Xaphira jerked her head around to peer at her niece. "Sorry?" she asked very faintly. "For what?"

"For whatever happened to you. For springing the news about Hetta on you the way I did. There's a lot to be sorry about."

"It's all right," Xaphira replied, and she reached out to find Emriana's hand with her own. Giving it a comforting squeeze, she whispered, "Hush. They'll hear us. Like you said, we'll talk later."

Emriana sighed but nodded, knowing her aunt was right. I hope there is a later, she thought, eyeing the open space between themselves and the trees.

After a moment longer, Xaphira got to her feet. Lobra was beginning to stir. "We've got to hurry, before she wakes up," the older Matrell woman whispered. "Come on."

Emriana joined her aunt and together, they hoisted the woozy woman up from the damp ground. Sticking her head out from the shelter of the shrubs, Xaphira surveyed the grounds, then motioned to Emriana that all was clear. They stepped out into the open.

The first several steps seemed the longest. Emriana's heart was pounding from her fear of being seen, but no one seemed to be about. When they were halfway across, she started to think they would make it.

Bells started ringing all around her.

The sound made her jump and yelp a tiny bit, and she felt Xaphira react in a similar fashion. Both women wasted no time trying to figure out the source of the alarm bells. They broke into a lumbering run, struggling to stay abreast of one another and not drop their prisoner.

In the distance, dogs began to bark. Emriana thought she could hear the sounds of horses riding closer at a gallop. The guards were alerted. They were being hunted.

"Go on," Xaphira said, trying to take the full burden of Lobra on herself. "Run ahead, get over the wall before they catch us. I'll be right behind you."

"No," Emriana said. "I'm not leaving you again."

"Em, there's no time to argue. Go!"

"I'm not leaving you!" the girl almost screamed, fear making her voice rise in pitch. "I lost you once already. Forget it!"

Xaphira didn't reply. The two of them just kept moving, managing to get in among the trees just as lights appeared around the corner of the estate, moving rapidly toward them. The barking of the dogs grew more feverish, more insistent, and louder. Emriana wondered if their masters had released them from their leashes yet. She didn't dare turn around to see.

The arbor turned out to be harder to maneuver through than it might have seemed at first blush. The arching passage was filled with downed limbs, waist-high grass, and brambles. Emriana imagined that no one had tended to the place in at least a generation. More than once, she or Xaphira tripped over something hidden in the undergrowth, falling to one knee or sprawling against the trunk of a tree. Xaphira hit the ground particularly hard at one point and just lay there for a moment, groaning softly. Emriana had to help the woman to her feet.

To make matters worse, Lobra was becoming more awake by the moment, and she was beginning to thrash in her bonds, making it difficult to hold her. Finally, Emriana put her mouth to the woman's ear and said, "If you want to live to see the light of morning, I suggest you stop wiggling. I don't have any compunction against slitting your throat and leaving you here to bleed out, do you understand?"

After that, Lobra was much more compliant.

When they reached the wall, Emriana eyed the barrier, which loomed a good ten feet high, uncertainly. "I've been climbing over too many of these lately," she muttered.

"Get up there " Xaphira said. "I'll boost her up to you once you're on top."

"No," Emriana said. "We go up together."

"Em, we can't! We can't both balance in the tree and hold her. The dogs are coming! You don't have any weapons to fight them! Get up there, now!"

Angry both at being scolded and knowing her aunt was right, Emriana scrambled up the closest tree and easily hopped to the wall. She turned and lay across the top of it on her stomach, then reached down. "Hand her up," she said. "Hurry!"

At the far end of the arbor, lights were bobbing about and men were shouting. The dogs were howling up a storm and charging through the underbrush right toward them. Lobra began to squirm, resisting Xaphira's efforts to heave her up to the younger girl. Xaphira planted one fist into the prisoner's gut, and Lobra crumpled. Xaphira slammed Lobra right up against the wall, and the bound woman let out a stifled grunt of pain. Then the mercenary got underneath her, gaining leverage, and shoved with her legs. Even with her effort, though, Emriana couldn't quite reach down far enough to grasp Lobra.

"It's no good," Emriana said. "We have to leave her."

"No!" Xaphira yelled, and with a final heave, she straightened her arms, pushing Lobra high enough.

Emriana grabbed hold of Lobra's shoulders, but she didn't have the strength to pull her to the top of the wall. "I can't lift her!" she cried. "I'm going to drop her!"

"Just hang on," Xaphira said, moving toward the tree. "I'll be there to help."

A dog lunged out of the grass, leaping right at Xaphira. The older Matrell woman spun and sidestepped the hound, which struck against the wall with a yelp and dropped to its feet. Spinning, it charged her again just as another dog appeared. Xaphira kicked out in front of her, catching the first dog on the nose, then she raked her heel back and out to the side, catching the second dog across its muzzle. Both hounds yipped in pain and scurried back, out of range.

Emriana watched all of it in dismay as she felt her grip on Lobra beginning to slip. "Xaphira!" she cried out. Lobra, she thought, don't you dare start squirming now. "Xaphira, hurry!"

With the two dogs cowed, Emriana's aunt spun and leaped to the lowest branch of the tree and began to clamber up. Below, another dog appeared, barking frantically as it danced around the base of the tree, as though it had trapped a raccoon. The lights were close, and Emriana could almost see the faces of the men carrying the lanterns.

Xaphira landed on top of the wall right beside Emriana just as one of the younger girl's hands finally slipped. Her aunt reached down and grabbed at Lobra's hair, pulling the woman up to the sound of a muffled shriek. Little by little, the two of them hauled their prisoner to the top of the wall while the dogs bayed below.

Just as the first of the Pharaboldi House watch arrived, Emriana and Xaphira managed to slip over the other side, their prisoner still in tow.

By the time more men from the estate worked their way around to the lane on the outside of the wall, the three women were gone, and the first pink rays of dawn were just beginning to spread across the sky.

"This way!" Pilos gasped, turning and sprinting through a gap in a thick hedge. Behind him, Quill, the three mercenaries, and the druid Edilus scurried after him. Pilos's lungs burned and he thought he would collapse soon from exhaustion. The other five men didn't seem badly winded, though the dwarf Grolo was huffing pretty hard as he charged along on his stumpy shorter legs.

I'm soft, Pilos realized. Temple life is too cushy.

When he could run no further, the young priest dropped in a heap among some ferns and plantain trees that created a dense tangle, shielding the world from view. Beside him, the others gathered around, and Pilos was at least thankful to see the men breathing hard, hands on hips or knees. They stood without speaking. Aside from a few distant and muffled shouts, no one seemed to be getting closer to their hidden location.

"I think we lost them," Adyan drawled in a quiet voice, twisting his head to look back through the foliage the way they had come. "I don't hear anyone anymore."