He would have liked to stay here long enough to find some way of reassuring the girl. But he still wasn't sure that they were safe from meeting other parties of huntresses or other parties of Senar. Blade didn't care to risk a fight with the huntresses, and he did not really want to fight the unfortunate wild men. The Senar seemed to have enough troubles of their own without his adding to them.

So he once more dug into the pack and pulled out one of the weighted throwing lines. Cutting it into pieces with his knife, he tied the girl's hands behind her. Then he tied the other, longer piece around her neck.

Finally he packed up all the loose gear and hauled the girl to her feet.

«We must go on,» he said. Blade spoke slowly and carefully, without raising his voice, as he might have spoken to a frightened child. He did not trust the girl yet, nor would he do so for quite a while. But he wanted to get it across to her that he was not going to treat her the way the Senar no doubt treated captured women. The terror in the girl's eyes told him how vicious that treatment must be.

«We must go on,» he repeated, in the same tone. «I do not want to meet any more of the women of Brega for a long time. But I am not of the Senar. So I do not want to meet them either. You should not try to run away. If you do, you might meet the Senar. If you did, you would have nothing to fight them with. And I would not be there to kill them and save you. I am a hunter in my own lands, and I can use bow and sword. I will protect you from the Senar, I promise you, as long as you stay with me.»

At this point the girl burst into half-hysterical sobbing and dropped to her knees in front of Blade. When her sobbing had subsided to faint whimpering, she was able to choke out, «Thank you, for Mother Kina. Thank you, for Mother Kina. You are not of the Senar, not of the Senar.»

«No, I am not of the Senar,» Blade repeated firmly. «And I will not let them catch you or harm you. Now stand up, and let us go away from here, before the Senar find us.»

Those last words made the girl spring up as if she had been stung by bees. Blade grabbed the end of the rope around her neck and wound the last foot of it around his hand. Then he nodded, and the girl stepped out to the full length of the rope and turned away into the trees.

However careless they might be, the huntresses of Brega were certainly in good condition. The girl kept pace with Blade almost every foot of the day's travel, with no sign of effort or strain except for a sheen of sweat on her tanned skin. Blade kept them going all day, with stops every two hours or so for rest and water. He took advantage of one of those stops to shoot two large black squirrel-like beasts that incautiously peered down on him from a branch above.

They had to keep going for nearly an hour longer than Blade had intended in order to reach water. It was nearly dark when they found a small, rushing stream and Blade indicated they would make camp for the night. The girl looked as though she could have gone on for several more hours. But the muscles of Blade's legs were beginning to develop hard and painful knots. He sat down with a sigh of relief.

After a few minutes' rest he rose, tethered the girl to a branch, and began collecting firewood. The bank of the stream was littered with dry needles and wind-fallen branches, and it did not take him long. A few sparks from the flint lighter in the pack, and the needles flared into crackling orange flames. When the fire was going well, Blade pulled out the two giant squirrels and began skinning and gutting them.

The girl watched him intently, never taking her eyes off the fast-moving knife. Poor girl, thought Blade. She's still wondering if I'm going to start on her with the knife after I finish the squirrels.

Blade finished the first squirrel, thrust it onto a stick, and braced the stick over the fire. Then he took the knife and stepped over to the girl. She turned pale under her tan, and a cold sweat of stark terror broke out all over her.

«Would you like to cut up the other one?» he asked.

The girl jumped as though Blade had actually stabbed her, and stared up at him, eyes wide open.

«Hold up your hands,» said Blade, firmly but quietly. Numbly, the girl obeyed. With two quick slashes, Blade sliced through the cords binding her wrists. She gave a little gasp of surprise and held her hands up in front of her, staring at them as though she had never seen them before. She wiggled her half-numb fingers, whimpering at the pain of circulation returning to them.

«Would you like to cut up the other animal?» Blade repeated. Then he took the knife by the point and laid it down on the ground, hilt facing the girl. At the same time he stepped back until he was outside easy stabbing range. He would trust the girl only up to a point.

Slowly and tentatively the girl reached out for the knife until her fingers caressed the bone hilt. Senar bone? Blade wondered. «Yes,» he said. «You may take it. I think you know how to use it.»

There was a grunt from the girl that might have been the word «Yes.» Then her hand clutched the knife and snatched it up from the ground. She held it stiffly at arm's length for a moment. Blade watched her carefully, ready to snatch it back from her if she made any move to use it on him-or on herself. Then slowly her other hand reached out for the squirrel, caught it by the tail, and dragged it to within reach of the knife. Blade could not keep back a sigh of relief. The woman heard it, looked up at him again, and managed a weak smile. Then she bent down and went to work on the squirrel.

The squirrel meat was tough and gamy, but it was juicy and there was plenty of it. Blade and the girl each finished off one of the squirrels, then washed their hands and faces in the stream. After that Blade piled more wood on the fire and sat down cross-legged on the needles. Once again, he was careful to sit far enough away from the girl that she would have no chance for a sudden attack.

«Now,» he said cheerfully. «What is your name? I cannot go on calling you 'woman' for all the time that we will be together in this forest.»

The girl's upper teeth sank into her lower lip for a moment. Then she said, «My name is Wyala.»

«Wyala.» Blade rolled the name around on his tongue for much longer than was really necessary.

Then he said, «My name is Blade. I have traveled into Brega from a distant land.»

«That I can see-now,» said Wyala. «You are not of the Senar. They are all hairy and thick in their bodies. And when they capture a woman of the city, they-«She was unable to finish the sentence, but she didn't need to. The expression on her face told Blade enough.

«Yes, I saw the Senar that your band captured,» said Blade. «And I saw all the things you did to them.» Wyala started. «Yes. I was hiding in a tree above the clearing where you fought and captured the Senar. I saw what you did to them.» Wyala's face puckered up as though she were going to cry again and slowly turned bright red. Blade sat in silence, letting Wyala stew in her own embarrassment.

Finally the girl raised her head and stared at Blade almost defiantly. «Why should we not treat the Senar so? They are enemies to all who follow the Law of Mother Kina.»

«Do you treat the men of the city of Brega that way also?» asked Blade. He could not quite keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

«The men of the city?» Wyala looked confused for a moment. «Oh-the breeding males. No, we do not treat them so. Why should we? They are shut up in the House of Fertility and only the guardians ever see them. And a guardian who mistreated one of her charges would be cast down from her post, perhaps even sentenced to the arena. But no guardian would ever do anything like that. They are sworn to Mother Kina by an oath much stronger than the hunters take. We can treat the Senar as we choose.» The note of defiance was back in her voice.