Ingos laboured in the fields of the Valkari for several weeks. None there knew that he was Ingos, Father of the Hyûvandri. He won the confidence of some of the other labourers, and learnt that their lot was hard. They worked long days out of doors and they were not free to fare away. Those that had children could scarcely feed them. He learnt that they were the servants of the Valkari, those who wore the fine robes. The labourers were in truth not Valkari, but another people that Ingos remembered to have brought into Thrâyeldim long before. Then they had called themselves the Laukonardi, the Beloved of the Moon; but they had been taught to forget that name. They were called just Velgri, servants, or Velgrath Valkari, servants of the Valkari. Their dwellings were not among those of the true Valkari, but at a distance, against the earth wall surrounding the settlement. He asked them if they remembered Father Ingos; and the reply was:
‘Our fathers and mothers spoke of him; we ourselves have never seen him, and it is better for us that we forget his name too.’
Then Ingos perceived that Melyúnas was working evil among his people, the Hyúvandri. While he was still pondering this, and considering what might come of it, there befell another strange thing. This time, Ingos was at work in a field overlooking the village, when he heard a sound as of a company of riders on horseback coming through the woods that lay close to the walls. Suddenly, from an opening between the trees that he had not noticed before, what seemed to be a herd of animals streamed out, great beasts with huge branching horns. They were loathsome to look on, the shapes of the bones of their bodies and their skulls showing through the dark skin. But upon them sat riders, scarcely less hideous than they, like dwarfish men with the features of hawks. As they rode towards the village, the labourers all ran for their cottages and huts, crying,
‘Trankarellna! Kúmi Netári! The hawkheaded ones on their skulldeer!’
Ingos knew the skulldeer of the north, but had never seen them ridden; and of the Falakkazri he had heard only the name, for the Melainë, half-kin to the Falakkazri, were Ingos’s friends. He wondered if these creatures meant to attack the village, and stood watching to see what would happen. Then they slowed their pace and gathered into a circle near the walls, and he saw that the rider on the leading skulldeer was of different appearance from the others. He was somewhat greater in stature than they, with long arms, dark skin, and curly hair; in him Ingos could sense power, and he guessed that he must be one of the Entellári. Why he was leading this wild-looking rout Ingos could not at first tell.
Then he saw that every skulldeer was loaded with great paniers, evidently full up with wares. Dismounting, the riders unstrapped the paniers and began to take out the contents. They were of metal, iron, steel, copper, bronze, silver, and even gold. There were tools of every craft, utensils for cooking, household implements, knives, spoons, pots, pans, cauldrons. And some weapons. Such things were made nowhere but by the Kabadri of Hlund in the far distant North.
As he watched, a party of his fellow labourers came out from the village. They were going hunched and stumblingly, and guardians of the Valkari were goading them on with staves. It was evident that the Hawkheaded Ones filled the Velgri with fear. They came in pairs, carrying great baskets, which they set down as far from the Falakkazri as possible. Into these baskets they swiftly loaded the metalwares. Then they bore the baskets away; Ingos could not see where.
Almost at once, they returned with other baskets, and these were full of herbs, worts, and fruit. Ingos recognized them as the baskets into which he and his fellows were commanded to place the worts which they harvested from the earth: yes, some of the very ûrtirumna that they had been digging up in the past week. Then, under the direction of the Valka overseer, they laboriously filled the paniers of the Hawkheaded Ones. The latter stood idly by, just near enough to the paniers to cause the labourers to tremble and cower, and they laughed at them. When this was done, the Falakkazri sprang into action and hoisted the paniers back on the sides of their skulldeer. The labourers hurried out of sight.
Ingos now understood that the village was a trading post, that the Falakkazri were the carriers, and that the unique metalware made by the Kabadri of Hlund was here traded for provisions that would be taken back north, either to Hlund or elsewhere in the Northlands. But he was surprised by what happened next. He noticed that the Entelláka chief of the riders was not with them; while Ingos had been watching the loading and unloading, he must have gone away. He expected that he would shortly return and lead the other riders away. But it was not so.
Ingos waited a long while, not even pretending to go on with his digging; the field was still deserted. At last the chief rider returned. With him was Murnag, the Lady of the Valkari. They were talking earnestly, but they were too far away to hear. She was gesturing towards the Falakkazri, smiling and nodding vigorously. Then she was beckoning. Then came into view the eight runewives; they were making music and dancing. They had tinkling bells in their hands and they circled around the gathered Falakkazri and their skulldeer. The Hawkheaded Ones took notice and watched the runewives attentively. They began clapping rhythmically and stamping their feet. They offered their hands to the runewives, and these took hold of them readily. The dance stopped. Words were exchanged. Then each Falakkázi took hold of his partner and lifted her on to the back of his skulldeer, jumped up behind her, and set his heels to the side of the beast. Immediately the whole pack began to trot towards the forest.
Their chief, meanwhile, bowed low to the Lady of the Valkari, mounted his own skulldeer, and rode off on the trail of his troop. Soon they were out of sight among the trees. But at that moment, Ingos felt himself grasped firmly from either side by powerful hands. Two gatewardens were there. They dragged him across the field.
‘What were you watching for, old man,’ they cried. ‘You are no longer welcome in our land. Get you gone.’
And with that, they threw him into the track leading away from Valkamet. But Ingos picked himself up and began to walk back towards the Giants’ Road. Now he understood the strange gestures made by Melyúnas at the banquet. He had incited Murnag to get the Falakkazri to take the runewives away with them. Why? Surely, Melyúnas intended that the deep arts that he had instilled among the Valkari should be carried back to the land from which the Falakkazri came.