And the shadows were moving in the direction theyneeded to go, which said to him that they were going toward nand’ Bren’s estate. Nand’ Bren was meanwhile almost certainly coming here, to find him; and these people were going there, or maybe to the train station, which was also in that direction, up to no good at all. If all these men wanted to do was just to get away after they had been exposed for what they were, they could go the other way, south to the Township and the big airport, completely away from nand’ Bren’s estate. Or right where they could lay hands on it, there was Lord Geigi’s yacht, which, supposing theyknew how to run it, could carry them out of the bay and down the coast or most anywhere. So it was clear these skulkers were on their way to work mischief, and he could warn nand’ Bren’s people and they could send somebody and call nand’ Bren home, fast, and protect Great-grandmother.
They could phone his father, too. His father had probably sent people here as fast as planes could land them. And theywould be moving inc maybe from the little airport near Najida, maybe from the much larger one near Dalaigi, to come in and cut off these scoundrels from one escape.
That was what hewould do, if he were aiji in Shejidan. He would cut them off in one direction and have nand’ Bren and mani cut them off from this side—with a little help from the local airport.
And he and his companions meanwhile had to stay out of the hands of these people. So they had gathered ammunition more serious than fertilizer stakes. At one place where they had crouched down, which had happened to be at a rocky little streamside, there had been a nice supply of little water-smoothed stones, just the right size. He took a nice lot of them, never minding the gravel they brought into the pocket of an already hard-used coat. And Jegari had gotten himself a sturdy stick, while Antaro had just pocketed a fair number of rocks.
And meanwhile they just kept moving and moving toward nand’ Bren’s estate.
The scary thing now was that the woods were playing out on them: they reached the edge, and the woods gave way to brush, and the brush to tall grass, where the trail the men had made going through the grass was perfectly plain to see. Jegari bent some grass down himself and stood watching it a moment. It recovered a bit, but not much; and Jegari looked at Antaro, who looked as if she were absorbing things, too.
So were they reading it, somehow? Could they tell things? How fast they were going? How long?
Jegari started walking exactly in one of the tracks the men had leftc so, Cajeiri thought, following, there would be only one track, if anybody was behind them. That was clever. He began to think they were doing everything right.
It was getting harder, however. He had been tired and sore all day from their adventure on the boat, and now hiding all day and creeping through the woods, and he had no idea where to go or what to do. Nand’ Bren and mani were in terrible danger, and he did not know how to reach them.
They were out there somewhere, moving on the estate, now that it was dark.
Maybe they had been fools to have left.
But it still seemed safer to be out here. Out here they had some choices, and they had not gotten caught in the crossfire. Still—
Jegari slowed to a stop, leaning on his hands, catching his breath, and then folded down into the tall grass. They all did, squatting low. “They seem to be avoiding the road, nandi. If we get onto the road and go beside it, we can move faster: we can run.”
Run. He was hardly sure he could walk at the speed they were using.
But they had to do better, not to get caught out here.
“Yes,” he said. “Let us try it.”
They got up. His stomach hurt. But it was going to get worse.
They were going into the open. It was dangerous. But there was a reason these men were going the way they were—because it was safer for the enemy.
“Nandi,” Jegari whispered. “Nandi, if they spot us, one begs you, duck, and stay with Antaro. I run fastest. I always beat her. I shall keep going.”
And get shot, he thought, appalled. But it was what a bodyguard was supposed to do. He nodded. “Yes,” he said.
“We are going to be leaving a trail,” Jegari said. “We should at least make speed, nandi.”
With which, Jegari struck off at a run.
He ran behind Jegari, and it hurt. His boots were not sturdy for out of doors. Rocks hurt his feet. His ankles faltered, and his knees hurt. His ribs began to ache. He stumbled, and Antaro caught his arm and kept him going.
But they both were lagging back now, both were running to accommodate him, and he tried as hard as he could, harder than he thought he could, grass whipping at his shins and his breath coming like a locomotive.
“Halt!” a man said out of the dark behind them, just right behind them.
He ran harder, expecting to be shot at. But Antaro had stopped, and Jegari did, ahead of him, facing back toward him.
He stopped where Jegari stood, and looked back past Antaro.
A man rose out of the grass. He had what could be a rifle. He could have shot them, so things were not as bad as they could be—just stay alive, just keep himself and his companions alive. Mani was going to have to get them out of this one.
It was over. At least this round.
He stood still, panting hard. He could hear Jegari breathing.
He saw Antaro tamely fall in beside that man as he walked toward them, and he figured that man had threatened to shoot him and Jegari.
The man came right up to them. “Young lord,” he said, in an Eastern accent, and gave a sketchy, wary nod, and Cajeiri’s breath gusted out and didn’t come back for a moment.
The young man’s name was Heien. He was one of mani’s youngest, from Malguri.
“Come,” the young man said, “quickly.”
“There are men, nadi,” Cajeiri said, pointing, “further that way, moving northwest, toward nand’ Bren’s estate. Four men.”
“Hurry, then, young lord,” Heien said, and gathered him by the arm and dragged him into motion. “Quickly!”
Cajeiri ran, gasping as he did so, and Jegari and Antaro kept pace, but it was not far, just over a slight elevation, and there was the double track of the road through the grass, and of all things, the battered estate bus sitting in the middle of the road, where another road branched off and this one just kept going.
Had they even gotten beyond the estate road, with all their effort and their running?
Even before they got to the bus, more men were getting out—Cenedi was in charge of them. His pale hair showed, when little else did but shadows.
Cajeiri really ran, then, with all he had left.
The dowager had gotten up into the aisle and Bren deferred to her intention. “Ha!” was all she had said, when Cenedi told her that Heien had just swept up the youngsters. She had gotten up, painful as that process might be, and showed every inclination to go to the door and descend the steps. Bren, behind her, with Tano and Algini, waited in the aisle.
Some signal had passed, one of those prearranged sets of blips that the dowager’s guard used among themselves. And Bren ducked his head and asked, “Can you tell Banichi and Jago that we have them?”
“We have done so, nandi,” Tano said.
So Banichi and Jago did know the field was clear—the youngsters turning up was one of the eventualities for which they had arranged a code. Howthe youngsters had done it was something he was sure they were about to hear, in exquisite detail, once Ilisidi had given the princely ear a smart swatc
Or maybe she wouldn’t, for this one. Precocious lad. And the Taibeni kids—were Taibeni: out of their element in a state dinner, but not in moving across the country, thank God.