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Page 422
several hours following streamlets that meandered purposelessly, and Rhiannon began to have serious doubts about the sanity of her enterprise. Just as she was thinking of giving up, the stream they were following ran into a larger one. This engendered enough hope to keep her from ordering a return, and she was soon rewarded by the stream's turning south, again joining a larger tributary, and running into what they knew must be the Dore. There was a well-marked track beside the rivernot a road but a passage for cattle and packtrains. Again Rhiannon and her escort began to move with confidence, unaware of the fact that they were on the wrong side of the river. She had asked how to get to Grosmount, and the knight had told her, but Llewelyn's camp was some miles to the west.
The next check to their progress came late in the afternoon. Rhiannon believe that they must be quite near their goal by then, and they rode along in momentary expectation of seeing signs of the army or being hailed by one of her father's scouting patrols. Doubts entered Rhiannon's mind when they came first to a confluence of several streams the old knight had not mentioned. They were not difficult to ford, the confusion of currents having swirled rocks and sand together and spread the waters wide and shallow; however, on the other side was a well-worn road marked by the imperishable stones set by the Romans. This, too, the old knight had failed to mention.
"Either the old man's memory is failing," Rhiannon said, "or we followed the wrong river after the ford. There is a little wood." She pointed about half a mile south to where the land started to rise toward a low mountain. ''Sion and Twm will come with me. You others go, one west and one south, to find our people if you can."
This was a sensible plan and was carried out without delay. As soon as Rhiannon and her men found

 
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