well aware of the difficulty in cloaking such a large group of horses and men, but the primitive Basmara would be readily susceptible to the illusions he wove.
The Basmara made no effort to break through the burning stockade.
Evidently they believed that their victims were trapped within and were waiting their chance to finish them. They were chanting and shouting on the far side of the blaze. Taita waited until the flames had burnt through the outer gates and sent them crashing to earth.
'Now!' he ordered. Habari and Shabako galloped into the smoke and threw loops of rope over the fallen gates. Before the fire could burn through the ropes, they dragged them aside. Now the way was open and the two men galloped back to the others.
'Keep together, the closer the better, and follow me,' Taita said. The spell's efficacy would be revealed once they were through the gates and out on the open ground beyond. The gateway was framed with fire and they had to get through quickly, before they were roasted alive.
'Forward at the gallop,' Taita ordered quietly, but he used the voice of power, which carried clearly to every man in the line. They charged to the flaming gate. The heat struck them like a wall and some of the horses balked, but their riders forced them on with spurs and whips, the heat singing coats and manes. It scorched the men's faces too and stung their eyes before, still in a tight group, they were on open ground.
Basmara were prancing and howling all around them. Although some looked at them their eyes passed blankly over them, then lifted to the top of the burning stockade. Taita's spell was holding.
'Quietly, slowly,' Taita warned. 'Keep close together. Make no sudden movement.' He kept the Periapt held high. Beside him, Fenn followed his example. She lifted her own gold talisman and her lips moved as she recited the words he had taught her. She was assisting Taita, reinforcing the spell. They moved across the open ground until they were almost clear. The edge of the forest was less than two hundred paces ahead, and still their presence had not been detected by the tribesmen. Then Taita felt a cold draught on the back of his neck. Beside him, Fenn gasped and dropped her talisman on its chain. 'It burnt me!' she exclaimed, and stared at the red mark on her fingertips. Then she turned, with a stricken expression, to Taita. 'Something is breaking our spell.' She was right. Taita felt it tear and shred, like a perished sail in a blast of wind.
They were being stripped of their concealing cloak. Another influence was working on them, and he could not deflect or divert it.; 'Forward at the gallop!' he shouted, and the horses headed for the edge of the forest. A great shout went up from the Basmara legions.
Every painted face turned in their direction, every eye lit with bloodlust.
They swarmed towards the little band of riders from every quarter of the field.
'Run!' Taita urged Windsmoke, but she was carrying two big men.
Everything seemed to happen with dreamlike slowness. Although they were pulling ahead of the warriors that followed them, another formation of spearmen was running in from the right flank.
'Come on! Fast as you can!' Taita urged. He saw that Basma was leading the race to cut them off. He bounded across their front with his spear balanced on his right shoulder, ready for a clean throw. His men were baying like hounds on a hot scent.
'Come on!' Taita yelled. He judged the angles and speeds. 'We're going to get through.'
Basma made the same calculation as the band of horsemen swept past him, thirty paces clear. Basma used the impetus of his run and the strength of his frustration to hurl the spear after them. He launched it high and it dropped towards Meren's heavily laden bay gelding.
'Meren!' Taita shouted a warning, but the spear was in his blind spot.
It struck his mount just behind the saddle, hitting the spine. The bay's back legs collapsed. Meren and Aoka were thrown into a tangle on the scorched earth. The Basmara, who had been about to abandon the chase, took heart and rushed forward, led by their chief. Meren rolled to his feet and saw the faces of the other horsemen looking back at him as they were carried away by their own mounts.
'Go on!' he shouted. 'Save yourselves, for you cannot save us.' The Basmara were closing round him swiftly.
Fenn touched Whirlwind's neck and called to him: 'Whoa! Whirlwind, whoa!'
The grey colt turned like a swallow in mid-flight, and before any of them realized what had happened Fenn was racing back to where Meren stood with Aoka. For a moment he was too astonished to speak as he saw Fenn tearing back towards him, with Imbali hanging on to her stirrup and brandishing her axe. He tried to wave her back: 'Go away!'
But as soon as Fenn had turned, so had Taita in the same suicidal gesture. The rest of the band was thrown into confusion. The horses
reared and plunged, bumping into each other and milling about until the riders had them under control. Then they all raced back.
Now the nearest Basmara, led by their chief, were almost upon them.
They hurled spears as they closed in. First Hilto's horse, then Shabako's were hit and fell heavily, throwing the men from their backs as they went down.
With a quick glance Taita assessed their changed circumstances: there were no longer enough horses to carry them all away. 'Form the defensive circle!' he shouted. 'We must stand and fight them here.'
The men who had been thrown struggled to their feet and limped towards him. Those on unwounded mounts jumped down and pulled them into the centre of the circle. The archers unslung their bows; Imbali and Aoka hefted their axes. They faced outwards. When they looked upon the massed formations of spearmen rushing to attack them they were in no doubt as to the final outcome.
'This is the last fight. Give them something to remember us by!'
Meren shouted joyfully, and they met the first rush of Basmara head on.
They fought with the ferocity and abandon of despair. They pushed back the attackers. But Chief Basma rallied them, leaping and screeching, and they came again with him at the head of the charge. He went for Nakonto and
