"It'll sure keep the crows away," added Kit with a grin. Ursa laughed heartily. They were all exhilarated after the successful fight. Ursa whistled as he bandaged his shoulder, then started a fire. Colo was feeling better already and insisted on donning some clothes and scouting the area for food. The wild berries she brought back augmented the meatsticks that Ursa carried in his pack. After eating, they set to work cleaning their blades. Colo was looking for more ointment and rummaging in Droop-face's pack, which he had left behind. Kitiara had just finished wiping her sword and was wrapping it in some big, dry leaves when Ursa spoke.
"Wonder where Cleverdon is," he said quietly. "He's been gone pretty long." Before one of them could answer, a voice rang out in the woods and furtive noises encircled them.
"Stand where you are," said the voice.
Kit noticed that the small clearing had been invaded by a dank mist seeping in from the perimeter, billowing and growing in size. Out of the mist stepped a dozen men, two or three in ordinary tunics, the others elaborately armored from head to toe. These dozen said nothing, just stood there, shifting their weight. The armored ones wore flat-topped helmets with small eye slits and breathing holes. They were weighted down with an array of weapons, including ornate maces and battle-axes, as well as more conventional crossbows, shields, daggers, and swords.
Ursa made a move toward his sword, which was propped against a rock, but as he did so several nets flew out of the mist and wound themselves around him. They fell about him so tightly that he lost balance and toppled over into the dirt.
Two of the armored men clanked forward and hoisted Ursa between them. He could barely move, much less put up a fight. Kit struggled against her impulse to try to help him. Before he was gagged with a strip of leather Ursa managed to shout out, "Forget me! Save yourselves!" His face was taut and pale with fear.
A pair of the other men marched forward and grabbed Kitiara and Colo, tying them together with their backs to each other. Colo struggled and kicked, but all she got for her efforts was a hard jab in the side. Kit's mind was racing, trying to think—who were these new foes? What could she do to break free?
The guard closest to Kit was so thoroughly shrouded in steel that she could not tell if what lay underneath the metal was human or spirit. The one watching over Colo was not armored and looked more commonplace—a burly, bearded peasant with a chiseled face and glowering eyes.
Now Kit saw that three other men had materialized from the mist to join the original group. They were the leaders of this business, she realized. Two were elves, or half-elves, Kit guessed by how they held themselves, while the third was a dark-robed mage who stood apart from the others, his eyes glowing with concentration, lips moving, hands fluttering.
"No. Untie the black-haired one. She comes with us," said one of the elves, pointing to Kitiara. "Kill the other."
"What is her connection?" asked the other elf.
"She had the sword," said the first elf. "Let her answer for it." He stepped forward, his eyes sweeping the area. Beck's sword, newly wrapped in leaves, lay at Kit's feet. In the darkness it was camouflaged. The elf, frowning and taking a step forward, did not see it.
Kit got a good look at him. It was the dark elf who had been watching her on board the Silver Gar. Somehow he had picked up her trail and followed her. But why?
"We must find it," the dark elf said tersely.
The mist surrounding them was now so thick that Kit could no longer see more than a dozen yards ahead of her. She could hear Ursa grunt as he was dragged to his feet. Colo whispered at her back.
"Get ready!"
Ready for what?
The peasant guarding Colo drew his curved dagger.
The mist was almost suffocating. But something more, it began to pulse and swirl, and then to swirl faster, creating a wind that whirled at terrific speed. A low, almost whining noise built to a din and then into a deafening roar. A roar so horrendous that Kit's one thought was not to escape but to break her bonds and clasp her hands over her ears. Leaves and branches broke off and flew past her. Debris whacked her in the face. Through it all, strangely, she heard the low murmuring of the mage. Kit felt her feet lifted off the ground by the force of a powerful current. She heard someone's sharp groan, then the sound of a body hitting the ground. "Now!" Colo shouted in her ear.
All of a sudden, Kit was cut free. She bent and groped for her sword hilt. Grasping it, she started toward where Ursa had been—Kit could no longer see him. The whirlwind knocked her off the feet, flattening her on the ground. Colo grabbed Kit from behind, and when she tried to get up again, the tracker held her down on the ground.
"Don't be a fool!" Colo screamed into her ear above the roar. "Stay down. Roll this way as fast as you can!"
Kitiara could just barely make out the female mercenary in front of her, rolling and crawling and snaking to the right.
Suddenly the maelstrom exploded in full force, sweeping everything up into itself. Even as Kit tried to follow after Colo she was being sucked back toward the clearing and worse, pulled aloft. Her fingers clawed into the dirt. Futile. All manner of things boiled past her, ascending—weapons and horses and flailing bodies.
The slig's head.
"Grab on!" yelled Colo.
Kit could see that the diminutive warrior had dropped into a small ravine and was clinging with one arm to
