It was too soon to celebrate, for there was still the city around them. But the luck they needed so badly had stayed with them so far. If it stayed with them for a few more hours-

Blade lifted his head to look around him again, then froze. Above them, on the wall of the Hearth of Tiga, was the unmistakable silhouette of an armed man.

Chapter 13

The guard would have to be taken out, swiftly and silently. Any noise or delay, and Blade and Neena would have half the palace guards swarming out after them.

Blade uncoiled the rope and adjusted the loop he'd made for climbing. Now it was large enough to fall over a man's head. He handed one of the wooden bars to Neena and pointed.

«I'm going to try getting him down here with this,» he said, raising the rope. «You be ready to knock him over the head with the bar and take his clothing and gear.»

Blade crept silently across the hearth until he could get a clear throw at the guard. The ashes underfoot and the wind blowing past above muffled his slow footsteps.

Once in position, Blade waited until the guard came to a stop and turned his back on the hearth. Then Blade sprang forward, whirling the rope around his head. It snaked through the air, twisting as the wind caught it, but still sailing straight to its target. The noose fell over the guard's head. Before he could move or cry out, Blade heaved. The noose tightened around the man's neck. He flew backward off the wall and fell with a muffled crash almost at Blade's feet.

The guard was still in midair as Neena sprang forward. She was beside him as he landed, smashing in his throat with the wooden bar. The man gave a choking gurgle, twisted and writhed for a moment, then lay still. Neena quickly began to strip off the guard's leather armor, weapons, and belt pouch.

Again they had a brief, nerve-wracking wait, to see if the alarm was up. In the windy darkness the guard's sudden disappearance seemed to have gone unnoticed.

The guard's armor was far too small for Blade's massive frame. So Neena put on the armor and belted on the sword. Then they tied the rope around Blade's neck, with an easily slipped knot, and Neena took the other end in her free hand. To the casual observer it would look as if Neena was a guard leading a slave somewhere. This was the best disguise they could manage now. It might even be good enough to get them out of Trawnom-Driba, a city where the drastic penalties for being too curious made people very willing to mind their own business.

The wind increased steadily as they climbed down from the Hearth of Tiga and moved across the square in front of the palace. Instead of following the main street, they plunged into the tangle of huts, sheds, warehouses, and simple ruins that lay to the south of the palace. Blade relied on his sense of direction to get them safely through the twisting alleys of that quarter. There would be no one awake and about in those alleys, curious or otherwise.

The darkness among the buildings was almost as complete as it had been down in the tunnel. Blade moved up into the lead and Neena fell in behind him, eyes roving about and sword drawn. About halfway through the quarter they stopped to rest. They sat down in the shadow cast by an enormous pile of barrels. The barrels oozed black drops of something that looked and smelled like liquid tar. Blade recognized the liquid poured on the logs in the hearth. to produce the orange color in the flames of the ritual fires.

Blade leaned back against the barrels and took several deep breaths. Not much farther, and they would be at the last barrier before the safety of the forests. The guards on the outer wall would be more alert than any others in the city, although that wasn't-

The ragged blaring of trumpets and the thunder of drums reached them on the wind. The uproar swelled until it drowned out the wind, faded for a moment, then rose again. In the moment's lull they could both hear angry shouting from the direction of the palace.

«Oh, blast,» said Blade quietly. «The alarm's up.» He sprang to his feet and looked at the stack of barrels. «Neena. Give me the firelighter from the guard's pouch, and keep clear.»

«What-?» Neena began, then fell silent. She knew Blade well enough by now not to waste time asking questions. Her sword rose, and she sprang back, eyes searching the darkness.

Blade threw the rope off his neck, bent down and gripped one of the barrels. It must have weighed close to two hundred pound. Slowly he lifted it and backed away from the pile. Then he raised the barrel high over his head and brought it smashing down on two other barrels. All three cracked open, and the dark tarry liquid flooded out.

Blade sprang clear, picked up a long splinter, dipped it in the liquid, then struck a spark with the firelighter. As the spark landed on the soaked splinter. it flared up with the familiar orange flame. Blade let the splinter burn for a moment then flicked it away from him, squarely into the spreading pool of liquid.

The whole pool erupted in a sheet of orange flame and a crackling roar that drowned out both the wind and the alarm signals. For a moment Blade felt as though he was standing beside an open blast furnace. Then he turned and motioned for Neena to follow him. They plunged away into the no longer dark alleys. As they left the pile behind. Blade heard the barrels starting to explode, and saw the pillar of fire behind them climb still higher.

As they ran, doors and shutters began opening on either side of them and heads popped out to see what was going on. All eyes at once turned toward the fire. No one seemed to notice the small soldier and the oversized slave pounding past at a dead run.

«Why did you do that?» gasped Neena, as they turned down an alley that was still dark. «Now everyone will know which way we've gone.»

«Maybe. But if we move fast enough it won't do them a bloody bit of good! This quarter's a tinderbox and it's right next door to the palace. There's a good blaze going, and the wind's blowing hard enough to spread the fire. I'm sure King Furzun would still like to have you for his harem. But I'm betting he'll risk letting you go rather than have his palace burn down around his ears.»

Neena grinned wickedly. «I see. So all the guards will be running to put out the fire and not to catch us.»

«We can damned well hope so,» said Blade.

They slowed down as they gradually left the fire behind them. Twice they had to stop entirely so that Blade could get his bearings. The fire was already visibly spreading, and the wind was pushing it straight in the direction of the palace. They could hear a continuous roar and boom of flames.

They could also hear the mounting uproar caused by their escape. Trumpets and drums sounded all around them, louder than ever. Beyond the fire Blade could see the walls of the palace, and torches and blue lanterns darting back and forth along them. He hoped the guards would drop a few of those lanterns and torches and start another dozen fires!

The second time they stopped, Blade and Neena heard stolof-whistles joining the uproar. Neena's face turned pale under the dirt, but Blade only laughed.

«Why are stolofs so amusing now?» Neena snapped. She was obviously irritated with him as well as nervous about the monstrous hunter-creatures with their deadly ribbons.

Blade laughed-again. «If I were running the hunt for us, I wouldn't let a stolof out of the pens tonight. There's enough confusion in the city already. Those stolofs aren't very bright, and they'll just add to the confusion if their masters aren't careful.»

Eventually they found a path that turned sharply left, then ran into an alley. When they reached the alley, they stopped. Fifty feet farther on, the alley gave onto the open space between the quarter's buildings and the city wall. The towers of a gate rose above the roofs of the next row of the hovels and sheds. At the end of the alley stood three soldiers, all holding spears, all with their backs turned to the alley. Whatever they were watching for, they didn't expect it to come out of the alley.