With a bloodcurdling roar, the she-ogre attacked. Hot to kill, it didn't stab with the great spear but swung sideways to batter both Amber and Hakiim at once-the humans who'd killed one brother and left the other to die by thunderherders.
Hakiim jumped blindly over the nearest rubble and landed with a crash and grunt. Amber simply ducked, so low her knees hit her jaw. The sweeping spear ticked against her headscarf. Berserk, facing a hated enemy, the ogre roared and snatched back the spear, this time to stab.
Amber's footing was treacherous on skittering pebbles. By the time she dived left or right, that spear would pierce her back and probably erupt out her front, the blade was so long. Unable to dodge, she gasped, bit down on panic, and tried to defend until help arrived.
Amber snapped her capture staff straight up and down before her chest and face. The ogre stabbed with both hands. By grace and good reflexes, Amber knocked the spear aside so it zipped past her shoulder. As the two staves struck, Amber saw the many scalps flap. Again the ogre jabbed in blind fury, and again Amber coolly smacked the spear to the other side, where it chipped stone. The daughter of pirates couldn't parry forever. Any second the giant would change tactics. The ogre didn't even need a weapon, but it could probably kick Amber's head off her shoulders and would, when its slow-thinking brain grew frustrated enough.
As if reading her thoughts, the ogre hauled back its spear, paused, then jumped into the cellar pit almost on Amber's sandaled toes. The alien face was long-jawed, beetle-browed, and shagged like a wolf's mane. The creature stank like a lion's cage. Amber squirmed backward, up a crumbling pile of dirt. She was fixated, almost hypnotized, by the cruel, keen spear point as long as her forearm. The she-ogre could drive that clear through Amber's body and six feet down into dirt. Amber whimpered to think of her scalp added to the dusty string on the spear haft.
'Ugly! Over here!' Reiver's voice sounded from out of sight.
Unused to fighting alone, the ogre hesitated, then tilted on tiptoe to spot the enemy. A lead weight on a chain whirled through the air. With a musical chingl it hit the spear haft and immediately snarled around. The distraction brought Reiver too close, Amber knew, for the garrote chain was short. Still, Amber used the opportunity to scramble up the pit's slope. Hurriedly she prayed to Anachtyr, god of justice, if such a thing as justice existed for mortals.
Amber squawked as the ogre's mighty hand snagged her tunic hem. Worn and weakened cloth tore, but not before Amber was yanked backward. Squawling, she tumbled a few feet and fetched against the ogre's bare legs and great dirty feet.
The giant was barely slowed by Reiver's attack. Snapping its wrists, the she-ogre wrenched the chain from the thief's hand. Amber had the inane thought that Reiver had lost his clever garrote chain for nothing, as the ogre back-stepped to stamp Amber flat as a cockroach.
Amber thrilled as, between the ogre's legs, she saw Hakiim leap down into the pit with his scimitar shining. Gritting his teeth, using two hands, the rug merchant's son slung the wide blade and slammed the ogre squarely behind the knee.
The frantic chop would have felled a small tree, and here it severed twin tendons in the giant's muscle- corded leg. Hamstrung, the she-ogre toppled backward so hard Hakiim had to jump aside or be squashed. The ogre cursed and gargled as it flung out a hand and crashed on rubble and dirt.
'Hang on!' Popping up like a gopher, Reiver grabbed Amber's shoulders with both hands and yanked her from the pit. Clutching her capture staff, Amber was dumped on her butt in the dust.
Vaulting from the pit, Hakiim almost jumped atop her.
'Sorry,' he breathed. 'Let's go!'
Suddenly, Reiver spun and hopped into the pit.
Amber shrilled, 'No, Reiver, come on!'
In seconds, a musical jangle sounded and Reiver dashed around a pile of rubble.
'Now I'm ready,' the thief said.
The three ran. Amber thought it idiotic to risk life and limb with a furious if crippled ogre just to regain a chain and weight, but she saved her breath for running. Twisting around fallen walls and broken masonry, the three dashed for the tallest, thickest ruins, simply hoping to hide.
