Now Kit saw that three other men had materialized from the mist to join the original group. They were the leaders of this business, she realized. Two were elves, or half-elves, Kit guessed by how they held themselves, while the third was a dark-robed mage who stood apart from the others, his eyes glowing with concentration, lips moving, hands fluttering.

"No. Untie the black-haired one. She comes with us," said one of the elves, pointing to Kitiara. "Kill the other."

"What is her connection?" asked the other elf.

"She had the sword," said the first elf. "Let her answer for it."

He stepped forward, his eyes sweeping the area. Beck's sword, newly wrapped in leaves, lay at Kit's feet. In the darkness it was camouflaged. The elf, frowning and taking a step forward, did not see it.

Kit got a good look at him. It was the dark elf who had been watching her on board the Silver Gar. Somehow he had picked up her trail and followed her. But why?

"We must find it," the dark elf said tersely.

The mist surrounding them was now so thick that Kit could no longer see more than a dozen yards ahead of her. She could hear Ursa grunt as he was dragged to his feet. Colo whispered at her back.

"Get ready!"

Ready for what?

The peasant guarding Colo drew his curved dagger.

The mist was almost suffocating. But something more, it began to pulse and swirl, and then to swirl faster, creating a wind that whirled at terrific speed. A low, almost whining noise built to a din and then into a deafening roar. A roar so horrendous that Kit's one thought was not to escape but to break her bonds and clasp her hands over her ears. Leaves and branches broke off and flew past her. Debris whacked her in the face.

Through it all, strangely, she heard the low murmuring of the mage.

Kit felt her feet lifted off the ground by the force of a powerful current. She heard someone's sharp groan, then the sound of a body hitting the ground. "Now!" Colo shouted in her ear.

All of a sudden, Kit was cut free. She bent and groped for her sword hilt. Grasping it, she started toward where Ursa had been-Kit could no longer see him. The whirlwind knocked her off the feet, flattening her on the ground. Colo grabbed Kit from behind, and when she tried to get up again, the tracker held her down on the ground.

"Don't be a fool!" Colo screamed into her ear above the roar. "Stay down. Roll this way as fast as you can!"

Kitiara could just barely make out the female mercenary in front of her, rolling and crawling and snaking to the right.

Suddenly the maelstrom exploded in full force, sweeping everything up into itself. Even as Kit tried to follow after Colo she was being sucked back toward the clearing and worse, pulled aloft. Her fingers clawed into the dirt. Futile. All manner of things boiled past her, ascending-weapons and horses and flailing bodies.

The slig's head.

"Grab on!" yelled Colo.

Kit could see that the diminutive warrior had dropped into a small ravine and was clinging with one arm to a giant root. With her free hand she grabbed Kit's ankle. The force of the gale was such that both women's bodies were linked in a line, fully extended.

Kit heard the cries of men all around her. She had to close her eyes against the dust and dirt flying into them. She had to gasp painfully to draw a single breath. Through it all she felt Colo's steady grip on her ankle.

A rock hurtled up and hit Kitiara square in the temple, and she blacked out. The last thing she heard-or thought she heard-was a violent explosion.

Kitiara woke up, cold water splashing on her face. She was lying on her back on the banks of the river and looking up into the face of Colo, who was crouched beside her, water cupped in her hands. Kit gave a start as everything-the slig hunt, the ambush, the destructive gale-came back to her.

"Shh!" whispered Colo.

Kit propped herself up on her elbows. This didn't look entirely familiar. "Where am I?" she asked.

"About half a mile from where we were," said Colo, still whispering.

"How…?"

"I had to drag you! Now be quiet or you'll give us away!"

In a daze Kit heard distant tramping in the underbrush, muffled voices arguing, horses riding off. After what seemed an eternity, the noises tapered away, and she and Colo were surrounded by silence.

"What-" she began anew.

"Quiet," ordered Colo, placing her hand over Kit's mouth for emphasis. "Sleep now. In the morning…"

They went behind some rocks. Colo covered Kit with a layer of branches and leaves so that she couldn't be easily seen and then made a similar blind for herself. As she fell asleep, trying to piece together what had happened, Kit was aware of Colo's watchful eyes peering out from the camouflage.

Kit woke early the next morning. Colo was on her haunches next to her, throwing her dice and bones and muttering to herself.

They were on the edge of the woods, near the bend of the river where the four mercenaries had first begun tracking the slig the previous day. Obviously, the menace had passed, for Colo had no compunction about being spotted.

"Who were that bunch? What did they do with Ursa?" Kit asked insistently. "Will you please tell me what has happened? Why did that mage summon a whirlwind?"

"I don't know," Colo stopped her soothsaying and answered grimly.

"How did you-we-manage to escape?"

Colo smiled slyly. "When they came upon us, I had my hand in Cleverdon's bag and was able to grab one of the poison blow darts that I knew he carried. It was tiny enough to fit into my hand and slip in my mouth. I waited for the right moment, when the stupid man who was going to kill me reached for his weapon. I spit it into his face. The poison is fast-acting, and in the confusion we were able to get away. Some of them tried to find us afterward but couldn't, because I dragged you downstream."

"Where are they now?"

"I think they have given up," said Colo. "Now it's our turn to look for them." She had walked to the riverbank and bent over to sip some water from her hands. "Drink some," Colo advised. "It'll be good for you."

Both drank their fill. Colo thought it best if they were to stay away from the river during daylight, and double back to the site of the whirlwind by a roundabout way through the forest.

They had one sword-Beck's-which Kitiara had managed, to hold onto during the entire episode. Setting off through the brush, they took turns with it now, hacking away undergrowth wherever their path was impeded.

After a short but grueling press through the forest, Kit recognized the general vicinity where they had tied the horses the day before. There were majestic trees with yellow leaves and some clearings dotted with bare rock. Coming into one of the clearings, she and Colo stopped dead in their tracks at the sight that awaited them.

Cleverdon-Droopface-hung from a tall tree, his body stark naked, covered with cuts and oozing pus and blood. The look on his pathetic face was almost peaceful, but his eyes had been dug out. They lay on the ground at his feet where some birds had pecked at them.

Beneath him to one side was faithful Cinnamon, staked out on the ground and horribly flayed. She lay on one side, her flank skinned so that her innards lay exposed, rotting in the sun. Droopface had been killed before he'd been hung, but Cinnamon had died slowly, tortuously bleeding to death while woodland scavengers feasted on her.

Kitiara couldn't bear to look at the sight. She fell to her knees, covering her face with her hands, fighting nausea.