Chapter 11:... And Through the Woods

They halfwaded, halfswam through shallow water to a nearby island, splashed their way across another shallows and fled into the forest.

"Come fast," Kreeg called back over his shoulder, panting, as he led the way. "Watchers all back at the lake."

"Where are we going?" Neal struggled to keep up with the shaman, wincing as he stumbled over a tree root. "We need our clothes; sandals for our feet, or we cannot run far."

"They are near. Kreeg keep them safe."

They were following a faint path, Jewel noticed gladly. Neal's feet weren't the only ones that could stand some toughening. The trail gradually broadened, leading to where a few dozen huts were scattered about a clearing. Bu'uli women and children fled to the trees as they burst into the open, but Kreeg ignored them, leading the way to a hut that stood somewhat apart from the others at the base of an ancient tree. He dove inside, dragging out bundles that unrolled to reveal their belongings. Jewel gratefully slipped sandals onto tender feet, even before she pulled on her tunic. She noticed that Neal carefully checked the contents of his pack before shouldering it.

"We are most grateful to you, Kreeg," Neal voiced formal words of thanks, bowing to the shaman. "If there is anything we can do..."

"Just go. Be quick. My people will lose their anger soon. Do not tell others of Bu'uli."

"We will keep your secret..."

"Somebody's coming!" Jewel silenced them. "Voices in the forest."

Neal listened, not quite able to catch the sounds that she heard, but Kreeg quickly swung up into the branches of a nearby tree.

"Yes, men come," he called down softly. "I go to warn rest of Bu'uli. Come up in tree, men not see you. Bu'uli not look for you here. This is the tree of Kreeg, where none may come."

They climbed aloft, careful not to make any unnecessary noise. Kreeg was already gone, crossing easily from branch to branch where the trees reached out to one another. His small weight seemed hardly to stir the leaves as he went, and Jewel noticed that his long toes grasped the branches almost as well as if they had been fingers. Jewel climbed as high as she dared, Neal and Amy stopping not far below where she perched. The forest was still, drowsing in the warmth of late summer. Amidst the silence, voices drew ever closer, arguing.

"They're gone by now. Gone clean out of the country. We ain't even sure that they came this way."

"We've got to find them. They'll have us all killed if we don't stop them." As Jewel had already guessed, it was Tony. He brushed a shaky hand across his brow, looking wildly about. His face was flushed, and he looked feverish, ill. "Hey, this here's some kind of a village. Nobody's here, though."

The men with him, a dozen or so rough looking characters in the tattered remnants of military garb, stopped dead at the edge of the clearing. As one man, they drew their swords and formed into a rough defensive circle.

"Boolies!" The word was an oath, revealing more fear than rage. "Let's get outa here!"

"Stay where you are! What's the matter with you guys, anyhow?"

"It's Boolies, Parz. They're poison. We've gotta go, before they come back and catch us here."

"Yeah," one of the other men agreed. "If that trader and his women came this way, we don't have to worry about them. The Boolies got them for sure."

The men started to edge their way back into the trees. Tony's scarred face twisted with rage, but he saw that he couldn't hold them and gave way with a snarled curse for their cowardice.

"All right, then. If you're afraid of a few savages, we'll back up and go around. Hey, wait a minute. I hear something."

"It's the Boolies!"

"No! Shut up!" Tony's command caught them just as they were about to break and run. "Sounds like men marching."

From her perch high up in Kreeg's tree, Jewel saw them first. Eight or ten bluejacketed soldiers marched into the clearing from the far side, two of them clutching terrified Bu'uli women by the arms. It was Amy who first recognized the stumpy figure in their midst.

"General Essgant," she whispered. "What's he doing here?"

The two groups approached each other warily, weapons at the ready.

"Who are you?" Essgant barked out the words. "I know a couple of your men. Deserters. I never saw you before."

"Call me Parz. Who're you?"

"General Essgant, at your service." He sketched an ironic bow, waving an arm to include his followers. "Meet what's left of my army. The royalists hit us before we were ready for them, a couple of days ago. We gave them a stout battle, but there were too many of them. I didn't expect King Morgallan to send his best general after me. That Prince Arragin is a khreldich, but he's a real smart fighter just the same. Now, what're you doing here?"