Panting, jogging, Amber marveled that the sister ogre had outwitted them, hiding just as Reiver had warned by the waterhole, patiently waiting for revenge. Amber wondered where the White Flame's band lurked. Had the she-ogre scouted ahead, so the other raiders didn't know its whereabouts? Did they track the fugitives even now?
Another morbid thought intruded. The miserable she-ogre now lay in an abandoned cellar pit, crippled for life, alone, its brothers dead. Oddly, Amber felt a sting of pity. Yes, the giant carried scalps ripped from human victims, and Amber guessed the she-ogre had shown those victims no sympathy. Still, the idea gave the young woman no satisfaction, just a dose of sadness that thinking beings must fight and prey upon each other like animals, here in the harsh desert, or in the mountains, or anywhere else.
Reiver suddenly veered behind a low wall. Hakiim and Amber scooted and crawled to a bite in the wall. Reiver pointed, and the others squinted against noontime glare. Ruins stretched on and on, but nothing moved.
'What?' asked Amber.
'Bandits.'
'Are you sure?' Hakiim asked, trying to keep his head down and peek at the same time.
Reiver didn't even answer. Slithering, he signaled them around a corner. Huffing, lying almost flat, and trying to calm her heart's pounding, Amber peered at their surroundings. Nothing but rubble and wreckage, she thought, buildings collapsed centuries ago. Why did they look so familiar?
Bidding them to stay, Reiver scurried like a rat to the far corner, laid flat, and peeked. After a moment, he waggled a finger to move up. Amber balked, then stayed glued when Hakiim nudged her. Ahead, Reiver hissed impatiently. Puckering her brow, Amber tried to remember-what? She'd never been here before.
Reiver hissed again. His fingers signaled feet approaching and surrounding them. Hakiim cleared his throat.
Barely knowing why, Amber pointed north and whispered, 'There… we'll be safe there!'
Heads swiveled. North was more of the same, knee-high ruins and scattered slabs, yet Amber shook her head stubbornly. She'd go only there. Biting curses, Reiver slithered north. In seconds, he waved them up to a corner.
Skittering on hands and knees, skulking through broken arches, rocky litter, and pockets of dust, the trio finally settled inside a long rectangle of shattered walls. Nearby, a knee high tiled wall outlined a smaller rectangle.
'Will these accommodations suffice, milady?' Reiver's sarcasm dripped venom like a cobra. 'We dived headlong into trouble again. The bandits know we're here.'
Muzzy-headed, Amber battled a dream. What had prompted her to come here? There was no place to hide, unless they slithered under rocks like snakes.
Hakiim stiffened, and whispered, 'Deny the dragons, look!'
Amber gawked. Along the tile wall paced a cat, tall, lanky, and dead. Yellow fur had scuffed off its tanned leather hide. Skin shrunken around the skull curled lips from sharp fangs, forming a perpetual leer. It had no eyes, just haunted hollow sockets, yet the cat pranced on tiptoe as if hunting undead rats. Ignoring the three humans, the zombie cat stopped and dropped its muzzle over the tiled wall. Skinny hindquarters wriggled, then a paw batted at some invisible treat. Frustrated, the dead cat shrugged and strolled across the courtyard and out of sight. Amber knew where they were.
'This was Star's courtyard,' she whispered. 'That rectangle was her goldfish pool. The cat stopped for a drink and tried to steal a fish.'
Worried about bandits, Hakiim yet recalled one detail of Amber's story and hooked a thumb over his shoulder.
'So this big ruin was her bedroom?' he asked. 'Her private wing?'
Foggy, suspended between two ages, Amber rolled to peer into the rubble. A twinge pinged her heart as she surveyed rock and dust. In her mind she'd seen the princess's opulent chambers with their gilt and paint, brilliant frescoes and mosaics, tapestries and rugs, and Star's exotic pets: the saluqis, parrots, the delicate winged
