The sheet of flame seemed to wash over the whole camp, and Blade saw tents go down and wagons topple over as if they'd been shoved by a giant hand. Bits and pieces of flaming wreckage shot into the air like fireworks. Then the long rumble and roar of the explosion surrounded him. The shock wave was so violent he nearly stumbled. He kept on until the last of the flames died. Then he slowed down and made a wide half-circle around to the other side of the camp, where the animals were tethered.
By that time some of the soldiers were mounting up. The first few had just climbed into their saddles when Blade's arrows came slicing down out of the darkness. He was firing almost blind, but the mass of tethered animals and men working around them made a target impossible to miss.
He shot eleven arrows, leaving him with a dozen in the quiver. He couldn't see who or what he was hitting, but he heard a good many screams and cries, both human and animal. Hitting even half a dozen animals would probably throw the rest into such a panic that it would be hours before anyone could ride them. During those hours he and Twana could build up a long lead.
Then the soldiers might well decide to abandon the chase. They'd even have trouble taking vengeance on Twana's village. Without powder, their cannon and muskets would be useless.
Without the cannon and muskets, the villagers could put up a good fight from behind their stone walls.
As he slung his bow and headed south, Blade felt he'd done a good night's work. Now all that remained was to find Twana and return her safely to Hores.
Chapter 5
Blade ran until the last sight and sound of the camp faded into the night. Then he slowed down to a steady lope that he could keep up all night if he had to.
He kept on the move for an hour until he reached a small pond. He drank from the pond until he was no longer thirsty, then started off again. He kept moving the rest of the night, stopping every hour or so to catch his breath and listen for any sounds of pursuit. Once he must have stopped close to a village, for he heard the bleating of goats in the distance. Otherwise he heard nothing except his own breathing and an occasional night insect.
Blade's spirits rose as he moved along. If the Shoba's men wanted to have any hope of catching him, they'd better sort themselves out and hurry up! If they didn't hurry, they'd have a hard time picking up his fast-cooling trail, even mounted.
Still, Blade was not the sort to write off an enemy until he'd buried the man with his own hands. He'd be even more careful about a party of trained soldiers, some of whom at least would certainly keep their heads.
Blade was still on the move when dawn broke. He found himself barely a mile from the foot of the hills, which rose even more steeply here than where he'd seen them the evening before. The wall still ran along the crest, as though it would go on to the end of the world and a mile beyond. Whatever it was made of still showed an even blue-grayness, with no detail at all.
It was full daylight before Blade came to another spring. This one had made a small pool between two rocky spurs jutting out from the hills. Blade stopped, drank, then stripped off his clothes and plunged into the pool. He ignored the bone-chilling cold as he scrubbed off the sweat, grime, and dried blood from his night's work. Then he ran around in circles to dry off and warm up, dressed, and started to climb one of the rocky spurs.
The wall itself could wait. Right now he wanted to look for signs of pursuit and signs of Twana. He scrambled upward until the plain was nearly five hundred feet below. In spite of the slope, the rock was rough enough to be easy climbing. It seemed to go on like that all the way up to the base of the wall. Even Twana should be able to climb the hills without too much trouble, if that turned out to be necessary.
From his perch Blade could see no trace of Twana. To balance that disappointment, he could also see no sign of the Shoba's men. They seemed to have vanished from the face of the land. Far off toward the north, he saw a faint hint of movement along the foot of the hills. Whatever it was, it was far too small and slow moving to be the column of soldiers and wagons. Probably a village's flocks being driven out to pasture for the day.
So much for the Shoba's men. Blade put them out of his mind and scrambled down toward the plain to begin his search for Twana.
He found her a little after noon, huddled in the shadow of a clump of bushes by the mouth of a small cave just above the level of the plain. A stream flowed out of the cave and across the plain, toward a village about three miles away. Blade wondered why Twana hadn't sought out food and warmth in the village, instead of sitting here shivering and alone.
Blade held the girl until she stopped shaking with cold and the relief from fear and strain. He stroked her hair and cheeks, kissed her on the eyes, made soothing and reassuring noises, but did nothing more. He was very conscious of her warmth and graceful beauty, but he was even more conscious of the fear that filled her. It would be a long time before this girl wanted anything but a reassuring, protecting presence from a man. He would see that she got that.
At last Blade thought Twana might to ready to speak. «Twana. Are you hurt? Can you walk a little farther?»
She turned enormous brown eyes toward him. «How-how do you know my name?»
Blade decided to tell the girl the truth. «When the Shoba's men came to Hores, I was hiding in a place nearby. I could see everything that happened and hear much, even your name.»
«You-you saw the Shoba's men, the iron dragons, the beating of Naran, my father?»
«I said I saw everything that happened at your village, Twana. That is why I came to the camp of the Shoba's men at night, to fight them and help you escape.»
Twana shivered more violently than before. Blade put his arms around her again. «Come, Twana. I think we should go to that village that I see only an hour away. You need food and warmth that I cannot give you out here.»
Instead of seeming relieved or happy at the idea, Twana shuddered again and shook her head furiously. «No. It will be death for them if we go there. We cannot go there.»
«How is that, Twana? I have destroyed the powder they put in the iron dragons to make them throw stones at villages. I have frightened their riding animals. I have killed the Aygoon of the Tribute himself. I cannot imagine that they will even come after us now. Even if they come after us, how can they find us, or learn that we have gone to the village?»
Twana's face turned the color of milk, and she sat down as if her legs had turned to jelly. Slowly she shook her head. «How can you say these things, unless you are mad or…?»
«I am not mad, Twana. Do not worry about that. My name is Blade, and I am from a distant land, where not much is known of the Shoba's men. Perhaps you can tell me things that I should know about them?»
Twana's words came out in a rush. «The Shoba's men will come after us. They are too strong to be beaten by what you have done. They will find someone to give orders like the Aygoon. They will tame their animals again. They may be on our trail now.»
«Perhaps. But how can they pick up our trail when we have come so far?»
«You do not know of the sniffers then?»
«What are they? Men or animals?»
The sniffers of the Shoba had apparently been a frightful menace among Twana's people for so long that trying to describe them frightened her almost speechless. Blade had to be continually prompting her and make his own guesses about things she would not discuss. Gradually he understood what a sniffer was and why Twana and her people were frightened of it. He had to admit that fear seemed justified.