Barely had Ernie vanished when the riders rode through, swift and silent, passing the travelers and riding hard on the trail of the would-be highwayman. Legmender watched them nervously, while Kit and Billy watched in wonder. They were not all Dogonian as he had first thought, but were instead a mixture of nationalities: some Dogonian, yes, but also Kataran and Bruin, and he thought he had even spied a Scentar or two. The oddness was the silence of their passing, for though their mouths were open to roar out battle cries, nothing was heard; nor was there the sound of hooves crashing through the woodland carpet of pine needles and twigs, though he could see the hooves strike the ground with great force as they ran. They faded again into the darkness of the forest, in pursuit of the coyote, but their forms wavered and sparkled as they slipped into the morning shadows, and Legmender fancied that he had seen wings suddenly sprout from the backs of a few horses just before they melted away into the deep greenwood. He glanced suspiciously at the fox, but Kit Suni was also staring after the strange riders in open-mouthed surprise. Billy, too, had watched wide-eyed as the riders had passed and vanished like ghosts into the woods. "Magic!" the boy cried excitedly when the soldiers were gone. "It was magic!"

"Yes," said Kit Suni. She was fanning herself thoughtfully. "It was magic." She stared thoughtfully at the boy with that penetrating stare of hers and fell silent.