Zed moved the light from one side to the other, taking stock of not only the skulls but also of the situation.
“I think we shouldn’t go any—” Further, Berry was about to say, but Zed was already going further ahead for this road was his choice of direction and no skulls would stop his progress.
“Wait!” she called to him. And a little louder: “Wait!” But he was on the move, the mountain in motion. If Berry desired the comfort of the torchlight she would have to keep up. She also got herself moving, and though she imagined her feet must be leaving bloodmarks on the road she caught up with Zed and walked just behind him but within the circle of light.
Berry thought that the wilderness on either side was as thick as Matthew’s stubborn nature, and equally impenetrable. But where was the local harbor? Surely it couldn’t be very much further! She intended to see Zed off in whatever boat he might find, with whatever fishing tackle or net, and then get herself back to the Templeton Inn. There would be some explaining to do. And would she be punished for this transgression? Would Matthew in some way be punished? She was in this soup now and she was going to have to swim through it. Zed’s freedom was worth it…she hoped.
They hadn’t gone but a few minutes more when Zed stopped again. This time Berry avoided a collision. Zed stood motionlessly in the middle of the road, his torch upraised. Off to the left a bird suddenly called stridently from the dark. Zed angled his light in that direction. His head cocked back and forth. He was listening, Berry thought. But listening for what?
Another bird called from the right. It was a higher-pitched sound, but equally as strident. Two notes, similar to the cawing of a crow. Zed abruptly spun around, facing Berry, and offered the torchlight past her; his eyes were centers of flame, likewise trying to pierce the dark. She turned to see what he was seeing, her spine and arms having erupted into goosebumps, but all she saw was flickering firelight, an empty road and nothing more.
In the woods on the right, a small spark jumped. A torch burst into fire.
In the woods on the left, a small spark jumped. A second torch came to life.
On the road before them, a third torch exploded into flame, and behind them a fourth awakened its scarlet eye.
Four figures approached Zed and Berry, moving in silence. Firelight jumped off at least two drawn swords. Berry felt Zed’s body coiling, the muscles bunching up in his shoulders. His black-bearded face looked from one point of the compass to another, and he reached out to pull Berry closer to him but she realized even he must know four men with torches and swords would be too many for one Ga to fight.
Not, however, that he wouldn’t try.
“Hold still,” said the one on the right as he came through the thicket. “Don’t try to run, it’ll go worse for you.”
Zed gave a quiet grunt. Berry heard it as: And worse for you, that I don’t run.
The four figures converged upon them. They were heavy-set, broadshouldered white men with faces as hard as chunks of granite. A couple of them had faint smiles on their twisted mouths, as if they knew what was coming and looked forward greatly to the experience.
“Who the hell are you?” one of them, a man with a hooked nose and a wicked cutlass, asked Berry as he got nearer.
“Who the hell are you?” she answered back, standing her ground as if her bare feet were rooted there. She lifted her chin in defiance and hoped they wouldn’t see all the fear swimming in her eyes.
“We’ll sort this out later,” said the man standing behind Zed and Berry. “Take ’em, boys!”
“This is a damned big’un,” said one of the boys, a mite nervously. “What’re them scars on his face?”
“Damned if I know or care. Just take ’em!”
The order having been given by the man who was apparently in charge, the other three came forward with torches outthrust and swords ready to slash. Zed didn’t wait for them to arrive. He sprang at them with unexpected speed, and with teeth gritted at the center of his beard he stabbed his torch into the face of the nearest man and swung flames across the head of the next, setting the unfortunate’s hair on fire. At that, the proverbial hell broke loose. Two swords came at Zed from front and back, and as Zed twisted to parry the blows with his own blazing weapon he gave Berry a mighty shove toward the woods and past the man who was trying to slap out the bonfire in his hair. She staggered into the brush and almost went down before she grabbed hold of a hanging vine. There she watched Zed battling torch against swords, doing his gallant best, but then the man with the scorched face swung a leather cudgel against the back of Zed’s skull. One swing wasn’t enough, for Zed turned to apply torch-to-face once more but a second cudgel blow hit him squarely on the left temple. Berry saw his knees sag.
It took a third blow right in the center of his forehead to drop the torch from Zed’s hand. As Zed went to his knees on the ground, one of the swordsmen started to run him through at the neck, but the other—the leader—said, “Hold that! I think he’s done!”
But not quite. Zed started to get to his feet again. The leader struck him across the base of the skull with the sword’s grip, and the eager swordsman hit Zed in the face with a balled-up fist. Berry heard the sound of Zed’s nose bursting blood. Then the man who had half a headful of ashes came at Berry, grabbing hold of her gown with one hand and putting a sword’s tip under her chin with the other.
Berry saw Zed fall. There was nothing she could do for him. It was beyond her ability to stop them if they stabbed him to death in the next few seconds. Now she had to think about herself, and about the fact that the sword’s tip was just about to pierce flesh. With a harsh cry that startled her assailant into a frozen instant, she tore free from him and ran into the thicket.
“Get her, Austin!” came the shouted command, but it was already well to Berry’s back. She was going through the underbrush as if her own hair was aflame. A stumble over a pod of cactus plants was not a pleasant experience, but she sucked in her breath and swallowed the pain and kept running for all she was worth, which felt at the moment like a wooden shilling. When she dared to look back she saw in the silver moonlight Austin—half-haired and sweat-faced—still after her, his torch having been lost to hand in the initial skirmish. As he lunged forward to grab at her Berry changed direction like a skittering rabbit. She heard a grunt as his feet slid one way and his body careened in another, and there was a solid and satisfying thud as Austin hit the ground.
Berry ran for her life, or at least her freedom. She tore through vines and thorns and disturbed beams of moonlight with her running shadow. A look behind showed her no one following…yet. She didn’t slow down. God help Zed, she thought, for she could not.
She came out of the woods onto another road. To her right, a torch was visible with a man underneath it, running in her direction. The light glinted off a sword. She ran along the road, her breath coming hard and fast and the sweat standing out on her cheeks. In another few yards a cart trail led off to the right through the brush, and this she took without hesitation, feeling she was safer amid the trees. She followed the trail further on, and saw by the moonlight several houses of white stone standing ahead.
A shout caught her attention. Two torches were coming from behind. Berry ran to the first house and banged furiously at the front door. There was no response or lamplight from within. The torches were getting closer. She had a few seconds to decide whether to run for the woods again or try the door of the second house. It was a near thing, but she went to the door. A hammering this time awakened a light that moved past a window. There was not much time; the two men approaching were almost within sight. Then a bolt was drawn, the door opened a crack and a lamp was thrust into Berry’s face.