The wall itself could wait. Right now he wanted to look for signs of pursuit and signs of Twana. He scrambled upward until the plain was nearly five hundred feet below. In spite of the slope, the rock was rough enough to be easy climbing. It seemed to go on like that all the way up to the base of the wall. Even Twana should be able to climb the hills without too much trouble, if that turned out to be necessary.

From his perch Blade could see no trace of Twana. To balance that disappointment, he could also see no sign of the Shoba's men. They seemed to have vanished from the face of the land. Far off toward the north, he saw a faint hint of movement along the foot of the hills. Whatever it was, it was far too small and slow moving to be the column of soldiers and wagons. Probably a village's flocks being driven out to pasture for the day.

So much for the Shoba's men. Blade put them out of his mind and scrambled down toward the plain to begin his search for Twana.

He found her a little after noon, huddled in the shadow of a clump of bushes by the mouth of a small cave just above the level of the plain. A stream flowed out of the cave and across the plain, toward a village about three miles away. Blade wondered why Twana hadn't sought out food and warmth in the village, instead of sitting here shivering and alone.

Blade held the girl until she stopped shaking with cold and the relief from fear and strain. He stroked her hair and cheeks, kissed her on the eyes, made soothing and rea.s.suring noises, but did nothing more. He was very conscious of her warmth and graceful beauty, but he was even more conscious of the fear that filled her. It would be a long time before this girl wanted anything but a rea.s.suring, protecting presence from a man. He would see that she got that.

At last Blade thought Twana might to ready to speak. "Twana. Are you hurt? Can you walk a little farther?"

She turned enormous brown eyes toward him. "How-how do you know my name?"

Blade decided to tell the girl the truth. "When the Shoba's men came to h.o.r.es, I was hiding in a place nearby. I could see everything that happened and hear much, even your name."

"You-you saw the Shoba's men, the iron dragons, the beating of Naran, my father?"

"I said I saw everything that happened at your village, Twana. That is why I came to the camp of the Shoba's men at night, to fight them and help you escape."

Twana shivered more violently than before. Blade put his arms around her again. "Come, Twana. I think we should go to that village that I see only an hour away. You need food and warmth that I cannot give you out here."

Instead of seeming relieved or happy at the idea, Twana shuddered again and shook her head furiously. "No. It will be death for them if we go there. We cannot go there."

"How is that, Twana? I have destroyed the powder they put in the iron dragons to make them throw stones at villages. I have frightened their riding animals. I have killed the Aygoon of the Tribute himself. I cannot imagine that they will even come after us now. Even if they come after us, how can they find us, or learn that we have gone to the village?"

Twana's face turned the color of milk, and she sat down as if her legs had turned to jelly. Slowly she shook her head. "How can you say these things, unless you are mad or . . . ?"

"I am not mad, Twana. Do not worry about that. My name is Blade, and I am from a distant land, where not much is known of the Shoba's men. Perhaps you can tell me things that I should know about them?"

Twana's words came out in a rush. "The Shoba's men will come after us. They are too strong to be beaten by what you have done. They will find someone to give orders like the Aygoon. They will tame their animals again. They may be on our trail now."

"Perhaps. But how can they pick up our trail when we have come so far?"

"You do not know of the sniffers then?"

"What are they? Men or animals?"

The sniffers of the Shoba had apparently been a frightful menace among Twana's people for so long that trying to describe them frightened her almost speechless. Blade had to be continually prompting her and make his own guesses about things she would not discuss. Gradually he understood what a sniffer was and why Twana and her people were frightened of it. He had to admit that fear seemed justified.

A sniffer sounded like a cross between a centipede and a porcupine, but it was the size of a small pony. It was covered from throat to tail with two-foot spines. Their sense of smell was incredibly acute. If a sniffer were given any article that had ever belonged to a person to smell, it could trail that person over any kind of country for a week or more. When it caught up with its prey, it would close in rapidly on its thirty-eight legs and hold the person at bay, or even kill, with swings of the four-foot tail. The spines on the tail were poisonous.

"Do the Shoba's men have something that you wore?" asked Blade.

