“It does make you think a lot about how people perceive things,” grinned MistyTrail “Grab a rock. As soon as you throw it, tell him to start screaming.”
MistyTrail tossed the hat into the chamber. It floated through the air and slid across the floor when it hit. She then wove an air tunnel and directed it towards the pit. She held her hands to form a circle around the end of the air tunnel so that Mistake would have a target to aim her air tunnel at.
Mistake threw the rock hard. She thought she had thrown it too hard and that it would overshoot the pit, but it hit the rope and fell into the hole. She swiftly wove an air tunnel and instructed Eltor to start screaming. She reversed the flow and directed it at MistyTrail’s hands.
Eltor’s scream was loud and brought an almost immediate response. Several slaves raced into the room. The whip man was only a few seconds behind them. MistyTrail worked her air tunnel down the center of the pit. She could hear the scream getting fainter as she extended the air tunnel further down the hole. One of the female slaves started screaming. The whip man strode angrily towards her.
“Cut him off,” whispered MistyTrail.
Mistake immediately reversed the flow of the air tunnel and said, “Stop screaming now.”
The whip man slapped the screaming woman and shouted, “Who was it? I want to know who jumped.”
The chamber was still filling with people when he shouted his orders. The slaves immediately turned around and exited into tunnels. Eltor crawled alongside Mistake and peered into the chamber.
“They will conduct a search now to find out who is missing,” he whispered. “I saw this just the other day. It will take an hour or two.”
“Will they know it was you?” asked Mistake.
“Oh yes,” nodded Eltor. “They keep track of each slave in the mine just like they do in the shipyard. What do we do now?”
“We go back to our small cave and get some sleep,” stated Mistake. “Tomorrow you have to draw a map of this island so that we know where we are going.”
“I can’t travel around like this,” frowned Eltor. “I should have thought about that earlier. If I am seen, they will know that I am slave from the mines. I should not be in the city.”
“We have some red uniforms,” offered MistyTrail. “Can you use one of those?”
“You have uniforms?” Eltor asked with a raised eyebrow. “How did you get hold of them?”
“A long story,” grinned MistyTrail. “We will tell you about it later.”
“I might be able to wear it if no one gives me a close inspection,” shrugged Eltor. “It is better than what I am wearing.”
* * *
HawkShadow felt cramped as he changed his position slowly. He pushed lightly on the woven mat and peeked out at the river flowing by. His eyes rose to the sky as he studied the stars. He smiled inwardly as he determined the approximate time of night. He pushed the mat a littler further so that he could see the Imperial Guards that he knew would be posted on the opposite bank of the river.
HawkShadow had picked his spot well. He had timed the travel of the Omungans and determined what time of day they would come to the river. He had correctly surmised that the leader would choose to set up camp on the banks. The Sakovan had even made it more promising by arranging a fire circle and stacking a fresh supply of wood near it to make it look like a natural place to camp for the night. Next he had woven a mat from vines and covered it with the same long grass that was found along the banks of the river. Then he found a hollowed out spot along the near bank and secreted himself, pulling the mat in to hide any sign of him. He had waited for hours while the soldiers ate and watered the horses. He waited even longer for them to hone their weapons and tell stories before they bedded down for the night. Then he waited some more for the sentries to become tired and careless. Now the time to strike had come.
HawkShadow eased the mat away and slid out of the hollow. He laid the mat gently on the ground as he surveyed the sentries on the far bank. Most of them stood with their backs to the river. The others sat with their backs against the trees. They too were facing away from the river. HawkShadow rose and peered over the near bank. He smiled inwardly as he saw that his calculations were accurate. He was in the middle of the Imperial Guard encampment.
The Sakovan assassin pulled himself up onto the bank. He looked briefly at the placement of the sleeping men and charted a path through the camp. The hair on his neck stood up as he contemplated his next move. He knew that he would either accomplish his mission silently, or he would die this night. He pushed the thought from his mind.
HawkShadow rose to his feet and started walking deeper into the encampment. He concentrated on each and every step as he walked between the sleeping bodies. He counted the bodies on each side of his path as he passed them. When he reached fifty, he stopped and turned to face the river. He slowly opened his empty pack and secured the flap so it would not make noise. Then he dropped to his knees between two sleeping soldiers and drew his knife.
HawkShadow gently picked up the braid of the man sleeping on his right. He cut through it with his knife and gently placed it into his pack. The man did not move. He turned to the man on his left and sliced through his tail just above the white ribbon. The man mumbled softly and rolled over. HawkShadow remained poised to drive his knife into the man’s eye for several seconds before he decided that the man would not wake up. He gently placed the tail into his pack and crawled forward to the next pair of men.
HawkShadow felt his body starting to sweat in the cool night air. He ignored it and looked at the man on his right. The man’s tail was facing away from him, and he ignored the man, turning to the man on his left. He cut another braid and placed it in his pack. Again he crawled towards the river to the next pair of men where he picked up two tails. The sweat under his arms was beginning to dampen his clothes. The next pair of men offered up a braid and a tail. The following pair yielded only one tail.
As HawkShadow was about to sever the hair of the twelfth man, a soldier rose on the other side of the victim. HawkShadow flattened himself to the ground. He watched as the soldier wandered off towards the river to answer the call of nature. The assassin remained frozen in place. He waited nervously for the soldier to return, hoping that the man’s sleepy eyes would not notice the close proximity to the two men next to him.
As the soldier threw himself to the ground, HawkShadow’s intended victim suddenly rolled over. The Imperial Guard’s body rested partially on top of HawkShadow. The assassin waited for the man’s movements to stop and then slowly slid out from under him. HawkShadow decided to move on and bypassed the two men that he was between. He crawled to the next pair of men.
HawkShadow spent the next hour making his way back towards the riverbank, collecting tails and braids as he went. His pack began to bear down on him from the weight of the hair, but he was dissatisfied with the yield from his harvesting. Too many of the soldiers had been facing away from him. He had his mind set on taking fifty specimens with him, and he only had thirty-seven.
HawkShadow crawled to the next row of soldiers. He did not bother counting off bodies and working his way back as he had before. He started cutting from the first pair of men in the new row. He managed to collect another six tails before another soldier rose to walk to the river. The Sakovan assassin again remained frozen and waited for the man to return.
The soldier was gone for a long time, and when he returned and went back to sleep, HawkShadow decided to abort the quest for fifty tails. The hours until dawn were too few to dally any longer. He turned and crawled back to the riverbank.
HawkShadow slid over the riverbank. He closed his pack and secured it while keeping an eye on the sentries across the river. He made his way back to the hollow and picked up the grass-covered mat. He worked his way into the hollow pulling the mat with him. When he had the mat properly positioned, HawkShadow secured it with knives so it would not move while he slept. He made himself as comfortable as he could in the small space and closed his eyes knowing that the commotion in the morning would easily awaken him.