Jefri couldn't even look over his shoulder to talk to the Cloak. "What if Mr. Steel chases us into the walls?"

There was a brief silence. "He probably won't do that, if he doesn't know where you entered. It would take too long to find you. But," the voice was suddenly gentler, "but there are openings on the top of the walls. In case enemy soldiers tried to sneak in from the outside, there has to be some way to kill them in the tunnels. He could pour oil down the tunnels."

The possibility did not frighten Jefri. At the moment it just sounded bizarre. "We've got to hurry then."

Jefri scrabbled forward as the rest of Amdi crawled in behind him. He was already several meters deep in stone when he heard Amdi's voice back at the entrance, the last one to enter: "Will you be okay, Mr. Tyrathect?"

Or is this all another lie? thought Jefri.

The other's voice had its usual, cynical tone. "I expect to land on my feet. Please do remember that I helped you."

And then the hatch was shut and they scrambled forward, into the dark.

Negotiations, shit. It was obvious to Pham that Steel's idea of "mutually safe meeting" was a cover for mayhem. Even Ravna wasn't fooled by the pack's new proposals. At least it meant that Steel was ad libbing now -that he was beyond all the scripts and schemes. The trouble was, he still wasn't giving them any openings. Pham would have cheerfully died for a few undisturbed hours with the Countermeasure, but Steel's setup would have them dead before they ever saw the inside of the refugee ship.

"Keep moving around, Blueshell. I want Steel to have us weighing on his mind, without being a good target."

The Rider waved a frond in agreement and the boat bounced briefly up from the moss, drifted a hundred meters parallel to the castle walls, and descended again. They were in the no-man's land between the forces of Woodcarver and Steel.

Johanna Olsndot twisted around to look at him. The boat was a very crowded place now, Blueshell stretched across the Riderish controls at the bow, Pham and Johanna jammed into the seats behind him — and a pack called Pilgrim in every empty space in between. "Even if you can locate the commset, don't fire. Jefri could be close by." For twenty minutes Steel had been promising the momentary reappearance of Jefri Olsndot.

Pham eyed her smudged face. "Yeah, we won't fire unless we can see exactly what we'll hit." The girl nodded shortly. She couldn't have been more than fourteen, but she was a good trooper. Half the people he had known in Qeng Ho would have been in limp hysterics after this pickup. And of the rest, few could have given a better status report than Johanna and her friend.

He glanced at the pack. It would take a while to get used to these critters. At first he'd thought that two of the dogs were sprouting extra heads — then he noticed the small ones were just puppies carried in jacket pockets. The "Pilgrim" was all over the boat; just what part of him should he talk to? He picked the head that was looking in his direction. "Any theories how to deal with Steel?"

The pack's Samnorsk was better than Pham's: "Steel and Flenser are as tricky as anything I've seen in Johanna's dataset. And Flenser is cool."

"Flenser? Hadn't realized there was a person with that name… There was a 'Mr. Skinner' we talked to. Some kind of assistant to Steel."

"Hmm. He's tricky enough to play flunky… wish we could drop back and chat with Woodcarver about this." The request was artfully contained in his intonation. Pham wondered briefly what percentage of Packfolk were so flexible. They might be one hell of a trading race if they ever reached space.

"Sorry, we don't have time for that. In fact, if we can't get in right away, we've lost everything. I just hope Steel doesn't guess that."

The heads subtly rearranged themselves. The biggest member, the one with a broken arrow shaft sticking up from its jacket, moved closer to the girl. "Well, if Steel is in charge, there's a chance. He's very smart, but we think he runs amok when things get tough. Your finding Johanna has probably put him to chasing his tails. Keep him off balance, and you can expect some big mistakes."

Johanna spoke abruptly, "He might kill Jefri."

Or blow up the starship. "Ravna, any luck with Steel?"

Her voice came back over the comm: "No. The threats are a bit more transparent now, and his Samnorsk is getting harder to understand. He's trying to bring cannon in from north of the Castle; I don't think he knows how much I can see… He still hasn't brought Jefri back to the radio."

The girl paled, but she didn't say anything. Her hand stole up to grasp one of Pilgrim's paws.

Blueshell had been very quiet all through the rescue, first because he had his fronds full with flying, then because the girl and the Pack had so much to say. Pham had noticed that part of Pilgrim had been politely nosing around the Rider. Blueshell hadn't seemed upset by the attention; his race had plenty of experience with others.

But now the Rider made a brap for attention, "Sir Pham, there is action in front of the castle."

Pilgrim was on it at almost the same instant, one head helping another look through a telescope. "Yes. That's the main sally port that's coming open. But why would Steel send packs out now? Woodcarver will chew them up." The enemy was indeed fielding infantry. The packs spewed out the wide hole in a headlong dash, much like troops of Pham's recollection. But once they cleared the entrance they broke of into clumps of four to six dogs each and spread across the castle perimeter.

Pham leaned forward, trying to see as far along the walls as possible. "Maybe not. These guys aren't advancing. They're staying in range of the archers on the walls."

"Yeah. But we still have cannons." Pilgrim's perfect imitation of humanity broke for a second, and a Tinish chord filled the cockpit. "Something is really strange. It's like they're trying to keep someone from getting out."

"Are there other entrances?"

"Probably. And lots of little tunnels, just one member wide."

"Ravna?"

"Steel's not talking at all now. He said something about traitors infifltrating the castle. Now all I'm getting is Tinish gobble." From embrasure to embrasure along the battlements, Pham could see enemy soldiers moving above those on the ground. Something had upset the rats' nest.

Johanna Olsndot was a vision of horrified concentration, her free hand gathered into a fist, her lips faintly trembling. "All this time I thought he was dead. If they kill him now, I…" Her voice suddenly scaled up: "What are they doing?" Cast iron kettles had been dragged to the top of the walls.

Pham could guess. Siege fighting on Canberra had involved similar things. He looked at the girl, and kept his mouth shut. There's nothing we can do.

The Pilgrim pack was not so kind — or not so patronizing: "It's oil, Johanna. They want to kill someone in the walls. But if he can get out… Blueshell, I've read about loudspeakers. Can I use one? If Jefri is in the walls, Woodcarver can safely scrape Steel's troops off the field and battlements."

Pham opened his mouth to object, but the Rider had already opened a channel. Pilgrim's Tinish voice echoed across the hillside. Along the castle walls heads turned. To them, the voice must have sounded like a god's. The chords and trills continued a moment longer, then ceased.

Ravna's voice was on the line an instant later, "Whatever you did just now, it pushed Steel over the edge. I can barely understand him; He seems to be describing how he'll torture Jefri if we don't pull the Woodcarvers back."

Pham grunted. "Okay then. Get us in the air, Blueshell." It felt good to kiss subtlety goodbye.

Blueshell wobbled the boat aloft. They moved forward, scarcely faster than a man can run. Behind them more of Woodcarver's troops were coming over the military crest of the hill. Those fellows had been pulled well back after Pham's strafing run: things might be decided before they got to the castle… But Woodcarver's reach was still long and deadly: splashes of smoke and fire appeared along the battlements, followed by sharp popping noises. Killing Jefri Olsndot was going to be a very expensive proposition for Steel.