Twana nodded. "They took all my clothes before they put me in the wagon with the other women." She shuddered. "Most of them were pleasure slaves for the Aygoon and his men. They beat me with silk cords and made me wait on them. One of them was an uldao-a woman who loves women instead of men. She made me. . . ." She could not go on, but clung to Blade until the memories faded.

Finally she stepped away from him. After several deep breaths, she seemed to gain a good deal of self-control. "The soldiers have more than enough to send the sniffers after me. But they do not have anything of yours, so the sniffers will not be after you. You should go on alone and leave me. You have struck a mighty blow against the Shoba, and I am grateful. But there is no need for you to die by torture. You must. . . . "

Blade pressed his fingers across her lips to silence her. "No, Twana. I will not do it that way. I will stay with you. Whatever danger comes after you will also come after me. Two people can guard themselves better than one."

"Not with the sniffers . . . ."

"Yes, even with the sniffers on their trail. Now, let us talk no more of this." He was about to say, "If all else fails, we can go over the wall where the sniffers can hardly follow us." Then he remembered that Twana was apparently in terror of the wall. There was no point in reawakening fear in her now.

"All right," said Twana. "We shall go on. But let us not go to this village, either of us. If we go in daylight, certainly they will see us. The Shoba's men will come, and they will punish the village for helping us. They will punish the village even without the iron dragons, by killing their animals or cutting down their trees or throwing dung down their wells."

"Then we'll go on to the next village and wait until dark. I'll slip in and get what we need, while you keep watch for the Shoba's men and the sniffers."

Twana nodded jerkily. Blade seemed to have convinced her that there was something to do against the Shoba's men beside curling up and dying. Now that she accepted this, she seemed to be gaining courage and determination with each pa.s.sing moment.

Blade looked at the sky. It was time that he and Twana moved on, to take advantage of the remaining daylight. He took her hand and led her away toward the south.

Chapter 6.

They reached another village as the sun was setting. This village had a wall of mud bricks topped with wooden stakes, but there were huts scattered around the pastures and along the sh.o.r.es of a small lake. These promised easier pickings for Blade, without getting the villagers aroused and on his trail.

Blade and Twana waited in the shadows at the foot of the hills until darkness came. The girl was obviously still nervous about being this close to the Wall-the way she said the word made the capital W obvious to Blade's ears. She kept looking upward, as though expecting something to leap down upon them from above. Once Blade saw another gleam of metal on top of the Wall, but it was miles away, and he could make out no details in the fading light.

Darkness came, and Blade went to work. With Twana keeping watch outside, he carefully went through each hut. By the time he'd finished, he had clothes, footgear, blankets, and knives, for both himself and Twana. He even found a goatskin water bottle and a long rope. He only stopped because there was no point in taking more than he could carry away.

They moved on through the darkness until the last faint trace of light from the village was lost behind them. At last, they came to a patch of low, spreading bushes and crawled in under them. Neither men nor sniffers could come at them now without giving warning of their approach and waking Blade.

Blade spread one blanket on the ground under them, then drew Twana close with one arm and pulled the rest of the blankets over them with the other. Gradually the blankets and their closely nestled bodies drove away the chill of the night. Gradually Blade also became aware of another kind of warmth growing in him. It was inevitable with Twana's supple, graceful body pressing so closely against his. It was also something he would do his best to fight. After her experiences of the past few days, s.e.x was probably the farthest thing in the whole world from Twana's mind. Blade tried to pillow his head as comfortably as possible on a rolled-up fur hood and found himself drifting off to sleep. He'd been awake for nearly two solid days and on the move most of the time. Even his iron frame needed a rest.

Twana also seemed to be falling asleep. Her eyes drifted shut, and her breathing became slow and regular. One arm was thrown out across Blade's ma.s.sive chest.

Just as he was drifting off to sleep, Blade realized that Twana's hand had begun to move with what seemed a life of its own. Her eyes were still closed, but her fingers were creeping down across his ribs, stroking the tanned skin and feeling for the layers of hard muscle under it. Those fingers were very gentle, but very sure in their movements. The erotic warmth began to grow again in Blade.

Twana sighed and, without opening her eyes, pressed her cheek against Blade's side. He raised a hand and stroked her hair. Twana made a small sound that was halfway between a sigh and a giggle and pressed herself harder against Blade. Her hand now crept down over Blade's stomach, then dipped between his legs.

