"So we didn't accomplish anything."
"Sure we did. We bought time for Rider to finish whatever he's doing and get back into the lists here. While we've had Shai Khe tied down accomplishing nothing himself. We got rid of all but a handful of his thugs. If the General's pals have held up their end, we've grabbed off his hideout behind him. When he goes running back ... "
"Yeah? You're forgetting something, runt. If he figures Rider is croaked, the only thing keeping him from popping the cork on Shasesserre is the chance we've still got the woman. Whatever she means to him."
"Yes," Preacher said, peeping out the corner of the window. "We've got some action coming."
They all crowded the window. Below, an oriental horseman galloped toward the house. A pair of City Guardsmen pursued him, bellowing. Their words could not be distinguished, but it seemed they wanted the oriental to desist from his reckless behavior.
All three passed without slowing.
A minute went by.
Men began to appear as if from nowhere. One was Shai Khe himself. They departed at a brisk pace.
"One watcher each, front and back, I would guess," Chaz said. "Get out there and do your stuff, little buddy."
Su-Cha grinned. "Ever notice how I get to be his buddy when he wants me to stick my neck out?"
But already he was shifting form, as they had made it up ahead.
They had no trouble with Shai Khe's men, who had not foreseen danger in the guise of a cute little boy. Besides the immediate watchers, the easterner left two sentries along his backtrail.
His path led straight to the warehouse Preacher had identified as Shai Khe's current headquarters.
After the last fell, Chaz said, "I've got a feeling Shai Khe isn't going to be surprised we're hot after him."
The General said, "No doubt. But, then, the surprise is at the other end, isn't it?"
At that point they entered the street of Shai Khe's headquarters. And at that moment all hell broke loose inside the warehouse.
They charged the door by which Shai Khe had entered their trap.
XXXII
Rider felt the smuggling craft nudge gently against a wharf. Sounds and odors told him they had docked along Tannery Row on Henchelside. The airshipmen, though tired, quickly made fast and left the ship. Moments later Rider heard the creak of oarlocks.
He popped out of hiding, surprised. And that was a mistake, for a guard had been left aboard.
He was turning, drawing breath for a shout. Rider snagged the broken corpse of a single reeve stay block and hurled it. It thunked off the airshipman's forehead. The man went over backward.
Rider crept forth. He peered over the gunwale. Wonder of wonders. The spot of action had gone unnoticed, though the oarsmen in the two boats faced the ship.
Rider slithered to the wharf side and, when he was sure he would not be noticed, left the ship.
A group of urchins audience to everything gave him a hand—then scattered when he scowled.
He loped into the stench of Tannery Row, headed for King's Bridge, which lay a mile away.
Thirty minutes later he was in hiding on the east bank, watching the airshipmen unload their prisoners and make their boats ready for a quick getaway.
They left one guard again.
When the main party was out of sight he moved in. In moments he had the sentry trussed up and the boats adrift. He resumed his shadowing of the airshipmen. He caught up as they entered a warehouse.
He reached into the web and extended his senses, searching for signs of Shai Khe. There were none.
But someone was there. And that someone was not friendly toward the easterner's men. A fight broke out. It was over in seconds, a successful ambush. Rider did not go investigate.
He suspected it would be wiser, tactically, to remain on the outside of events, unseen and unknown.
A wagon rolled up to the door Rider watched. Men from the warehouse loaded it with bound airshipmen, covered them with a tarp. Away the wagon went. A brisk, efficient piece of work.
The tough look of those men gave them away. They were air marines in mufti.
So. The next step was obvious. Wait for Shai Khe to come meet his people in a headquarters he believed to be secure.
There had been some busyness while he was off to Shroud's Head, that was certain. Despite his absence, his associates seemed to have Shai Khe on the run. But Rider had no great confidence in that appearance.
How long before the eastern devil showed himself?
Not long at all.
It started like the row with the airshipmen. But that lasted only fifteen seconds. Then a brilliant flash illuminated the backs of the warehouse's few windows. The tenor of the uproar changed.
Rider was watching through the web.
Shai Khe had used a powerful spell to neutralize and incapacitate the marines, but before he could finish them off, Chaz, Su-Cha, and their gang broke in. The easterner had some bad moments with them. In fact, Chaz and General Procopio got in blows that nearly incapacitated Shai Khe.
Su-Cha used the sorcerer's moments of distraction and disorientation to shove Caracene into hiding and take her place.
Rider nudged the web and added to the confusion by undoing the spells binding the marines.
Those gentlemen jumped up with blood in their eyes.
Shai Khe was not whipped yet. Not by a mile and a year. But he was rattled. The unexpected recuperation of the marines decided him to retreat and regroup.
He grabbed Su-Cha/Caracene's hand and took off.
Rider tugged the web just enough to make sure everyone in the warehouse was free and conscious. Them he withdrew and waited.
Shai Khe burst out the warehouse door. Fifty yards down the street he halted, whirled, hurled a vicious spell that undermined the warehouse's foundations. That whole nearer face of the building came down. Shai Khe headed for the river at a brisk walk.
The collapse should have killed all of the easterner's enemies. But Rider aborted that.
He had reached through the web and jammed an interior door. Chaz, the general, the marines and the others had gone galloping toward the far exit before the collapse began.
Rider jogged to a parallel street, then raced to the river. He was sure Shai Khe meant to rendezvous with the airshipmen's boats. Shai Khe did things meticulously, calculatedly. He would know where the boats and ships made landings, for those points would have been preselected for his convenience.
Rider was in hiding not twenty yards away from the man he had left bound when the easterner loped into view, casting angry glances behind him. His enemies were closing in again.
He cursed once, softly, when he reached the river's edge and found his man unconscious and his boats gone.
He let go Caracene's hand, used both of his in a complicated series of gestures. The airshipman's bonds fell away. But he would not arise from his dreams.
Shai Khe faced his pursuers.
He seemed to swell in stature, in presence. An aura of great dread grew around him. The bowl of his uplifted left hand began to glow turquoise.
Chaz and the crowd were just thirty yards away. In almost ridiculous unison they stopped, flung themselves around, and scattered.
Shai Khe arced the blue fire after them. It floated through the air, trailing turquoise mists, crackling, leaving a rent in the web that was almost painful to Rider. The easterner either thought Rider out of the game or no longer worried about attracting his attention.
The blue fireball hit the street with an impact that rattled buildings for half a mile. It shattered. Pieces flew about, landing with their own thunderous impacts, fragmented, impacted, fragmented. Some chunks knocked holes in nearby walls. The smaller the chunk, the faster it moved and more dangerous it was. But the smaller pieces turned into mist more quickly, so remained dangerous for only a few seconds.