Then he heard the best sound in the world.
“Bren-ji?” Jago’s voice.
“Yes,” he said to the empty air. “Yes. Kindly get under cover, Jago-ji. One believes trouble has gone downslope to get around us.”
A little sound, the whisper of a leather-clad body moving, and with scarcely a piece of grit disturbed on the rock, a lithe, large shadow came around the rock and settled between them.
Bren just leaned back against the rock in relief. “Is everyone all right, Jago-ji?”
“Yes,” she said. “But this is a moderately difficult situation you have here, Bren-ji. We believe there are nine to thirteen of the opposition, perhaps more, scattered about.”
He carefully put the safety back on the gun and inserted it into his pocket on the second try.
“Are you injured?” Jago asked him.
“Perfectly fine,” he said. God, he was notgoing to shake like a leaf. He reminded himself they were a long way from out of this, which kept up a moderate draw on spare adrenalin.
“Lucasi has kept me in one piece.”
“Credit to him,” Jago muttered, keeping her head down. “Algini has gone downslope to reconnoiter and see if he can give us names.”
“Did you reach the Edi, Jago-ji?”
“No. They are shooting at everything that moves, and Tano caught a richochet.”
“Is he all right?”
“Minor, but nuisanceful in operations. We suspected that the situation over at the airport had changed, and we became concerned for your immediate safety.”
“You saw the plane.”
“We did see it. Dur, one believes. We have no knowledge where he is based.”
“He saw us. He will have reported our position, Jago-ji. If we can hold out, if the airport has opened up—”
“The convoy clearly saw the plane, too. They immediately attempted to penetrate the Edi perimeter. That set the Edi firing at every movement. We were making no progress there.
And we were concerned—” Jago shoved another clip into her pistol. “—that you might be in trouble from the shift of positions. We knew they would not come west of the road. That left the east as a safe route for them, and youin considerable difficulty. We thought we should hurry about it.”
“One is very grateful,” he began to say, and then heard shots from downslope. He utterly lost his train of thought, thinking of Algini, and Tano, who would be with him.
“Where is Banichi?” he asked.
Jago gave a nod vaguely upslope. “Up there.”
Bren did begin to shiver, just slightly, and stopped it by resting his arm on his knee. He was, he found, chilled to the bone and dry as dust. He still had a little water in the canteen, but if they were pinned here any length of timec it was no time to be profligate with that resource.
A click of rock on rock upslope drew his attention. He looked around on reflex, but the rock cut off his view of anything but Jago, who had looked upslope, and Lucasi, who had flattened himself atop his rifle and tried to get a look up above.
“Banichi,” Jago said, and about that time there was a hurried movement on the slope, and Banichi added himself to their group.
“Bren-ji,” Banichi said, settling in, and threw a hand signal to Jago and Lucasi. “We need to move around this rock, Bren-ji. Our opposition is maneuvering from the other direction, and there are a number of them. This position will not suffice.”
Not out of the soup yet, that was clear.
“Yes,” Bren said, and he pushed himself toward his feet with a hand on the rock, trying to stay bent over. Jago took his elbow and steered him around the rock and down to a new position.
“I am going back upslope, Bren-ji,” Banichi said. “Keep your head down.”
They were in tight quarters. Bren found himself sandwiched between Jago and Lucasi and the rock. But it might give Jago a better vantage on what was coming.
Jago said something in Guild slang; Lucasi said, “Two clips.”
“Banichi,” Jago said, and something else.
“Yes,” Lucasi said.
Which left the civilian completely underinformed, but there was enough bad news to occupy his mind. He kept waiting for gunshots, and then Lucasi called attention to another blip on his locator.
“Tano and Algini are setting up,” Jago said, Bren was sure, for his sake. She was watching her own wristband. And it flashed.
“There is—” Lucasi began to say.
Gunfire broke out downslope, and it went on.
“They will be moving,” Jago said calmly, and when Bren drew the pistol from his pocket, Jago said, “That will be little help to us, Bren-ji. Stay under cover.”
She had her rifle ready, a heavy pistol laid carefully by her foot; Lucasi set up flat on his belly, this time with his rifle aimed down slope.
Jago said something to him again, and he said, “Yes,” and inched a little closer.
“Cover me while I reload,” she said. “Save your shots, nadi, unless you have a definite target.”
“Yes,” Lucasi said.
The gunfire downslope went on, with momentary pauses. Then a shot came from behind them and over their heads.
“Ready,” Jago said, aiming downslope.
Bren pressed himself close into the rock, trying to give Jago and Lucasi as much room as possible. She fired a burst, a second, and a third.
Fourth and fifth, then. Fire came back and knocked chips off the rock and the sandstone slope beyond them.
Damn, Bren thought. Lucasi fired. Jago reloaded, quick, accurate movements; and fire came over their heads from Banichi’s position.
“Save your shots,” Jago repeated to Lucasi, with iron patience, “unless you see targets.”
“Yes,” he said. “One apologizes, nadi.”
Jago put herself back in position and waited, grim-faced.
It was quiet for a moment. Lucasi’s locator flashed.
“Locator,” Bren said, figuring that neither of them had attention to spare for it; and Jago took a look, then pushed a button on her own several times.
“Watch downslope,” Jago admonished Lucasi.
“Yes,” he said.
Tano and Algini might be in trouble down there, Bren thought; and then Jago said,“The dowager’s guard.”
“Here?” Bren asked, one sharp question, and then all hell broke loose on the slope, shots going off and echoing off the heights, and Banichi was shooting over their heads.
Lucasi let off a shot, simultaneously with Jago’s.
“I claim the next, nadi,” Jago said. “You are down to three shots. Reserve them.”
“Yes,” Lucasi said, and wriggled back a little.
Another burst of fire from below. Bren just tried to make himself part of the rock. He had his hand in his pocket, holding his pistol. He had remembered to take the safety off.
Then amid it all, a flurry of light from Jago’s bracelet, three times repeated.
Jago cast a look upslope, braced her rifle against her body, and tapped one button three times.
Three flashes came back, and Jago pressed the audio plug in her ear.
“Lord Machigi’s guard,” Jago said, “is entering the vicinity.”
Good God, Bren thought, feeling a cold chill. “On what side?”
She held up a cautioning finger, listening.
“They likely do not expect to find us at close range with them. Depending on their objective—which may be, opportunistically, Kajiminda—our presence here may startle them.
We have no word indicating Lord Machigi’s whereabouts.” A moment more of silence.