They drew level with the girls and, for a moment, it seemed they would pass by. Then the female stopped abruptly, lifted her snout, flaring the wide nostrils and snuffling noisily at the air. The male followed her example and both of them began to grunt softly but eagerly. The male gaped to display a vicious set of fangs, then gnashed them shut. They were so close that Fenn smelt the stench of his breath. She felt Sidudu's hand tremble in hers and squeezed her fingers again to encourage her.
Both trogs hopped forward cautiously towards where they stood, still testing the air. The female lowered her head and sniffed the ground over which the girls had passed. She shuffled towards them slowly, following their scent. Sidudu was shaking with terror and Fenn could sense the
panic rising in her to the point when it must boil over. She drew deeply upon her training and sent out waves of psychic strength to steady her, but by now the ape's questing snout was only inches from the toe of Sidudu's sandal. Sidudu urinated with terror. Her water ran down her legs and the trog grunted again as she smelt it. The ape gathered herself to spring forward, but at that moment a small antelope rustled the bushes as it fled, and the male trog let out a ferocious bellow and bounded away in pursuit. Immediately the female went after him, passing so close to Sidudu that she almost brushed against her. As the apes crashed away through the undergrowth, Sidudu sagged against Fenn and might have fallen to the ground if Fenn had not grabbed her. Holding her close, Fenn led her slowly up to the crest of the hill, taking care not to break the spell of concealment until they were out of sight of the temple. Then they ran to where Meren and Nakonto were waiting with the horses.
They never slept two nights in the same bivouac. Between them That and Sidudu knew all the back ways and hidden tracks through the forest, so they moved swiftly and secretly, avoiding well-travelled paths, covering much ground between one camp and the next.
They went from village to village, meeting local magistrates and headmen who were sympathizers. All were incomers, and most of the villagers were loyal to them. They provided food and safe houses for the fugitives. They kept watch for Jarrian patrols and warned of their approach.
In each village Meren and That held a war council.
'We are going back to our very Egypt!' they would tell the magistrates and headmen. 'Have your people ready to march on the night of the harvest moon.'
That would look round the circle of faces that glowed with elation and excitement in the firelight. He pointed to the chart he had unrolled and spread before him. 'This will be the route you must follow. Arm your menfolk with what weapons you have to hand. Your womenfolk must gather food, warm clothing and blankets for their families, but bring nothing that you cannot carry. It will be a long, hard march. Your first assembly point will be here.' He indicated the place on the chart. 'Move swiftly to it. There will be scouts waiting for you. They will have more weapons for your men, and they will guide you to the Kitangule Gap.
That will be the main mustering ground for all our people. Be discreet and circumspect. Tell only those you can trust of our plans. You know from bitter experience that the spies of the oligarchs are everywhere. Do not move before the appointed time, unless you receive direct orders from either Colonel Cambyses or me.' Before sunrise they rode on. The commanders of the outlying garrisons and military forts were almost solidly Tinat's men. They listened to his orders, made few suggestions and asked fewer questions. 'Send us the order to march. We will be ready,' they told him.
The three main mines were in the south-eastern foothills of the mountains. In the largest, thousands of slaves and prisoners toiled on the stopes, digging out the rich silver ore. The commander of the guards was one of Tinat's men. He was able to spirit That and Meren, dressed as labourers, into the slave barracoons and prison compounds. The inmates had organized themselves into secret cells and elected their leaders. That knew most of the leaders welclass="underline" before their arrest and incarceration they had been his friends and comrades. They listened to his orders with joy.
'Wait for the harvest moon,' he told them. 'The guards are with us.
At the appointed time they will open the gates and set you free.'
The other mines were smaller. One produced copper and zinc, the alloy needed to turn copper into bronze. The smallest of all was the richest.
Here the slaves worked a thick seam of gold-bearing quartz, so rich that lumps of pure gold gleamed in the light of the miners' lamps.
'We have fifteen wagonloads of pure gold stored in the smelter,' the chief engineer told That.
'Leave it!' Meren ordered brusquely.
That nodded. 'Yes! Leave the gold.'
'But it is a vast treasure!' the engineer protested.
'Freedom is an even greater treasure,' Meren said. 'Leave the gold.
It will slow us down, and we can find better use for the wagons. They will carry the women, children and any men who are too frail or sick to walk.'
It was still twenty days short of the harvest moon when the oligarchs struck. Many thousands were already privy to the planned exodus so a bright flame was burning throughout Jarri. It was inevitable that the spies would pick up its smoke. The oligarchs sent Captain Onka with two hundred men to Mutangi, the village from which the rumours had emanated.
They surrounded it at night and captured all the inhabitants. Onka interrogated them one at a time in the village council hut. He used the lash and the branding iron. Although eight men died during the questioning, and many more were blinded and maimed, he learned little.
Then he started on the women. Bilto's youngest wife was the mother of twins, a girl and a boy aged four. When she resisted Onka's questions, he forced her to watch while he decapitated her son. Then he threw the boy's severed head at her feet, and picked up his sister by a handful of her curls. He dangled her screaming and wriggling before her mother's face. 'You know that I will not stop with just one of your brats,' he told the woman and pricked the little girl's cheek with his dagger. She shrieked afresh with pain, and the mother broke down. She told Onka everything she knew, and that was a great deal.
Onka ordered his men to drive all the villagers, including Bilto, his wife and their surviving daughter, into the thatched council hut. They barred the doors and windows, then set fire to the thatch. While the screams were still ringing from the burning building, Onka mounted and rode like a fury for the citadel to report to the oligarchs.
Two of the villagers had been hunting in the hills. From afar they witnessed the massacre and went to warn That and Meren that they had been betrayed. They ran all the way to where the band was hiding, a distance of almost twenty leagues.
That listened to what the two men told him, and did not hesitate.
'We cannot wait for the harvest moon. We must march at once.'
'Taita!' Fenn cried out, in agony of spirit. 'You promised to wait for him.'
'You know that I cannot,' That replied. 'Even Colonel Cambyses must agree that I dare not do so.'
Reluctantly Meren nodded. 'Colonel That is right. He cannot wait.
He must take the people and fly. Taita himself wanted it.'
'I will not go with you,' Fenn cried out. 'I will wait until Taita comes.'
'I will stay too,' Meren told her, 'but the others must leave at once.'
Sidudu reached for Fenn's hand. 'You and Meren are my friends. I will not go.'
'You are brave girls,' said That, 'but will you go again to the Temple of Love and bring out our young women?'
'Of course!' Fenn exclaimed.
'How many men will you need to go with you?' asked That.
'Ten will suffice,' Meren told him. 'We will also need spare horses for the temple girls. We will bring them to you at the first river crossing on the road to Kitangule. Then we will come back to wait for Taita.'