I'm Fost. This means you and your folks are escaping. But they have to move.' 'The Hissers -'
'Are taken care of. We can have a nice chat later. But get your people moving and do it now unless you love such lush accommodations.' He waved his hand at the rude makeshift huts, little more than slumping piles of rock or tens made from tattered clothing. Ludo took a deep breath and came to his decision.
The Watchers moved silently and efficiently, even the children. While Fost hovered by the gate watching the barracks nervously for sign of movement, they filed out through the gates and dispersed into the night. Leery of the apparent ease of their rescue, Fost advised them to scatter so that pursuers would have the hardest time possible rounding them up. In a few minutes all but a few lean men and women Fost took for the leaders had slipped out of the gates and blended into the darkness. 'I can't believe it's gone this easily,' Fost said.
'It won't be,' came Ludo's calm voice. 'They'll have their hounds on us as soon as they realize something's amiss. I only hope enough of us get free to wage effective war against the evil ones.'
Moriana hadn't mentioned hounds, but she couldn't know everything about the Zr'gsz.
'My partner's hiding that way in a bubble cave,' Fost said, pointing toward Moriana's command post. 'We know of it,' said Ludo.
'I'll meet you there.' The Watchers made for Moriana's cave. Fost admired their skill. They didn't beeline for the cave and risk being spotted on the open ground. Instead they bent over and scuttled to the jumble of rocks and bushes on the far bank of the arroyo and worked their way down from there, all but invisible in the light of the pink moon.
Before he followed them, Fost had work to do. Hurrying, he shut the gate and dropped the bar back into place. Then he picked up the guards one by one and propped them back in place, their spears serving to support their slack bodies. One he couldn't get into more than a slumping squat, but he thought it would fool anyone casually glancing down from the buildings. A close inspection would give the whole game away. But the deception might buy precious minutes, and time was more precious than gold.
Grabbing his scabbard so it wouldn't flap against his legs, Fost followed the Watchers into darkness.
'You!' Ludo's face turned to a mask of blood-dark fury in the light from twin moons. 'You witch! Traitor to all mankind! What are you doing here?'
Moriana faced his anger squarely, hands on hips and head held high as she replied, 'I'm setting you free.'
'And who caused our imprisonment?' the Chief Warden hissed. Fost respected the man's self-control. Despite the consuming rage, he kept his voice low. Fost and Moriana and the band of fugitives had travelled a good ways from the prison compound across terrain that gripped at them with knife-edged fingers before stopping and revealing to the Watchers the identity of their second benefactor.
'You speak only the truth, Ludo,' said Moriana. 'But I didn't know the Hissers would do this to you. Indeed, I had instructed that you only be detained so that you didn't impede the… the Vridzish mining operations. Ludo spat into the sand between her feet.
Her lips pulled back in a snarl, then relaxed. She was better able to accept impertinence from this lowborn groundling than any other of her kindred, but it was by no means easy. Still, she had to empathize with the man.
'I was wrong.' A note of desperation pushed its way into her voice. 'I thought allying myself with the Fallen Ones was the only way to prevent my sister from seizing control of the Realm for the Dark Ones.' Her eyes dropped from his. 'Now it seems I and not my sister was the tool of the Lords of Endless Night. But I did not know!'
Fost's gaze made a nervous circuit of their surroundings. He saw nothing but the blank black walls of the draw and the hunchbacked shapes of trees along the banks. The pink moon had ridden past the zenith and the blue one just began its mount of the eastern sky. This took too long. And Moriana revealed too much before the hostile Watchers.
'It doesn't matter.' No scion of the Sky City could have bettered Ludo's haughty disdain. 'You served the interests of mankind's enemies. You are a traitor; your life is forfeit. Were it not for the dilemma posed by the fact that we now owe you our freedom, we'd take your life.'
Fost cleared his throat and loosened his sword in its scabbard. Moriana laid a hand on his forearm.
'Yes, kill the witch!' a woman's voice hissed from the darkness, sounding almost like one of the Hissers.
'Idiots.' Glowing softly, Erimenes hung in the air by Fost's right shoulder. 'The past is gone. You must deal with what pertains now – and the simple fact is that only Moriana's sorcery gives humanity any chance of defeating the Fallen Ones.' Ludo looked at the spirit, his face still bleak with anger.
'The princess knows she did wrong,' continued the genie. 'She said as much, and if you don't know the effort that took, you know little of the Skyborn. Now she's set you free. The Vridzish are militarily naive. The ease with which we released you proves that. Instead of wasting the night with recriminations you should be laying out a guerrilla campaign to deny the Hissers access to their skystone.'
The Watchers murmured among themselves. Finally a man whose chin was fringed with a silvery beard spoke.
This is true, Ludo. Killing the princess won't bring back the Ullapag or pen the damned lizards in Thendrun once more. If she'll help us we can't say no. Or so it seems to me.'
Scowling with fierce brows that were still as black as the surrounding lava, Ludo turned on his followers.
'The witch has brought ruin on us all, on all of humanity,' he exclaimed. 'Justice must be done!'
'We failed in our charge,' a woman's voice cried. 'That's what's rankling you, isn't it, Warden? Moriana helped the Hissers overcome us – but we were charged to guard the mines and we failed. Don't we share the guilt?'
Ludo's broad shoulders slumped. He turned back to Fost and Moriana, as if his limbs had transmuted to lead. Fost almost hated to hear the acquiescence of this proud, strong man.
'Charuu is right,' he said slowly. 'So be it. On behalf of the Watchers of Omizantrim I hereby…'
He broke off to stare past Fost's shoulder. Fost felt a soft breeze tug at his sleeve, heard a quick, soft moan. Ludo jerked. He raised his hands to his chest, spread them against the dark stain spreading across his smock from the arrow embedded in his chest. Fost spun, sword ready. Brilliant light blinded him.
'Don't do anything foolish, my friend,' came the command. A soft chuckle accentuated the order. And it was a voice as human as his own.
CHAPTER SEVEN
'And what of my sister?' Synalon leaned forward, her eyes narrowing into slits. 'What became of my sister?'
She hissed the words like an angry serpent. The young Sky Guard lieutenant flinched but held his ground. 'Your Majesty, I did not see -'
'I am not my Majesty until I know whether or not my sister lives!' she snapped. The young officer's gaze slid around nervously, looking for something other than the blazing pits of his queen's eyes. The walls of the makeshift tent around them were made of the collapsed skin of a silk hot air balloon. Giant ruby red, blind, legless spiders who ate the Sky City's organic refuse produced the light, virtually unbreakable threads. Saplings cut from a nearby stand of tai had been lashed together to provide a dome framework. The covering silk was rolled some feet off the ground to provide shade without cutting off the sultry breeze.
Prince Rann, despite the rents and stains disfiguring his black and purple uniform, managed to look as neat and collected as if he'd just turned out for a morning inspection. He appeared to be uninterested in the byplay between officer and queen; this made Lt. Cerestan even more uneasy. He forced himself to look directly at Synalon. She leaned forward even farther, waiting for his answer with the predatory intensity of a falcon watching its prey.
'You must have seen it!' persisted Synalon. Her words snapped like a banner in a brisk wind.
He flushed. Cerestan felt even more uncomfortable for what he had to report.
'Y-Your Highness, I was commanded to organize the evacuation of the City.'
Synalon's eyebrows shot up. Her right breast popped out of the robe she wore loosely wrapped about her lush body.
'What? My sister ordered the City in the Sky abandoned?' Sparks popped and ozone edged the air. 'That