Blade gave a husky laugh. Apparently the last few days hadn't driven all thoughts of s.e.x out of Twana's mind after all! The warmth he'd felt was beginning to center in his groin, and his breathing quickened as Twana's hand continued its travels.

Then her fingers closed with delicate firmness on his manhood, and suddenly he was swollen, erect, ready, with desire almost boiling over in him. He gasped and rolled toward the girl. She gave a long "Ahhhhhhh!" and threw both arms around him as they rolled together. Blade's lips sought Twana's and found them, while his hands cupped the small, firm b.r.e.a.s.t.s. The nipples had risen into long, almost jutting points that were as firm as if they'd been something more than warm woman's flesh.

They caressed and kissed and pressed against each other for what seemed hours, but could only have been minutes. Twana's breath was coming so quickly and so hard that Blade could hear her over his own gasps. The mouth under his was warm, almost hot, wet, demanding and seeking, but also giving generously at the same time.

Twana whispered and rolled over on her back. As she did, she clamped her hands in Blade's hair and drew his head down with almost painful force to bring his lips to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. He was more than happy to keep his lips there, and his tongue as well. The nipples and the lovely b.r.e.a.s.t.s around them seemed to grow warm themselves under his kisses and caresses.

Then the flame in Blade's groin was blazing so fiercely that he could no longer bold himself back from trying to quench it. He raised himself until the muscles in his arms stood out in knots and cords. Twana saw him above her and saw that the moment had come. Her legs drifted apart, and she thrust her pelvis with its triangle of damp hair up toward Blade. He lunged downward, and it seemed to him that they met in midair and flew away together into the night sky. Never before had his first moment of entry into a woman brought such an overpowering a.s.sault on his senses.

The feeling was so powerful that it was almost terrifying. Blade clung to Twana, not only in pa.s.sion, but in the need to hold on to some part of the real world. She clutched him in an even greater frenzy, and he could feel her shaking as he moved within her.

He moved slowly at first, although it cost him a heroic effort at self-restraint. If he'd let himself go, he would have taken Twana with a desperate fury certain to frighten her half out of her wits. So he was gentle, almost delicate. Gradually he felt Twana's movements rise to match his and then move beyond them. Under the fear there was a core of pa.s.sion in her, and he was reaching it.

Blade threw off all restraint and no longer held himself back. He no longer needed to, and he couldn't have done so even if he'd wanted to. Twana clutched him tighter and began to moan.

Suddenly the moans turned into a shrill scream. Twana writhed and twisted, her mouth pouring out wild, meaningless sounds, her legs clamped tight around Blade and her nails raking his back. He could feel her twisting within as well, as every part of her body threw itself into a wild convulsion of released desire.

Then Twana's convulsion drew Blade up to his own peak and pushed him over. She cried out again as she felt him pouring himself hotly into her, and a third time as his arms tightened around her like steel bands. Then Blade was sagging down on her, as though all his strength had poured out of him along with all his desire. His head came to rest between Twana's b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and her hands drifted down to rest lightly in his tangled hair.

It was a while before they found the strength to untangle themselves long enough to pull the blankets over them. Even that strength didn't last long. Both of them were asleep within a few minutes, and it didn't matter whether the Shoba's men and sniffers were one mile away or a thousand.

They lay snugly together until just before dawn. Then Blade woke, crept out from the blankets without waking the sleeping girl, and drank some water. He woke Twana, and together they collected their gear and headed toward the hills.

Twana's face grew more strained as the hills and the Wall on top loomed higher and higher above them. She stayed quiet until they'd reached the very foot of the nearest hill. Blade unslung his pack and turned toward the slope, and that drew a wild cry from her.

"No, Blade! Do not! You must not go up there! The Watchers will take you. You must not die and leave me alone!"

Blade turned. This seemed as good a time as any to find out what made Twana so fearful of the hills and the Wall. "What are the Watchers, Twana, that a warrior needs to be afraid of them? The Shoba's men found me hard to kill. Why should the Watchers have it any easier?"

