"That is impossible. There are no men on Negalu."
"Not now. There will be."
She frowned. "You seem to speak truthfully but in some sort of riddle. You are perhaps a-a…"
She seemed to regret what she was about to say, and stopped.
"A what?"
"What do you know of Raharumara?"
"Nothing."
This seemed to satisfy her. She put her knuckles to her mouth and seemed to gnaw them. Suddenly she looked up at me again.
"If you are not of the Karnala, why do you fight with them? Why did you jump into this tent and kill Ranak Mard?" She indicated the fallen Argzoon.
"Why do you think?"
She shook her head. "Why risk your life just to kill one Argzoon captain?"
"Is that all I did?"
She smiled suddenly. "Aha! I think I know. Yes, that is all you did."
My spirits sank. So I had been wrong. The tent did not hold some great Argzoon battle-leader. Perhaps it was a deliberate blind and the leader was elsewhere.
"What of you?" I said. "Are you a prisoner of these folk-a prisoner with some power?"
"Call me a prisoner if you like. I am Horguhl of the Vladnyar nation."
"Where lies Vladnyar?"
"You do not know? It lies to the north of Karnala, beyond Narvaash. The Vladnyar are ancient enemies of the Karnala."
"So Vladnyar has struck up an alliance with Argzoon?"
"Think what you like." She smiled secretively.
"And now, I think, you will d-" She broke off as there came a great sound of fighting outside the tent. "What is that?"
I could not think. It was impossible that the small force of Karnala warriors in the city had attacked the Argzoon-that would have been folly.
But what else?
As Horguhl and the Blue Giants turned towards the sound, I seized my opportunity, stepped forward and ran one of the Argzoon through the throat. I fought my way through the others and found myself outside the tent, staring into the darkness as the remaining warriors came after me.
I ran in the general direction of the noise of battle. I darted a quick glance back above the tent, looking to see if Shizala had made good her escape.
The ship was still there-hovering above the tent!
Why hadn't she left? I stopped, uncertain what to do, and in a second found myself engaging several of the gigantic warriors. It was all I could do to protect my own life, but as I fought I got the impression that something was happening close by and suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a group of splendidly-armored warriors of about my own height break through a mass of blue swordsmen.
The warriors were not from the city, that was plain. They wore helmets, for one thing-helmets from which nodded brightly-colored plumes. Phobos and Deimos, coursing across the heavens, gave illumination to the scene around me. The new warriors also had lances and some carried what looked like metal crossbows.
Soon their foreguard had pressed forward until I found myself with several allies helping me to engage the Argzoon who were attacking me.
"Greetings, friend," said one of them in an accent only slightly different from the one I was familiar with.
"Greetings. Your presence here has saved my life," I replied in relieved gratitude. "Who are you?"
"We are from Srinai."
"Did Telem Fas Ogdai send you here?"
"No." The man's voice sounded a trifle surprised.
"We were originally on our way to deal with a large force of bandits who fled into Karnala. That is why there are so many of us. A detachment of your border patrol were about to help us when a messenger came with news that the Argzoon were attacking Varnal-so we left the bandits and rode to Varnal as fast as we could."
"I am glad you did. What do you think our chances are of defeating them?"
"I doubt that we can-not completely. But we might be able to drive them away from Varnal and give your reinforcements time to come to your aid."
This conversation was carried on while fighting Argzoon warriors. But the Argzoon were becoming increasingly few and it seemed we were winning in that particular area, anyway.
At last we had them on the run and the combined force of Srinai and Karnala chased the retreating Argzoon towards the Calling Hills from whence they had come.
The Argzoon stood their ground on the crest of the first range of hills, and then we withdrew to count our strength and plan fresh strategy.
It was soon obvious that the Argzoon still outnumbered us and that the Srinai and Karnala who had attacked them from behind had had the advantage of being fresh and able to take the Argzoon by surprise.
But I felt much better. Now, I decided, we could withstand the next attack and hold the Argzoon off until help came.
Then I remembered the ship and Shizala. I returned to the now ruined Argzoon camp. The tent with the banner was still standing, unlike most of the others and, rather strangely, the ship still hovered above it. It seemed to me, peering through the moonlit darkness, that the ship was now lower above the roof, the rope-ladder brushing the top of the tent.
I called her name, but silence greeted me. With a feeling of foreboding I climbed up the yielding sides of the tent. It was a hard climb, but I made it rapidly, almost in panic. Sure enough, the rope-ladder was closer, the ship lower. I grabbed the ladder and began to clamber up it.
Soon I was inside the ship.
A brief glance showed me that it was empty.
Shizala had gone!
How? Where?
What had happened to her? What had she done?
Why had she left the slip? What reason was there for doing such a thing?
All these thoughts raced through my brain and then I was dropping down the rope-ladder again, hand over hand, until I was above the now uncovered roof-opening. I dropped through it as I had done earlier.
Save for the corpse of Ranak Mard the tent was empty. Yet there were signs of a struggle and I noticed that Ranak Mard's sword had been removed from his dead grasp and now lay on the other side of the tent.
Something else lay beside it.
A gun.
A gun of the Sheev.
It could only be Shizala's gun.
The mysterious, dark-haired woman Horguhl and the Argzoon warriors must have taken part in a struggle soon after I had left.
For some reason best known to herself, Shizala had decided to follow me into the tent. She had found me gone, of course, and confronted Horguhl and the Argzoon. There had probably been a fight and Shizala had been overpowered and captured.
She had not been killed-that was a mercy-or I should have found her corpse.
Abducted, then?
My misguided plan to kill the absent mastermind behind the Argzoon had been worthless. All my plan had succeeded in doing was putting a hostage in the hands of the Argzoon.
The best hostage they could ever hope for.
The ruler of Varnal.
I began to curse myself as I would never curse another, even my greatest enemy.
Chapter Seven
THE PURSUIT
THEN I was running from the tent, blind with remorse and anger. I rushed through the corpsestrewn field towards the Calling Hills, bent on Shizala's rescue!
I ran past startled warriors of the Srinai and the Karnala, who called after me enquiringly.
I began to run up the hill towards the spot where the Argzoon had taken their stand.
I heard more shouts behind me, the sound of fast-moving feet. I refused to pay them any attention.
Ahead and above, the Argzoon stirred, evidently thinking that we were launching another surprise attack on them.
Instead of holding their ground as I expected, they began to turn and run in twos and threes.
I yelled at them to stop and fight. I called them cowards.
They did not stop.
Soon it seemed that the whole Argzoon force was in full flight-pursued by one man with a sword!