dashed up the defile, with Taita and Windsmoke in the lead. They came out on top of the hills and paused to look down on a wide level plain of grassland that stretched ahead. In the blue distance they made out another line of hills, the peaks rugged and sharp.
Sidudu pointed to a break in their silhouette. 'There is the Kitangule Gap where we are to meet Colonel That.'
'How far is it?' Meren asked.
'Twenty leagues, perhaps a little more,' Sidudu answered. They turned and looked back to the ford.
At the head of his squadron Onka flogged his horse up the riverbank and shouted with anger when he saw the corpses of the oligarchs but came on all the faster.
'Twenty leagues! Then we have a merry race ahead of us,' Meren said.
They put the horses to the slope and flew down towards the plain.
They reached it as Onka's men came boiling over the skyline of the hill behind them. With a chorus of savage yells they started down, the white ostrich plumes on Onka's helmet distinguishing him from his men.
'No need to linger here,' called Taita. 'Let us be gone.'
Within half a league it became apparent that the bay filly Sidudu rode could not keep up with the other horses. They had to moderate their pace to hers. Meren and Fenn dropped back beside her.
'Courage!' Fenn called. 'We will not leave you.'
'I can feel my horse weakening,' Sidudu cried.
'Have no fear,' Meren told her. 'When she is blown, I will take you up behind me.'
'No!' Fenn was emphatic. 'You are too heavy, Meren. The extra weight would kill your mount. Whirlwind can carry both of us with ease. I will take her.'
Taita rose in the stirrups and looked back. The pursuit was spreading
'¦ THE QUEST
out as the faster horses pulled ahead, the slower ones dropping back.
Onka's plumed helmet was conspicuous in the centre of the leading rank of three Jarrian horsemen. He was pushing hard, closing the gap steadily.
As he urged Windsmoke onwards, Taita looked at the mountains ahead.
He could now see the notch that marked the gap, but it was so distant that they could not hope to reach it before Onka was upon them.
Then something else caught his eye. There was a fine smear of pale dust on the plain ahead. His heartbeat quickened, but he tried to control it.
No time for false hope now. It is almost certainly a herd of gazelle or zebra. But as he thought it he saw under the dustcloud a bright flash of sunlight reflected off metal. 'Armed men!' he muttered. 'But are they Jarrian, or is it Hilto returning with the reinforcements?' Before he could decide, there was a faint shout from behind. He recognized Onka's voice.
“I see you, you traitorous bitch! When I catch you I will rip out your womb. Then I will roast it and force it down your throat.'
'Close your ears to his filth,' Fenn urged Sidudu, but tears ran down Sidudu's face and splattered the front of her tunic.
'I hate him!' she said. 'I hate him with all my soul.'
Behind them, Onka's voice was clearer and closer as he yelled, 'After you have dined, I will have you in the way you most hated. The last thing you will remember will be me inside your bowels. Even in hell you will never forget me.' Sidudu let out a racking sob.
'You must not hearken to him. Close your ears and your mind,' Meren urged.
“I wish I had died before you heard that,' she sobbed.
'It means nothing. I love you. I will not let the swine harm you again.'
At that moment Sidudu's filly stepped with its off fore into a mongoose burrow that was hidden in the long grass. The bone snapped like the breaking of a dry branch and her horse somersaulted. Sidudu was thrown headlong. At once Meren and Fenn wheeled back for her.
'Get ready, Sidudu. I will pick you up,' Fenn called, but Sidudu rolled to her feet and turned to look back at the pursuit. By now Onka was well ahead of the men who followed him. He was leaning forward eagerly, pushing his horse to its top speed, bearing down on Sidudu.
'Prepare to meet your constant lover! he shouted.
Sidudu unslung the bow from her shoulder and reached for an arrow.
Onka laughed with delight. 'I see you have a toy to amuse yourself. I have something better for you to play with before you die!'
He had never seen her shoot. She took her stance and brought up the
423 I i
bow. He was close enough now to see her face clearly. His mocking laughter died as he recognized the deadly anger in her eyes. She drew the fletching back to her lips. He sawed his horse's head round and tried to turn away. Sidudu loosed her arrow. It took him in the ribs and he dropped his sword to try with both hands to pluck it out, but the barbed head was buried deep. His horse pranced in a circle, righting against the curb. Sidudu shot again. He was turned away from her, and the arrow struck low in the centre of his back. It went deep and skewered his