"Chasing a renegade trader and his women. They've got to be stopped, or they'll bring even worse trouble down on all of us than what we already have."

"A renegade trader." An expression of mingled anger and amusement twisted Essgant's blunt features. "His name wouldn't be Nurm, would it?"

"Yeah, I think that's the name he was using. You've seen him?"

"Ten, eleven days ago. A day or two before Prince Arragin hit us, it was. He sold us a load of salt, and then sneaked off when I tried to trade him out of his blond woman."

"Haw!" Tony laughed, a guffaw that changed to a snarl of remembered rage. "He did the same thing with us when I tried to take the dark one. Hey, maybe we can help each other. If we catch them, we each get one of the women. What's that you've got there, a couple of Boolies?"

"Yeah, we caught them a ways back. Made them show us the way here to their village. My men was worried, but with this many of us here we'd ought to be all right. You, there! This here's your village, so where's the rest of your tribe?"

"Not know, Great One!" The Bu'uli woman looked up at him fearfully, cringing as he loomed over her. "Maybe at lake. Watch prisoners go to feed Gaan."

"What prisoners?"

"Three talltall. Like that one." She pointed at Tony. "Two pale, one darkdark."

"The trader!" Essgant snarled, then laughed sourly. "Serves them right. All right, all of you. Spread out and search the village. Make sure nobody's hiding. We'll be ready for them when they come back. Well? What're you waiting for?"

Tony flushed angrily at the peremptory command. "Just who do you think you're ordering around?"

"You, you skinny freak. I'm the boss around here, and don't you forget it! You'll take my orders, and like it. You and your men, too."

"Like Hell I will! Listen, short, dark and ugly, these're my men, and they take their orders from me!"

Essgant, his nerves stretched beyond endurance, probably as much by the lack of wine as by the events of the past few days, was too angry to even think of drawing his sword. With a roar of berserker fury he grabbed at Tony, but ran into a fist that snapped his head back, rocking him back on his heels. Their men joined in the fray, and in an instant the clearing was a boiling mass of fighting, cursing men. Tony's band was larger, but Essgant's men were better armed, better disciplined. With shrieks of fear, the two Bu'uli women fled to the trees.

Knives and swords were biting deep, blood flowing as men fell with mortal wounds. Only the two leaders fought barehanded, a little apart from their followers. Essgant was far the stronger, but he was quickly tiring. Tony's height was in his favor, and he used his boxing skills to good advantage, but he was tiring quickly too as his first burst of anger wore off. It was plain that whatever illness he was suffering from had sapped his strength.

"The way's clear," Neal whispered, though there was no danger of being overheard amidst the clamor. "Let's get out of here while the going's good."

They slid down from Kreeg's tree, sheltered from sight by the the clustered huts, Neal pausing just long enough to scoop up a bloody sword that lay where one of the soldiers had dropped it. The remaining fighters were all on the other side of the clearing for the moment. Jewel caught one last glimpse of the fighting as the forest closed around them. Essgant, battered to a standstill, whipped out his dagger and lunged forward. Blood spurted, and Tony fell. Essgant bent over him, reaching to strike again. Tony writhed like a snake, his own dagger reaching for Essgant's throat. The General fell across Tony, and the two bodies were still.

Jewel lingered for a moment. Only two of the fighters were still on their feet, circling each other warily. They were tired, each bleeding from minor wounds. After one last vicious exchange of blows, one backed off warily, lowering the point of his sword.

"Hey, let's talk this over. Fighting ain't getting us nowhere."

"Yeah. What're we fighting about, anyhow? We'd better head for this village of yours, before the Boolies get back."

"Come on, then. Let's go, before the Boolies catch us."

They ran from the clearing, glancing nervously over their shoulders, leaving only unmoving bodies behind them.

Jewel quickly caught up with Neal as he led the way through the gloomy forest. They ran until they could run no more, then walked on, though they were pursued only by memories of the bloody clearing.

"More dead men!" Neal's voice was harsh with repressed emotion. "And for what? Who gained by it?"

"We did," Amy countered wryly, though she cast a worried glance over her shoulder. "At least they won't be after us any longer. I just hope that nothing else happens to us before we make it to the pickup point."