Jaro Is Ordered to Hunt Down Tiuri and Take the Letter

Jaro’s mission to kill Tiuri and seize the letter first takes shape as an unseen pursuit in the mountains, then as a false meeting between travelers. The encounter’s decisive reversal comes when Jaro confesses that he was sent to stop Tiuri reaching King Unauwen—but will not carry out the order after Tiuri saves his life.

The Pursuit in the Mountains

Tiuri is making his way toward Menaures when he hears footsteps on the stony ground behind him. At first he sees nobody and tells himself that other people must be walking in the mountains too, but the sound persists and seems to draw nearer. The pursuit is not yet identified; the danger enters the scene first as something heard, then as a man appearing around a bend.

Tiuri pauses, hears the other walker stop and then hurry on, and decides to make himself less conspicuous. From his travel bag he takes the old robe given to him by the monks of the Abbey of Brown and pulls it over his grey mail shirt. With its cord tied at his waist, the disguise makes him resemble a pilgrim bound for Menaures rather than a squire in armor. The choice is practical: a pilgrim is less likely to attract notice in the region. It also gives the approaching stranger an identity to approach—the very appearance Jaro adopts when he greets Tiuri as a fellow pilgrim.

A Manufactured Companionship

The man who comes into view appears tired from the climb. He sits beside the road, wets his hands in the river, and splashes water on his face before rising to speak with Tiuri. His first manner is companionable: he says that he is glad to meet someone, admits that he does not know the mountains well, and asks whether Tiuri is traveling to Menaures. When Tiuri confirms it, the stranger asks to accompany him, explaining that he still has to cross the mountains and has heard that the hermit knows the routes.

Tiuri is immediately uneasy. The man is broad and dark, with hard, light-grey eyes beneath heavy brows that meet over his nose, even as his mouth holds a friendly smile. Tiuri checks his own suspicion, recognizing that first impressions do not prove the traveler dangerous, and answers him as though he may be innocent. In retrospect, the exchange is a pursuit taking the shape of ordinary travel: Jaro uses the shared destination and his claimed need for guidance to seek Tiuri’s company, while Tiuri’s robe helps conceal the identity the stranger has come to target.

The Order Behind the Meeting

The truth emerges only after Tiuri presses Jaro to speak plainly. Jaro admits that he has no reason to go beyond the mountains: he was sent to kill Tiuri and ensure that the letter Tiuri carries never reached King Unauwen. The mission therefore has two linked aims, the death of the courier and the interception of the message. The friendly request to travel together was no harmless search for company; it brought the intended victim within reach while disguising the purpose of the approach.

Jaro identifies himself as one of the Red Riders and names the Black Knight with the Red Shield as his master. He refuses to say who that master is, insisting that his disobedience is explanation enough. His confession exposes the pursuit as an organized order rather than a private quarrel, but leaves the master’s identity and the larger command unexplained in this exchange.

The Failed Attack and Its Reversal

Jaro also reveals what changed his resolve. At the ravine, he had intended to throw Tiuri in, but stumbled and fell into it himself. Tiuri saved his life. Jaro says that, had Tiuri distrusted him, he would not have made the mistake that left him helpless; Tiuri’s trust had made him as powerless as if Tiuri had allowed him to fall. The attempted murder thus turns on a reversal: the pursuer becomes the person in danger, and the man he was ordered to kill becomes his rescuer.

Jaro bows his head as though ashamed. He acknowledges that he has killed other people, yet says he cannot kill Tiuri and does not want to. Tiuri thanks him, though Jaro laughs at the apparent absurdity of being thanked for not committing murder. Tiuri clarifies that his gratitude is for Jaro overcoming his own wrongdoing. Jaro does not ask to be judged better than he is; he tells Tiuri to continue in peace and leaves the outcome of the mission to him. The letter remains the object of the original order, but Jaro abandons his part in stopping it. The scene’s central change is not that Tiuri defeats his pursuer by force, but that the life he spared makes the pursuer refuse to finish the task.