kept the horses to a sedate pace. No one spoke inside the coach. It seemed to fill with the night. The overloaded coach creaked companionably as its wheels rumbled over the cobbled road. It was not peace but numbness that settled over Malta. All the merriment and life had been left far behind them now. She feared she might doze off.
Companion Kekki broke the silence. 'This summer celebration was very interesting to me. I am so pleased that I could witness it.'
Her vapid words hung in the air, then Ronica exclaimed, 'By Sa's breath! Look at the harbor!'
There was a break in the trees lining the road. Atop the coach, both Davad and the coachman swore in disbelief. Malta stared. It seemed as if the whole harbor were on fire, for the flames were reflected in the water and doubled there. It was not just a warehouse or two; the entire waterfront seemed to be burning, as well as several of the ships. Malta stared in horror, scarcely hearing the exclamations and speculation of the others. Well she knew that only fire could kill a liveship. Had the Chalcedeans known that as well? Were the ships that battled the flames out near the mouth of the harbor liveships or the ships and galleys the Satrap and his party had come on? But they had only that brief glimpse and the distance was too great to be sure what she had seen.
'Perhaps we should go down there and see for ourselves,' the Satrap suggested boldly. He raised his voice. 'Coachman! Take us down to the harbor!'
'Are you mad?' Ronica exclaimed, heedless of whom she addressed. 'That is no place for Selden or Malta just now. Take us home first, then do as you will!'
Before the Satrap could reply, the coach gave a lurch as the coachman whipped up his horses. As blackness closed around them once more, Ronica exclaimed, 'What can Davad be thinking, to travel at such a pace in the darkness? Davad? Davad, what are we doing?'
There was no direct reply to her query, only muffled shouts exchanged atop the coach. Then Malta thought she heard another voice. She seized the windowsill and leaned out of it. Behind them, in the darkness, she thought she caught a glimpse of something. 'I think some horsemen are coming up behind us quickly. Perhaps Davad is just trying to get out of their way.'
'They must be drunk, to gallop their horses at night on this road,' Keffria exclaimed in disgust. Selden was climbing up on the seat, trying to get to the window to look out. 'Sit down, child! You're trampling my dress,' she exclaimed in annoyance. Suddenly Selden was thrown to the floor as the coachman cracked his whip and the horses suddenly surged forward against their harness. The coach rocked heavily now, shifting them back and forth against one another as it swayed. If they had not been packed so tightly together, they would have been sliding about inside the coach.
'Don't lean against the doors!' her mother commanded her wildly, while Ronica cried out, 'Davad! Make him slow the horses! Davad!'
As Malta clung desperately to the windowsill to keep from being thrown about, she glimpsed sudden movement outside it. A horse and rider had pulled abreast of them. 'Yield!' he shouted. 'Halt and yield to us, and no one will be hurt!'
'Highwaymen!' Kekki exclaimed in horror.
'In Bingtown?' Ronica retorted. 'Never!'
Yet now there was another horse and rider on the other side of the coach. Malta glimpsed him, and then she heard the driver shout something. A wheel bumped wildly, and she was thrown against the side of the coach as it slewed to one side. For an instant, it seemed to recover. All would be well, she told herself, and then the opposite side of the coach simply sank with an abrupt lurch. She was flung hard against the Satrap who sprawled against Companion Kekki. Incredibly, she was falling sideways, and then the roof of the coach was somehow almost under her. A door flew open beside her. She heard a scream, a terrible scream and saw a sudden great flash of white light.
'DAVAD is DEAD. RONICA VESTRIT SPOKE THE WORDS so CALMLY, SHE could hardly believe it was her own voice. She had come across his body in the darkness, groping her way up the steep and uneven slope toward the road. She knew it was Davad by the heavy embroidery on his jacket. She was glad it was too dark to see his body. The heavy warm stillness and the stickiness of blood were overwhelming enough. She could find no pulse at his throat, only blood. There was no whisper of breath. She believed from the drenching of blood down the back of his jacket that his skull had been crushed, but she could not bring herself to touch him anymore. She crawled away from him.
'Keffria! Malta! Selden!' She called the names wildly but without strength. Nothing made sense. Above her, she could see the bulk of the coach between her and the uneven light of torches. There were voices up there, and people moving in the darkness. Maybe her children were up there.
The hillside was steep and brushy. She could not clearly recall how she had gotten out of the coach. She could not understand how she could be so far away from it. Had she been thrown clear?
Then to her ears came Keffria's voice. She wailed, 'Mama, mama!' just as she had used to call when she was a child and tormented by nightmares.
'I'm coming!' Ronica called. Prickly bushes caught at her and she fell again. The entire left half of her body stung as if she had lost the skin off it. But that could be managed, that could be ignored, forgiven and forgotten, if she could just find the children. She fell again.
It seemed to take a long time to get up. Had she fainted? She could see nothing at all now, not the coach, nor the flickering light. Had there been people moving about or had she imagined that? She listened hard. There. A sound, a squeaking of breath, or weeping. She scrabbled toward it.
In the darkness, she found Keffria by touch. The squeaking had been her sobbing. She cried out when Ronica touched her, then clutched at her wordlessly. Little Selden was in her lap. The boy was curled in a tight little ball. The tension of his muscles told Ronica that he was alive. 'Is he hurt?' were her first words to her daughter.
'I don't know. He won't speak. I can't find any blood.'
'Selden, come here. Come to Grandma.' He did not resist her but he did not try to come to her. She felt the boy over. No blood, nor did he cry out at her touch. He simply huddled, shivering. She gave him back to Keffria. For a miracle, neither of them seemed seriously injured. Keffria had some broken fingers, but more than that she could not tell, nor could Ronica see. The trees were too dense. No moonlight or starlight reached them to help them search.
'Malta?' Ronica asked at last. She would not mention Davad before Selden.
'I haven't found her yet. I heard the others, at first. Then I called… I thought I heard you, but you didn't come. Malta never answered.'
'Come. Let's get back up to the road. Perhaps she is there.'
In the dark, she more felt than saw Keffria nod. 'Help me with Selden,' she said.
Ronica hardened her voice. 'Selden. Mama and I cannot carry you. You are too big a boy for that. Remember how you helped with the buckets, the day the ships first came? You were brave then. Now you must be brave again. Come. Take my hand. Stand up.'
He did not react at first. Nonetheless, she took his hand and tugged at it. 'Come, Selden. Get up. Take your mother's good hand. You're strong. You can help us both get up this hill.'
Very slowly, the child unfolded himself. Each of them took a hand, and between the two of them, they hauled him up the hill. Keffria carried her injured hand curled to her chest. No one spoke much, except words of encouragement to the boy interspersed with calling Malta's name. No one replied. The noise they made had stilled the night birds. The only sounds were those they made themselves.
The coach lay on its side. Here, closer to the road, the trees were thinner and starlight reached through to the ground. It showed Ronica the end of her world in shades of black and white. One dead horse was still tangled in its traces. Between the coach and the road uphill of it, the saplings were bent and snapped.
They searched all around the coach. Neither of them spoke of what they were really doing. They searched the ground for Malta's body, feeling about in the dark. After a time, Keffria said, 'She might have been trapped inside the coach.'
The coach lay on its side on the steep slope, with its roof pointing downhill. The coachman's booted feet stuck out from under it. Ronica and Keffria both noticed them, but neither pointed them out to the other. Selden had seen enough tonight. He did not need to be shown that. He did not need to wonder, as they did, if Malta's body was
