— =*=

Any time before now, the climb through the walls would have been fun. Even though it was pitch dark, Amdi was in front and behind him, and his noses gave him a good feel for the way. Anytime before now there would have been the thrill of discovery, of giggling at Amdi's strung-out mental state.

But now Amdi's confusion was simply scary. He kept bumping into Jefri's heels. "I'm going as fast as I can." The fabric of Jefri's pants' knees was already torn apart on the rough stone. He hustled faster, the stabbing beat of rock on knees barely penetrating his consciousness. He bumped into the puppy ahead of him. The puppy had stopped, seemed to be twisting sideways. "There's a fork. I say we… what should I say, Jefri?"

Jefri rolled back, knocking his head on top of the wormhole. For most of a year, it had been Amdi's confidence, his cheeky cleverness, that had kept him going. Now… suddenly he was aware of the tonnes of rock that were pressing in from all directions. If the tunnel narrowed just a few centimeters, they would be stuck here forever.

"Jefri?"

"I— " Think! "Which side seems to be going up?"

"Just a second." The lead member ran off a little ways down one fork.

"Don't go too far!" Jefri shouted.

"Don't worry. I… he'll know to get back." Then he heard the patter of return, and the lead member was touching its nose to his cheek. "The one on the right goes up."

They hadn't gone more than fifteen meters before Amdi started hearing things. "People chasing us?" asked Jefri.

"No. I'm mean, I'm not sure. Stop. Listen… Hear that? Gluppy, syrupy." Oil.

No more stopping. Jefri moved faster than ever up the tunnel. His head bumped into the ceiling and he stumbled to his elbows, recovered without thinking and raced on. A trickle of blood dripped down his cheek.

Even he could hear the oil now.

The sides of the tunnel closed down on his shoulders. Ahead of him, Amdi said, "Dead end — or we're at an exit!" Scritching sounds. "I can't move it." The puppy turned around and wiggled back between Jefri's legs. "Push at the top, Jefri. If it's like the one I found in the dome, it opens at the top."

The darn tunnel got narrow right before the door. Jefri hunched his shoulders and squeezed forward. He pushed at the top of the door. It moved, maybe a centimeter. He crawled forward a little further, squished so tightly between the walls that he couldn't even take a deep breath. Now he pushed hard as he could. The stone turned all the way and light spilled onto his face. It wasn't full daylight; they were still hidden from the outside behind angles of stone — but it was the happiest sight Jefri had ever seen. Half a meter more and he would be out — only now he was jammed.

He twisted forward a fraction, and things only seemed to get worse. Behind him, Amdi was piling up. "Jefri! My rear paws are in the oil. It's filled the tunnel all up behind us."

Panic. For a second Jefri couldn't think of anything. So close, so close. He could see color now, the bloody smears on his hands. "Back up! I'll take off my jacket and try again."

Backing up was itself almost impossible, so thoroughly wedged had he become. Finally he'd done it. He turned on his side, shrugged out of the jacket.

"Jefri! Two of me under… oil. Can't breathe." The puppies jammed up around him, their pelts slick with oil. Slick!

"Jus' second!" Jefri wiped the fur, smeared his shoulders with the oil. He extended his arms straight past his head and used his heels to push back into the narrowness. Then the stone closed in on his shoulders. Behind him, what was left of Amdi was making whistling noises. Jam. Push. Push. A centimeter, another. And then he was out to his armpits and it was easy.

He dropped to the ground and reached back to grab the nearest part of Amdi. The pup wriggled out of his hands. It blubbered something not Tinish and not human. Jefri could see the dark shadows of several members pulling at something out of sight. A second later, a cold, wet blob of fur rolled out of the darkness into his arms. A second more, and out came another. Jefri lowered the two to the ground and wiped goo away from their muzzles. One rolled onto its legs and began to shake itself. The other started choking and coughing.

Meanwhile the rest of Amdi dropped out of the hole. All eight were covered with some amount of oil. They straggled drunkenly into a heap, licking each another's tympana. Their buzzing and croaking made no sense.

Jefri turned from his friend and walked toward the light. They were hidden by a turn in the stone… fortunately. From around the corner he could hear the marshaling calls of Steel's troopers. He crept to the edge and peered around. For an instant he thought he and Amdi were back inside the castle yard; there were so many troopers. But then he saw the unbounded sweep of the hillside and the smoke rising out of the valley.

What next? He glanced back at Amdi, who was still frantically grooming his tympana. The chords and hums were sounding more rational now, and all of Amdi was moving. He turned back to the hillside. For an instant he almost felt like rushing out to the troops. They had been his protectors for so long.

One of Amdi bumped against his legs, and looked out for himself. "Wow. There's a regular lake of oil between us and Mr. Steel's soldiers. I — "

The booming sound was loud, but not like a gunpowder blast. It lasted almost a second, then became a background roar. Two more of Amdi stretched necks around the corner. The lake had become a roaring sea of flame.

Blueshell had maneuvered the boat within two hundred meters of the castle wall, opposite the point where the packs had bunched up. Now the lander floated just a man's height off the moss. "Just our being here is driving the packs away," said Pilgrim.

Pham glanced over his shoulder. Woodcarver's troops had regained the field and were racing toward the castle walls. Another sixty seconds, max, and they would be in contact with Steel's packs.

There was a loud brap from Blueshell's voder, and Pham looked forward. "By the Fleet," he said softly. Packs on the ramparts had fired some kind of flamethrowers into the pools of oil below the castle walls. Blueshell flew in a little closer. Long pools of oil lay parallel to the walls. The enemy's packs on the outside were all but cut off from their castle now. Except for one thirty-meter-wide gap, the section they had been guarding was high fire.

The boat bobbed a little higher, tilting and sliding in the fire-driven whirl of air. In most places the oil lapped the sloped base of the walls. Those walls were more intricate than the castles of Canberra — in many places it looked like there were little mazes or caves built into the base. Looks damn stupid in a defensive structure.

"Jefri!" screamed Johanna, and pointed toward the middle of the unburning section. Pham had a glimpse of something withdrawing behind the stonework.

"I saw him too." Blueshell tilted the boat over and slid downwards, toward the wall. Johanna's hand closed on Pham's arm, pushing and shaking. He could barely hear her voice over the Pilgrim's shouting. "Please, please, please," she was saying.

For a moment it looked like they would make it: Steel's troops were well back from them and — though there were ponds of oil below them — they were not yet alight. Even the air seemed quieter than before. For all that, Blueshell managed to lose control. A gentle tipping went uncorrected, and the boat slid sideways into the ground. It was a slow collision, but Pham heard one of the landing pods cracking. Blueshell played with the controls and the other side of the craft settled to earth. The beamer was stuck muzzle first into the earth.