No sign. His clothes were absorbing it. He needed to get off the leg and stayoff. But he couldn't. Not yet. He made a rude bandage and bound it tightly.
That would have to do.
The room was a deathtrap. Better move to the top of the tower. Their sorceresscouldn't do them much good if he got the Witch and the kid forted up there.
All he'd have to do would be sit on the trapdoor. They couldn't get theleverage to push him off.
He rifled his pack, found analgesic powder, washed it down with water from asmall canteen. Bitterness remained in his mouth. He relaxed five minutes, hoping it would start to work fast. He almost drifted off.
He jerked awake. None of that! They wouldn't get him by default.
He checked the boy's pulse, afraid he might have whacked the brat too hard.
The kid hadn't stirred. He was all right.
Better get on with it. He could nap afterward.
He took the boy up first. The ladder seemed a mile high. His leg was killinghim when he got back down, the pain powder doing nothing at all. He recalledhis impulse toward the sinkhole country. Why hadn't he had the plain damnedsense? He had no more brains than that idiot Torgo.
That one cut was leaking again. It wanted rest badly. There was no time. Headjusted his bandages.
He took the Witch up next, limp as a fish. Why the hell couldn't she help outa little? Dumb bitch wasn't worth all this.
One more trip to go, his supplies and the stuff she'd need to finish up. Herubbed his leg and again told himself he could lie down afterward.
He did not think he would complete that final climb. He suffered leg cramps.
His shoulder muscles tightened into rocky knots. The bleeding worsened. Hetore others of his wounds open. He suffered vertigo. He was sure he had donehimself permanent damage. But he couldn't quit. He was what he was, ridden anddriven.
The force within triumphed. As always. He completed his climb, dropped hisload, closed the trapdoor, for a moment faced into the rain. It hadn't wakenedthe woman or boy. He covered the Witch the best he could, though that was onlya gesture. Thunder cracked as he settled on the trap. He'd rest and let theanalgesic work before he tried to waken the woman.
He glanced up. Hard to tell through the rain but it seemed the clouds were lowand moving fast, swirling around the tower.
He lowered his head and closed his eyes. Ten minutes ought to be enough rest.
Zenobel stared at the cage in the great hall. He recalled the place as it hadbeen before Dak-es-Souetta. It had gone to seed. Become shabby. That was sad.
Say whatever about Nakar, he had made the citadel Qushmarrah's glorious crown.
King Dabdahd hustled up. He had the citadel staff besieged in the Witch'squarters. He said, "They won't surrender. They won't even talk."
"Is she up there?"
"I don't know. We tried breaking through the wall to get around the spells onthe door. I lost two men. They didn't see her. That doesn't mean anything."
Zenobel grunted. "What about those damned Dartars? Any sign of them?"
"None but their dead."
Zenobel considered the children he had had rounded up. Were they settled downenough to talk sense? He rose from his seat.
Carza trotted up. "We found the Dartars. They're barricaded in the temple.
They broke through a wall to get inside. Should I finish them?"
"You want Fa'tad to kill us?"
"Huh?"
He did not know. Neither did King. They had been busy when the news had come.
"He sealed the gateway behind us. Bricked it up. Only way we can get out isthrough the windows. If the drop doesn't kill us his archers will."
King went pale. Carza looked bewildered.
"You don't get it? Al-Akla has done it again, this time to Herod and us both.
Bel-Sidek wouldn't laugh at fools but he's sure won the right. He warned us."
Carza just frowned. It surpassed him. "We have a mission, Zenobel. A holymission. If you won't carry it out I will."
"Go ahead. Waste all the lives you want. I don't care anymore. Nothing we dowill change anything now."
Bel-Sidek did not look around when the Dartar arrived. The nomad was polite.
"Fa'tad would like to see you, sir." The steel wore a velvet mask.
Bel-Sidek took Meryel's hand. "If I'm to be executed let it be done here whereI've known my only happiness."
"Fa'tad has no wish to slay anyone, sir. He said only that he wishes to speakwith you."
Meryel squeezed bel-Sidek's hand gently. "Go, Sisu. Maybe you can do somethingyet."
Bel-Sidek nodded, though he doubted it. Wearily, he followed the Dartar outinto the rain. Maybe Fa'tad did just want to talk. He had sent only the oneman.
The day was nearly gone. Very little light remained. The clouds hung low abovethe citadel, turning and churning. He could not get interested. It had been aday as long as forever piled on a week a hundred times as long as that. Theend was in sight now. At last.
Qushmarrah was passing into a new age-not that which he and the General hadenvisioned. "Warrior. Have they finished Nakar yet?"
His companion drew in upon himself. "I can't say, sir. There's been no wordfrom our men inside the citadel." Later, he added, "Nor any from yours."
"Oh." That did not sound good. Bel-Sidek eyed those busy clouds for as long ashe could take the rain in his face. Nakar's last hour had come during aferocious rain, with clouds whirling around the citadel. He had been aprisoner elsewhere then, but ... Hadn't it been something like this? Wasthis precursive of the resurrection of the Abomination?
Bel-Sidek and the Dartar passed through and walked parallel to a file ofbedraggled Herodians being escorted from the Shu. Fa'tad was accepting thesurrender of those he had entombed in the labyrinth. Maybe the Eagle was notinterested in a total blood baptism.
Bel-Sidek spied General Cado among the captives. Ha. Now the man would know how it had felt for the vanquished after Dak-es-Souetta.
Cado met his eye, recognized him, smiled wanly, winked as though they were fellow conspirators. Bel-Sidek snorted. Co-conspirators in defeat. Pawns who had let themselves be manipulated by the old genius of the Khadatqa Mountains.
The gulled and downcast.
Whatever else, he thought, you had to admire the Eagle's daring.
Yoseh was scared again. They had looked everywhere, over and over, and had found no sign of the Witch or child-taker or Arif, no hint of a hidden exit. Every minute fled meant a greater danger.
Nogah observed, "The sorceress probably could find it but she's too busy making like udders on a bull." She could not be diverted from the corpses she was cooking. The stench was enough to gag a vulture. Yoseh said, "Maybe she knows what she's doing." "Like hell. She's riding with her eyes shut same as the rest of us. What's keeping the damned veydeen?" The Qushmarrahans had not yet tried to get in.
Mo'atabar made periodic sallies toward the bonfire, to remind the sorceress that she had said the Witch could recall Nakar without his body. She showed no real interest. Yoseh hoped she knew what she was doing.
"They're here," said the man posted where they had broken in. Mo'atabar hustled over, listened, said, "They're not in any hurry."
Once they got the carpenter calmed down Nogah decided to stop waiting on the woman. "Aaron. What would you do if you were going to put in a secret exit?" "Eh?" "You're a carpenter. Think like a carpenter. A carpenter probably did the building. Wouldn't you think?"
The man thought. "I'd use a cabinetmaker. I'd put it where it wasn't obvious and I'd demand the finest possible joins so nothing would show."
Yoseh said, "Tamisa told me that's the kind of stuff you do."
The carpenter nodded.
Impatient, Nogah snapped, "So prowl around. Think like a cabinetmaker. Show us where some other carpenter might have put a hidden door. The fix we're in it won't matter if we tear things up."
It took only minutes. "Got to be this wardrobe," the carpenter said. "Best place for it." Medjhah ripped the wardrobe apart. Nogah went after Mo'atabar. Mo'atabar cameand crawled through the wreckage. "There's a room back here, all right. Butthere isn't anybody in it."