"You do not understand, Blade. The Watchers who defend the Wall are not men. You are strong against men, but. . . "

Blade held up a hand to interrupt her. "The Watchers are not men? Then what are they?"

Twana swallowed. "It-they-no one can say for sure. Those who could know-they are dead. The Watchers killed them."

"How?"

Once more Blade had to piece together a picture out of Twana's disjointed answers to a series of questions. When he'd finished, he understood why the Watchers of the Wall, like the Shoba's sniffers, were something to be feared.

The Wall had marched along the crests of the hills to the west as far back as the memory of Twana's people went. During all that time, it had been protected by the Watchers. These were not men, but great monsters that seemed to have something of the shape of a man. They were many times the size of the largest man though. They moved in ways no living creature ever could, and they shone all over as if they were made of metal.

They caught and killed anyone who came too close to the Wall. This was certain, for they had been seen to do it. No one knew exactly how they killed or why, but it was certain that they did. No one who had gone up to the base of the Wall had ever come back down. Even the Shoba's men would not go where they might have to face the invincible Watchers. They would not even light fires or post sentries when they were close to the Wall, for fear of drawing the anger of the Watchers.

Twana's story of the Watchers still further aroused Blade's curiosity. Like the Wall itself, the Watchers hinted at an advanced civilization lying somewhere to the west. Unlike the Wall, which could have stood a thousand years after the last of its builders vanished, the Watchers suggested that civilization still survived.

For the moment this would make no difference to Blade's plans. He would cheerfully risk his own neck many times over to satisfy his curiosity, but he would not put Twana in danger if he could avoid it. They would continue their flight as if the Wall and the Watchers didn't exist, until either they were safe or the Shoba's men overtook them.

"Very well. We shall not go near the Wall unless the Shoba's men are about to catch us. Then we will go up the hill and take our chances with the Watchers."

"But. . . ."

"Twana, the Shoba's men will kill us when they catch us, won't they?" She nodded, shuddering. "Then what do we have to lose? Even if the Watchers do kill us, it will surely be a quicker, cleaner death than the Shoba's men would give us. And who knows? The Watchers may not kill us after all. Perhaps the men who went up to the Wall found a rich land, with beautiful women and rivers of beer. They didn't come back because they didn't want to." It was a feeble joke, but enough to make Twana smile. She was still smiling as Blade turned to the slope and began scrambling upward.

The smile died swiftly when he returned, his face set as hard as the rocks of the hillside. "They are coming after us, aren't they?" she said.

"Yes. Mounted men, light carts, and two things that move low along the ground."

The sniffers. Neither of them said the word, because it wasn't necessary. Blade had a brief, bleak moment of realizing that Twana had been right. If the Shoba's men had been willing to follow this far, they were not easily discouraged. If the sniffers could follow such a faint trail, they were as good as Twana said they were. The odds were not good.

They weren't hopeless either. If the Shoba's men weren't easily discouraged, neither was Blade. Sniffers might have supernatural powers of scent, but not after they were dead. If all else failed, there was still the Wall.

Blade slung his pack and took Twana's hand. The chase was on again, deadlier than before.

Chapter 7.

The next three days were exhausting, but also a challenge to Blade's skill and experience. He could almost have enjoyed it if Twana hadn't been with him and if the stakes hadn't been so high. If they were caught, the best they could hope for was a swift death.

Blade used every trick that he'd ever learned and a few he made up on the spot. He sought out the rockiest ground, where there was nothing to show a footprint or hold a scent. He zigzagged and doubled back whenever he could afford the time and distance. He marched for miles in his bare feet, carrying Twana on his back. He led the chase through every stream and pond that was shallow enough to wade. Once they even took off their clothes and swam a mile down a small river. Another time they came to a stand of trees that grew close together. They climbed the nearest tree and covered several hundred yards by swinging from branch to branch, like Tarzan of the Apes. They did everything except walk on their hands, and Blade would have done that if possible.

It was not enough.

The sniffers never lost the trail, at least not for more than an hour or two. Every time Blade climbed the hill to look to the north, the Shoba's men were a little bit closer.

