«Stay here, and the next time the guard passes that bush-«he pointed «-make a noise, as if you were sick. That will make him stop. I'll do the rest.» He gripped the vine with both hands and formed a loop to show what he meant. She nodded, face set and body rigid with tension.

Blade slipped away to his chosen position and waited. He would have only one chance. So far they had been astoundingly lucky. No one could have found the dead guards in the chamber above, or the alarm would long since have been up. One shot, though-

The guard's footsteps sounded again, soft thuds on the grass. Blade saw the silhouette of the guard's helmeted head appear over the top of the bush.

The guard took two more steps. Then Arllona moaned, a long, faint, whimpering moan, like an animal in pain. The guard stopped, standing in the open as he looked around, searching for the source of the noise. He was alert and aware, but not alert enough to catch the sound of three soft, rapid steps behind him.

Blade's looped vine rose, then descended over the guard's head and around his unprotected throat. Before the man could take another breath Blade jerked the loop tight. The heavy muscles of his arms stood out as he heaved up and back. The guard rose completely off the ground, as the vine tightened around his throat. His breath died, his eyes bulged, a swollen tongue crept out as his jaw sagged open. With a soft crunch the guard's windpipe caved in. He went limp and the pistol thudded to the grass from a lifeless hand.

Blade did not loosen the vine until he had dragged the dead guard under the bushes. Then he thrust the pistol into his belt and crept back to Arllona. A minute later they were both kneeling over the vine, slicing through the tough fibers.

They kept cutting and tying together lengths of vine until they had a rope more than a hundred feet long. Then Blade tied a large loop on one end, dragged the other end over to a stout tree near the edge of the garden, and tied the vine firmly around the trunk. Pulling with all his strength, Blade could barely make the tree shiver.

Either the other guard had fallen asleep, or he had taken their small noises to be normal night sounds. Blade carried the loop to the wall and helped Arllona place her feet in it.

«All right, now,» he whispered. «Clasp your hands around the vine, as tightly as you can. Don't look down until you land. Then get out of sight at once. I'll be down as fast as I can.»

He knew he would have to leave the vine-rope dangling, an open sign of their escape if anyone was looking for it. Even if anyone was, the dark green vine would not be easy to see at night. By dawn they should be safe in the hands of the Jade Masters, or even out of Kano altogether. So far Arllona had kept every promise she'd made. Blade hoped the Jade Masters would keep theirs, and he started to lower Arllona away and down.

He had lowered her barely twenty feet when a thunderstorm seemed to explode over the outer wall of the city. Six times in a few seconds, jets of yellow flame stabbed the darkness. Then the thunder of six heavy guns going off reached Blade's ears. The distant gunners fired a second salvo-and from below came Arllona's wild screams.

«The Raufi! The Raufi! They are coming against the walls! That is the signal! Oh, it is the end for Kano! It is the end for Kano! Oh, oh, ohhhhhhhh!» More cannon went off. The lights of torches and signal fires started springing to life all across the three miles of darkness in the Gardens of Stam.

Maybe it was the end of Kano, and maybe it wasn't. Blade was painfully sure that it was the end of any chance for a quiet, secret escape. Every Kanoan soldier within a mile must have heard Arllona's hysterical screams. Even if by some miracle nobody had heard Arllona and was running to find out what the noise meant, there would still be trouble. If the Raufii were really marching on the outer wall, the Gardens of Stam would be swarming with alarmed and hurrying Kanoan soldiers. They might arrest Blade and Arllona on general principles. They would certainly drive the agents of the Jade Masters away from the rendezvous. Within an hour or two, Kano would be tightly sealed.

Blade let out the rest of the vine as fast as he dared. A yelp of pain and surprise from below told him that Arllona had landed harder than she'd expected. He saw that she was on her feet and hobbling rapidly toward the nearest cover.

Blade had his hands on the vine and was about to swing himself over the wall when he heard footsteps behind him. He whirled, drawing his sword as the surviving guard dashed up. The man halted, surprised at Blade's formidable appearance and readiness for combat. That halt gave Blade his chance to attack, aiming a thrust at his opponent's throat.

The guard was a better swordsman than Blade had expected. Steel met steel with a clang that echoed around the garden. The guard disengaged with impressive speed and launched a furious attack of his own. Blade parried it, but not easily. The guard was nearly as big as he was and hitting nearly as hard.

Another flurry of blows. Blade was sure he could defeat this man, but that would take the time he didn't have! He drove his mind furiously, hammering out a strategy in seconds.

The guard launched another attack. Blade reached out farther than usual to parry it. The swords met with another echoing clang. Blade relaxed his grip and let the guard's sword beat his own out of his hand, sending it flying over the wall. The guard let out a roar of triumphant laughter and raised his sword for a downcut to split Blade's head open. Before the laugh died or the sword started down, Blade moved.

He lunged forward, his two hundred and ten pounds driving his shoulder into the man's armored chest. The man's breath exploded out of him as if he'd been hit with a sledgehammer. He heeled backward, eyes wide and gasping for breath. Somehow he found the strength to raise his sword again. Blade grabbed the raised sword arm, bending it until the elbow shattered, then jerked. The guard screamed in agony, then screamed again as he found himself hurtling forward toward the wall. A third scream began as he found himself in mid-air. Then it cut off abruptly with a thud and a crunch as he hit the ground ninety feet below.

Blade gripped the vine again and swung himself over the wall. He didn't bother looking down. If there were Kanoans already waiting down there he was a dead man anyway, and if there weren't he didn't need to waste time looking for them.

He went down the vine hand over hand. He would have slid down, but the vine was so rough that sliding would have torn his hands to ribbons, leaving him unable to hold a sword.

Halfway down he swung his eyes upward. He was just in time to see three helmeted heads appear over the wall. A pistol flashed, but the bullet sailed off into the darkness unheard. Then something metal flashed high over one of the heads and came down. The vine jerked, slamming Blade painfully against the hard cold jade of the wall. The axe came down again, and the vine parted.

Blade had time to let out one yell of sheer, blazing rage at Kano and everybody in it. He knew he was falling, and he knew that his fall would make him an easy prey for the men who wanted to reduce him to a charred grease spot in the Mouth of the Gods.

Then the ground came up and hit him, and Richard Blade stopped knowing anything for a while.