“How far?” I asked Challenger.
“Nine kilometres.”
“How far is that though?”
“At our current speed, two hours.”
I almost asked if we would break out of the trees soon, but I knew the answer. If we had wanted, we could have followed the spine of rock and stubble that began with Alner Hill and the Dog Neck and went on westward almost as far as Blackbern. But if we did, we would be forsaking the cover the forest gave us. However fast we went, the Half-Ax weapons would most likely outrun us, and there would be nothing up there to spoil their aim. So we stayed below the ridge, in the thick of the trees, where every other step was a stumble and any moment might bring the waked woods down on us.
But the river was not far ahead, and that would change everything. At least, we hoped it would. Challenger’s mirror was not good for showing the lie of the ground, but Catrin was keeping watch – looking for the thinning of the trees that would tell us we were close.
“Take us left!” she called down the turret of a sudden. “Heel hard to the left, Spinner!”
I thought she must be wrong. We could not have come far enough yet. To the left of us, the woods were all aflame, and though Challenger could run through fire the rest of our tally could not. But I had to trust she knew what she was doing. I gave the order to Elaine, and felt the lurch and lean when she obeyed it.
The ground fell away under us as we ran down a steep bank. We seemed almost weightless, we dipped so sudden and so quick. Then a loud splash told me I was deceived as to where we were, while Catrin had judged exactly right. We had reached the river.
This was another stretch of Calder, but we didn’t call it such. Calder was our river, where it flowed within the valley. Out here it was called Sandbound, and it ran slowly over a wide, shallow bed of bare rock and pebbles. Our runners would have a straight road, almost, to travel in, and what’s more they would have good air to breathe. The smoke hung above us and pooled on both sides of us, but it hadn’t come down the banks yet. Some trick of the wind and the weather held it back.
As if those two blessings were not enough, we got a third one besides. The river gave us the cover we had hoped for, so as we turned ourselves to head full west we were not running full on into Half-Ax fire. By the time they realised we had turned, we had gained – going by what I saw in the mirror – fully a hundred strides. More than that even, for they were forced to slow in case we were hiding under the bank in wait for them. The red dots crowded at the very edge of Challenger’s mirror, a good way off.
I laughed out loud with relief. The hardest part – breaking out of the Half-Ax circle – was behind us. All we had to do now was to stay ahead of them as we closed the distance with Koli Faceless.
Then the laugh stuck in my throat and came near to choking me, as all the red lights went out at once. The magic mirror was empty.
I rose up on my feet, even though we were jolting and bouncing over the slick stones of the river bed. “Challenger!” I cried. “Report! What’s happening?”
“I have lost the enemy’s signals.”
“How?” I threw out my hands at the mirror as if I could reach through it, scoop up all the lights and put them back where they belonged. “Where have they gone?”
“I do not believe they have gone anywhere, sergeant. I cannot detect our own tech either. The entire scanning field is disabled. The most likely explanation is that they have toppled the mast from the roof of Rampart Hold or broken the connection at ground level.”
Which was the worst news he could have given me. Not only were we blind to Berrobis’s movements, we knew that she had left a force behind her to take the village.
Vallen! I thought with a sudden stab of pain and fright. My little one!
“Raise or fold, commander?” Elaine asked me. “It’s your call. If you want to go back, we’ll need a wide stretch to turn in.”
What could I say? In a way this didn’t change anything at all. It just took away the luxury of knowing how much of a head start we had. We still had got to carry on and hope Berrobis would keep on following. We couldn’t hope to save the people we’d left behind in Mythen Rood if we turned and ran home again leaving Half-Ax whole.
“No,” I said. “Keep on as we are.”
I climbed up into the turret again, with a few slips and slides along the way. Morrez slid down onto Challenger’s flank to make way for me.
“We lost sight of them,” I told Catrin and the others. “They took down the mast, so we can’t track them by their tech no more. We’re a good way out in front of them though. If we keep this pace and this line, we got a good chance of getting through without them catching up again.”
Catrin gave me a hard stare as she thought this through. “How will we find our way though? Weren’t we tracking Koli by his tech too?”
“Yeah, but Koli’s moving a lot slower. And Challenger didn’t lose his memory, only the signal. We’ll head for where Koli’s tally was when we set out, and find them quick enough by their smoke and noise.”
Catrin nodded, and shouted the news abroad to the runners. I looked around, trying to count how many of our people were still with us – and to look for Jon, if I’m honest. I was terrified he might have been one of those the phosphorus or the bursting air took down.
The sun was up over the shoulder of the world now. It was mostly hid behind banked-up thunderheads, but red-orange light trickled through here and there, making the trees shake and stir themselves like they were having troubled dreams. Our fighters were strung out in a long line, running across and in front of each other, and the twists and bends of the river hid them ever and again as we rolled on. Then I got a sight of my husband, down on one knee to catch his breath while the rest of Rampart Knife caught up with him. Some of them. Not all. I counted five in the mottled leather, and still was trying to guess which ones they were when we turned another bend and lost them.
“Do we know how many are dead?” I asked Catrin. She gave me no answer apart from a shake of her head, which either meant no or stop asking. I ducked back inside Challenger and took my seat again.
Down into Hebden we went, as if all the devils in Hell were after us and Stannabanna on a horse all of bones leading them. Though we’d lost the signal from the mast, I could still see through Challenger’s mirror. Any other time, I would have stopped to wonder at the beauty of the land in the dawn light that seemed as thick as wine. Right now, all I could think of was Vallen. Vallen, and all them we’d left behind us to face Half-Ax’s spite. If I ever did.
“How far?” I asked again.
“Approximately six kilometres. But there’s movement ahead of us much closer than that. Look to your two o’clock.”
That meant up ahead and to the right, though I had no idea why. It was a habit of Challenger’s to count directions as if there were twelve of them standing around him in a circle.
Of a sudden, I saw them in the magic mirror. They were up on the ridge above us that we had forsook because it was too exposed. I couldn’t see how many they were, but I saw the colours they were wearing. These were Half-Ax soldiers, a cluster of maybe twenty or thirty of them grouped high up on the hill’s side.
For a second, I only stared. It made no sense that they should be there, already so far ahead of us. I thought I must be mistaking the play of light and shadow for Half-Ax grey and red. Then in a rush of dread and dismay I remembered what Challenger had said about Half-Ax’s army having to live off the land. We had most likely run into some of their hunters, scouring Hebden for forage enough to feed five hundred.