'What is it? What have you seen?' Royan demanded.
am not sure. Probably nothing,' he replied, without lowering the
binoculars. It may have been a reflection from a polished metal surface,
or from the lens of another pair of binoculars, or from the barrel of a
sniper's rifle, he thought. On the other hand, a chip of mica or a
pebble of rock crystal could reflect sunlight the same way, and even
some of the aloes and other succulent plants have shiny leaves. He
watched the spot carefully for a few more minutes, and then Aly's voice
floated up to them again.
'Hurry, effendi. The mule-drivers will not wait!
He stood up. 'All right. Nothing. Let's go.' He took Royan's arm to help
her over the rough footing, and they started down. At that moment he
heard the rattle of stones from further up the slope, and he stopped her
and held her arm to keep her quiet. They waited, watching the skyline.
Abruptly a pair of long curling horns appeared over the crest, and under
them the head of an old kudu bull, his trumpet-shaped ears pricked
forward and the fringe of his dewlap blowing in the hot, light breeze.
He stopped on the edge of the cliff just above where they crouched, but
he had not seen them. The kudu turned his head and stared back in the
direction from which he had come. The sunlight glinted in his nearest
eye, and the set of his head and the alert, tense stance made it clear
that something had disturbed him.
For a long moment he stood poised like that, and then, still without
being aware of the presence of Nicholas and Royan, he snorted and
abruptly leaped away in full flight.
He vanished from their sight behind the ridge and the sound of his run
dwindled into silence.
'Something scared the living daylights out of him.'
'What?' enquired Royan.
'Could have been anything - a leopard, perhaps,' he replied, and he
hesitated as he looked down the slope. The caravan of mules and monks
had set off already and was following the trail Up along the river bank.
'What should we do?' Royan asked.
'We should reconnoitre the ground ahead - that is if we had the time,
which we haven't.' The caravan was pulling away swiftly. Unless they
went down immediately they would be left behind alone, unarmed. He had
nothing concrete to act upon, and yet he had to make an immediate
decision.
'Come on!' He took her hand again, and they slid and scrambled down the
slope. Once they reached the trail they had to break into a run to catch
up with the tail of the caravan.
Now that they were again part of the column, Nicholas could turn his
attention to searching the skyline above them more thoroughly. The
cliffs loomed over them, blocking out half the sky. The river on their
left hand washed out any other sounds with its noisy, burbling current.
Nicholas was not really alarmed. He prided himself on being able to
sense trouble in advance, a sixth sense that had saved his life more
than once before. He thought of it as his early-warning system, but now
it was sending no messages. There were any number of possible
explanations for the reflection he had picked up from the crest of the
