Part 28 (1/2)

We won't plan to stay there. Let them send after us. -I'll tell you: you're better than most. And you're getting smarter.”

She said nothing. She only stared at the darkening water, dusky profile against that s.h.i.+mmer. He saw her look toward him, and expected her to say something-but her head lifted subtly, her shadowy face showing dismay at something behind him.

His muscles tensed. He did not turn at once, thinking someone might be there. He waited for her to cue him, and she said: ”Master Shoka, the sky. ...”

He did turn. The sky beyond the willows, above the dikes, held a red taint like a beginning dawn. And the smoke had been there all along.

Fire. A huge one.

”That's toward Ygotai,” he said, getting to his feet. The ache in his knee bothered him still, but it was inconsequence of a sudden, against the cold suspicion of disaster.

Taizu headed down the sh.o.r.e, around the willows, up the slope of the dike. He followed, slower, feelingthe climb in his knee, slipping on the gra.s.s, seeing the glow brighter and brighter until he reached the crest and saw the red with no bright rim of near fire.

Not toward Ygotai.At Ygotai. Not some burning straw-stack. Much, ominously much more than that.

”It's in the town,” Taizu said.

”Come on,” he said. ”If we're going to get through, let's make a try at it.”

She followed him down the slope and down beneath the willows where the horses waited. They led the horses up again, a slanting course up the tall face of the dike, and mounted up, feeing toward that glow.

Taizu did not speculate aloud. He did not. But he put them to a faster pace than he would have, thinking that if the fire was accidental, some cooking-pit blazing up to catch a house-it might still draw the soldiers the judge had talked about; and if they came there early enough in the commotion they might pa.s.s, two shadowy figures on horseback, along the fringes of calamity, to the bridge and across, while the town was still occupied.

It might be, aside from the calamity of the property-holder, a piece of luck too good to let pa.s.s.

But he feared otherwise. He feared shapeless things-like rumor and birds. . . .

The further they rode, the brighter the glow, the more pungent the smoke, until there appeared a seam of yellow fire along the horizon, and it was abundantly clear it was more than one house or one barn.

”It must be the whole town,” Taizu said at that sight. ”The wholetown's burning.”

He thought of accident. He thought of their transit through the place.

And the bridge, which was one narrow bridge, and the way anyone who wanted to escape the province south would have to go-if they had no boat.

They might perhaps give up the horses, and hope to steal a boat at Ygotai's riverside. They might cross the Hoi, and be afoot in Hoisan with only their armor and their weapons. -Give up Jiro and the mare, in the hope that they could get away and escape the traps laid for two riders....

If it had to be, it had to be, dammit. The old lad would find his way, he hoped, to the judge's mares, and not to the hands of mercenaries. He was only a horse. Dammit.

”There's boats,” Taizu said. There were, several of them, running dark on the water. Then more and more as they rode, until they reached level ground and trees came between them and the river.

People ahead, afoot, without armor, people with baskets and bundles, fleeing the nightmare of fire and stinging smoke. Shoka reined back, confronting that movement around a turning of the road, and the mare danced anxiously past and around again under Taizu's hand.

”It's townsfolk,” Taizu said. ”Running from the fires.”

Worse and worse, Shoka thought. Much worse. The fires involved houses, barns. He had a surer and surer feeling of disaster. Thatd.a.m.n horse of Taizu's. It's our fault. It's our doing.

”Come on,” he said, and rode forward, slowly. People scattered from them, through the trees, people shrieking and crying.

It's the soldiers, he heard.

It's the soldiers.

And when they had come closer to the town, they caught sight of riders pa.s.sing against the light of burning houses; and saw people lying dead, pale blotches on the firelight ground.It's the soldiers.

”d.a.m.n them,” Taizu said, in a hoa.r.s.e, demon's voice.”d.a.m.n them!”

He reined in, caught up the helm that had rattled useless by his knee till now, and put it on, making the ties carefully, precisely, while Taizu put on her own.

”The bridge,” he reminded her harshly. He drew his sword, and sent Jiro ambling forward, the mare beside him.

The steel of Taizu's sword rasped out of its sheath.

That d.a.m.ned white-legged horse . . .

”Let'sgo , girl.”

Faster now, running flat-out, the whole night narrowed to what came through the face of the helm: fire, clouds of smoke, the bright fire of a burning barn, the black shape of an abandoned cart-He whipped a glance rightward as they bore left down the street, and saw it clear from that direction.

”Master Shoka!”

Riders in the way ahead of them. He went clear and cold, measuring the strides, their horses' and Jiro's.

And hers.”Haii!” he yelled, and gave Jiro a kick that the old lad was well-trained to. Jiro surged forward and Shoka laid about him with a vengeance, one, two, three men out of their saddles before one got past him.

Not far. He heard Taizu yell.

Four, five, before Taizu caught up with him and they broke through to the riverside road- There were no boats beside, except one burning, with the light flaring out on the waters: with the light showing the road ahead.

And a troop of foot guarding a barricade ahead.

He spun Jiro sharply to the right, hard about with a yell at Taizu: he had notseen the bows, but heknew -he swept Taizu up as she reined the mare around; and rode, down the rutted shanty street, past the burning wreckage of buildings.

Four riders ahead. He gave Jiro his heels again, and yelled at Taizu:”We're going through! Stay withme!”

He took two men out of the saddle and did not appreciably slow down. He wheeled about for a third and got him off Taizu's back. ”Get the horses!” he yelled, and herded one riderless horse against the wall, but it and Jiro took exception to each other, a teeth-bared encounter that was going to cost dangerous time. He let it go.”Never mind!” he yelled at Taizu.”Get the h.e.l.l out of here!”

She had snagged a horse. She nearly came out of the saddle trying to hang onto it, the animal backing wildly. It slipped free.

”Never mind!” he yelled at her, and the mare bolted into a run as Jiro came past her.

”Where are we going?” Taizu yelled. ”Where are we going?”

”h.e.l.l if I know!” he yelled back. ”We can't make the bridge. Out of here!”

There were carts on the road ahead, in the dark. People left them and ran when they came by. There were soldiers plundering one.

”Stay back with that d.a.m.n horse,” Shoka said to Taizu, and rode up on the soldiers alone.