"Shabis sent out spies to find out where you were, but they came back and said you were dead."

She told him where she had been, while he listened. Then he said, "Let's go, Mara. I didn't believe you were dead. I was only hanging around in case you'd turn up."

"But you're a general, how can you just go?"

He got up, laughing, and paced about because he was so full of elation and happiness, he could not keep still. "I'm just a trainee general. And anyway Mara, I don't care about that — do you care about that? No, of course you don't. Shabis likes me — that's the point. He said he thinks of me as his family. But this war — it's stupid. I don't want to be part of it."

He explained the plan — the Agre plan. General Shabis's troops were closing in around the southern suburbs, and General Izrak was trapped. When Shabis had cleaned up in Shari, then his army would make forced marches to the Hennes H.Q. and then take all the south part of Hennes occupied territory. Soon the whole country would be in the hands of the Four Generals. And the war would be over. As Dann outlined these plans, he spoke mockingly, and Mara agreed.

Dann ended, "A trapped boar can inflict nasty wounds."

"Cleaning up," said Mara. "That means a massacre."

"Who is going to weep for the Hennes? Or any of their kind anywhere?"

"The army isn't just Hennes. There are a lot of Neanthes and Thores people too." He was silent. "Why don't you announce an amnesty for the Neanthes and Thores? They were all taken prisoner and made into soldiers."

"Mara, this isn't our problem."

"I don't understand why Shabis agreed to this plan. It's silly. He could have stopped the Hennes getting to Shari."

"He didn't agree. You forget, there are four generals. He was outvoted. He wanted to make a stand well south of Shari. The other three wanted a trap."

"And a massacre." "And a massacre."

"I wish I could see Shabis. He was so good to me, Dann. He taught me so much."

"And me too. But Mara, are you forgetting we were captured? We are formally Agre prisoners. Well you are, anyway. Do you imagine Shabis would just say, 'Oh, you're off are you? Bless you my children.'"

"Why shouldn't he? He might."

"They've put a lot of work into me. They intend me to take Shabis's position when he takes over General Command. They're not going to waste all that."

"What are we going to do?"

"Get to Karas, first." "And then?"

"The frontier with the North Lands. It is a day's march from Karas. Once we're there, we're free."

"First we have to get to Karas." "And that is the most difficult part."

In the street outside there was a sudden tumult of shouting and running feet. The refugees were running past this building too. Dann closed the big windows, so they could hear each other. Mara had never seen windows like those: tall, from floor to ceiling, and of thick glass. She knew about glass, had seen it a little — in the windows of Shabis's house, she believed, but it had been too dark to see well — and here were sheets of glass; and she was thinking that a town with glass in its windows knows it is a safe town, because a single thrown stone can shatter glass. Well, Shari today was learning something very different.

Now Dann and she discussed difficulties. As always it was a question of details, for both knew — how well they knew — that getting one small thing wrong could mean calamity.

First of all Dann was a senior officer and could not be seen just walking off on the road north: that would be desertion. He must have the right clothes on. Then, both he and Mara were conspicuous. Here Dann took her to a wall where there was, she thought, a window beyond which was a tree; but she saw it was a glass that showed a tree which was behind them, outside the windows in the garden. She was longing to examine it, find out — but Dann said, "Quick, we must be quick." They stood in front of this glass, which reflected, and saw how alike they were: tall — Dann must have grown six inches since she saw him last — strongly built but finely made, with shining black hair and great, dark eyes. He was handsome, as she had seen in that first moment of shock; but already she was feeling him as something like an extension of herself, and she needed this little distance put by the glass that showed them to themselves, even if in a confusion of leaves and branches, so it seemed they were standing in a tree, to see just how good-looking he was. And he was smiling at her reflection. "Look how you've turned out," he said. "You're a beauty. You're going to get yourself raped if you aren't careful."

"I nearly was." And she told him what had happened. "But I bought myself off. Do you ever think that we nearly left the gold behind?" "Yes. Often. And how many have you left?"

"Fifteen."

"And I have six hidden. Apart from..." He touched his waist. "When I can get these out safely, I must. They itch sometimes. Meanwhile I'm glad to have them there."

What were they going to wear on that dangerous road?

Now he went to a cupboard and produced Mara's old sack. "I've always taken it with me. Just in case. I didn't really believe you were dead. That wouldn't be like you. And now it's going to save us."

She pulled out the two slaves' robes.

He said, "You've got to get those Hennes uniform trousers off." She pulled them off and stood in the brown tunic, reaching now to her knees.

"You've got to get that off too. People would be curious."

She was shy of him; he saw it, turned around, and she slipped on the old robe that would never be white because of the dust that had dyed it.

There was a knock. Dann went to the door, and opened it a little. A lot of noise came from the hall. He said, "Right, I'll deal with it. Meanwhile, don't disturb me until I say."

"And now we really do have to be quick." He whipped off his uniform and, as he did, said, "Goodbye, General Dann." Was he regretting it? At this last moment was he hesitating? If so, Mara could not see that he did. She caught just a glimpse of naked Dann, not ugly or starved or all ribs and bones or knobbly, but beautiful, he really was so beautiful — and then he had on the slave's robe, and she said, "What a pair of freaks we look."

"Not freaks enough. Get your hair covered." She bundled it into a piece of cloth and tied it tight. He pulled on the woollen cap Mara had kept in her sack. Into this sack he emptied some fruit and bread that had been brought in for General Dann's consumption.

"Water," she said.

"We are supplying water on the route to Karas," he said. "Water and soup, for the refugees." "Which we are now."

"Yes. Quick." This room was on the ground floor, and the windows looked into a little garden, beyond which the refugees were streaming past. Dann took his knife from the discarded uniform, put it into his knife pocket, slid in a little bag which held the coins. She took up her sack, but she had left her knife in the army satchel she had jettisoned. Dann flung open the window, admitting the sounds of shouting and anger, and leaped out, and she followed. In a moment they were across the garden and among the refugees. A sentry who had been idly watching the fleeing crowds saw the two too late, perhaps thought they were refugees who had strayed into the garden, or decided, to save trouble, that he had not seen them.

Mara and Dann, each with a sack over a shoulder, were among people who were half running, ten or twelve abreast, along the road to Karas. On each face was a stunned, disbelieving anger. All knew that when they returned to Shari their homes might not be there, would at least be looted and despoiled. Children were crying. Already people were falling out of the stream to rest a little by the side of the road, unable to keep up.