Fortunately, the enemy could only pursue at the speed of the sniffers. The sniffers could move only a little faster than a man on foot, and there were only two of them. They had tremendous endurance though-like machines of steel and rubber, rather than creatures of flesh and blood. Slowly the gap between the pursuers and the pursued closed.

On the evening of the third day, Blade knew that he and Twana had reached the end of their running. Their pursuers were so close that sometimes he could hear the high-pitched whistling cries of the green riding animals, the druns. Fortunately, the ground was turning rugged, cut up with low hills and ravines that provided plenty of cover. Without that cover, the enemy would long since have been able to charge forward and ride down their prey with no further help from the sniffers.

Blade knew that in another day or two he and Twana would no longer be able to afford the time to sleep at night. Then exhaustion would bring them down swiftly and make them an easy, even helpless, prey for their pursuers.

Fight or climb the Wall? The Wall was still with them, although they must have come more than a hundred miles from where Blade first saw it. A half-hour's brisk climbing, and they would be at its base. Then Blade could climb any of the overgrown stretches and haul Twana up with the rope. He'd worry about the Watchers when and if he had to.

Blade decided to fight. "They seem to be only twelve men and two sniffers," he said. "Even if we do not kill all the men, we may kill the sniffers, and then the men will have to give up the pursuit. There are no other men of the Shoba for many miles around. Then we can stop running, regain our strength, and return north to h.o.r.es.

"I will go in at night," he went on. "Even if they have some warning from the sniffers, I won't be an easy target. Also, they may be slow to use arrows or guns in the camp for fear of hitting friends."

"Yes," said Twana. "While you fight, I can creep close to the druns and cut them loose, so they will run off."

Blade opened his mouth to tell the girl she wouldn't be anywhere near the fight, but she shook her head firmly. "No, Blade. I will not sit in the darkness and hear you die. I can cut the druns loose. I can watch your back. I can set fire to the tents. I cannot fight a soldier of the Shoba as you can, but I can kill those you have wounded. We do not want to leave any of them alive if we can." There was chill hatred in those last words, a hatred built up over many generations and now entirely sweeping away her fear. "We are together in this, Blade. We must be. We must be together in this battle as we were in the love we shared last night."

Blade swore mentally, but there was a smile on his face. Such courage moved him. Twana would hardly be in more danger coming with him than staying behind, and an extra pair of eyes and hands would be useful.

"Very well, together," he said, and kissed her.

The night was totally black, and a brisk north wind blew stinging dust into Blade's eyes. Since he would be coming up on the enemy camp from the south, the wind would blow his scent away from the sniffers and any sound he might make away from the ears of the sentries.

Blade reached out and ran his fingers over Twana's face. She was almost invisible in the darkness. Like Blade, she had put on her darkest clothing and then rubbed dirt on her hands and face. They would be as hard to see as black cats, and Blade hoped they could move as silently.

They crept forward. The wind brought them the cries of the tethered druns, but no human voices. There were certain to be sentries posted, but not many. With surprise and darkness on his side, Blade was certain he could take care of these before their comrades could wake.

The approach to the camp seemed to take hours, although they had barely a mile to cover. Blade was half-expecting dawn to appear in the eastern sky before they reached striking range of the camp.

From the hillside the evening before, Blade had watched the enemy settling down for the night. He'd carefully noted the lay of the land and the best approach to the camp. Now he led Twana behind a low rise in the ground, just high enough to conceal them. Twana lay still while Blade crept out into the open. After a while, his night vision could make out the dim shapes of the druns and the wagon that held the sniffers. He could also make out three sentries. No tents, no fire. As before, the Shoba's men would not light a fire this close to the Wall and its Watchers.

Blade twisted on to his side and drew an arrow from his quiver. Then he sprang to his feet and, in almost the same motion, aimed, drew and let fly. The arrow whistled through fifty yards of wind-whipped night air to find a target in the sentry's chest. He was dying before his ears registered the whistle of the arrow that killed him. Blade nocked a second arrow. The second sentry turned toward him, and the man's white face gave him a fine aiming point. The man died with a gurgling scream.

The scream startled the druns into shrill cries and alerted the third sentry on the far side of the camp. He raised his musket and let fly with a thundering crash and a flare of orange-red flame. His ball sailed off into the night, but the noise brought every man in the camp awake.