Tiuri Splits from the Grey Knights and Uses Ilmar as a Decoy

Tiuri Splits from the Grey Knights and Uses Ilmar as a Decoy marks the moment when the shared protection of the Grey Knights gives way to Tiuri’s solitary journey. Faced with the possibility that the Red Riders have spies among ordinary travelers, the party conceals his departure by sending Ilmar out in Tiuri’s clothes on Ardanwen, then divides its own route to confuse anyone watching. The plan offers Tiuri a head start, not safety: once alone, he must carry the mission forward without the company that has guarded him.

Causes and Stakes

At breakfast, Tiuri and Ristridin set out the point at which their paths must diverge. The Grey Knights intend to ride as far as the place where the main road leaves the Blue River and meet Ewijn there with reinforcements from Westenaut. After that, Ristridin and his companions will seek and capture the Red Riders, while Tiuri continues along the river. Their aims are linked by the same danger but are no longer the same task: the knights will pursue their enemies, and Tiuri must keep moving toward the end of his own commission.

Tiuri believes he has less reason to fear the Red Riders, but Ristridin warns him not to mistake their conspicuous appearance for the limits of their reach. Their allies might watch unnoticed in the guise of a shepherd, a traveler, or another seemingly harmless person. Ristridin therefore urges Tiuri to leave secretly and get far away before the watchers realize he is gone. The warning changes the problem from simply choosing when to part to making the separation itself difficult to detect.

Tiuri admits inwardly that he is less eager to go alone than he had seemed. Still, he recognizes that the separation cannot be avoided: he has his commission, and the Grey Knights have theirs. The group agrees to travel together until they can meet Ewijn and his companions, leaving time to settle both the practical arrangements and the farewells before the routes divide.

Ilmar’s Decoy Ride

The proposed deception comes from Ilmar. He offers to exchange clothes with Tiuri and ride Ardanwen, so that spies following the apparent Tiuri will be drawn after him while the real Tiuri slips away. The plan depends on more than a change of clothing: Ardanwen had belonged to Edwinem, and Ristridin explains that the horse had once accepted no rider except Edwinem unless Edwinem himself allowed it. Ardanwen has now accepted Tiuri as his master, and Ristridin expects the horse to wait for him to return. Ilmar must therefore win the horse’s acceptance for the ride to work.

Tiuri initially refuses because he does not want anyone else drawn into his danger. Ristridin rejects that objection, treating Ilmar’s offer as the sort of risk a future knight should be allowed to take. His response recasts the disguise as an act of fellowship, not merely a tactical trick: Ilmar is choosing to help, and Tiuri should let him. Ilmar is pleased by Ristridin’s support, and Tiuri finally agrees. They go behind a rock to exchange clothes out of sight of any spy, and Ilmar prepares to ride Ardanwen.

The Company Divides

The Grey Knights’ larger plan is to split the company as well. Ristridin, Ewijn, and their squires will continue some distance along the main road, hoping to lead possible spies in the wrong direction. The others will cross the Blue River and enter the forest again; the two groups intend to meet back at their starting point toward the end of the afternoon. Tiuri will accompany the second group for a while and then turn onto his own route. Thus the decoy, the diversion along the road, and the separate crossing form parts of a single effort to obscure where Tiuri has gone.

Before they leave, Tiuri shares a final meal with the company. He says that his arm no longer troubles him, though that is not entirely true. He takes Ardanwen’s leave—the horse gives a soft neigh and watches him depart—and shakes hands with the others, thanking them for their help. Ewijn speaks of the possibility that they may meet again in Unauwen. Ilmar, already helped onto Ardanwen, wishes Tiuri a successful journey; Ristridin promises to sound his horn twice at the first bend as a farewell.

The company rides away without looking back, with Tiuri on Ilmar’s horse. After a short time, in a sheltered place in the forest, Tiuri dismounts and says goodbye once more to Bendoe and the companions with him. Bendoe speaks of avenging Edwinem’s death and expresses confidence that Tiuri will fulfill Edwinem’s commission; he also imagines meeting Tiuri again as a knight, a status he says Tiuri should already have attained. He then tells Tiuri that the ground is safe and that he should go. The farewell binds Tiuri’s private journey to the loss and responsibility that have driven it.

Tiuri Alone and the Plan’s Limits

Soon afterward Tiuri is alone. As the hoofbeats fade, he feels isolated and unprotected, but keeps moving, staying in the forest as long as he can. He then follows a rocky path along the right side of the Blue River, climbing and descending as the route runs sometimes beside the water and sometimes above it. Cliffs rise on both sides. From time to time, the left-hand view opens onto the small Blue Stream and the First Great Road to the Mountains, reminders of the route and company he has left behind. After about an hour, he hears the planned signal: Ristridin’s Silver Horn sounds in farewell. Tiuri later glimpses small figures near the main road, already far apart from him.

A subsequent disclosure shows both the usefulness and the limits of the division. Jaro explains that the Red Riders saw the company separate: he was assigned to follow Tiuri, while another pursuer followed the party on the western road, including two Grey Knights, a squire, and a youth on a black horse. The pursuers initially thought the latter group was the one they needed. When they saw Tiuri going alone along the Blue River, they reconsidered, and Jaro came after him because he recognized him from the forest of King Dagonaut. The decoy and divided routes have made the pursuit less straightforward, but they have not erased the danger. Tiuri’s departure is therefore a real break in the company’s protection, not a clean escape from the Red Riders.