtaken and surrounded. We would obviously hold our ground until something came along to ferret us out.
"My thinking exactly," said Akaru thoughtfully. "Wights. Warlocks. A Dragon, maybe. I think we shall abandon this valley for a while."
"Abandon the valley?" cried Stanick in dismay.
"In a manner of speaking," replied Akaru. "I think that we shall divide our forces and position ourselves north and south of the mouth of the valley, and allow Lund to handle this next assault. We are not equipped to deal with warlocks or dragons. Send a rider to Lund to inform them of this. I anticipate a major offensive this time. We shall let the Enemy pass us by unmolested, and then cut off their retreat. We should be able to destroy their rear, rob them of their supplies, and perhaps