Players of the Game. Graeme Talboys K.

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СКАЧАТЬ as they began to climb. Dust rose from her mount’s feet and loose stones began to clatter back down the steep incline. It was slower going than she had hoped and by the time they reached the top, there was no one to be seen.

      Behind her she heard other horses climbing the slope and turned in her saddle to see. Dust drifted away from the track and dispersed northward on the breeze. She looked back that way, surprised at how much could be seen from the top of the bank. Taking advantage of the few seconds left to her, she turned the other way and looked directly across the valley, checking for hazards and hiding places.

      There seemed to be none, but she didn’t have much time to be sure before Tohmarz, Alltud and two others appeared, urging their horses up onto the flat area at the top where she waited. Ignoring them, she turned and looked eastward, standing in her stirrups for more height.

      Tohmarz drew up alongside her. ‘I really must ask you not to do that again,’ he said.

      Jeniche was surprised at the mildness of the request, but did not take her eyes off what she could see.

      ‘Your mysterious snooper again, I suppose?’

      ‘No. That is, there was someone.’ Without moving her gaze from the horizon, she pointed to clear tracks on the ground. ‘A horse went that way just a few minutes ago. You could probably track it if you wanted. But a rider could easily hide in these broken lands.’

      She sat down, still staring intently into the distance, aware of Tohmarz and the others taking in the landscape. At first glance it seemed like a flat expanse, but it was cut through as far as the eye could see with gullies and ravines, the tops of trees showing where depressions offered shelter for all sorts of plants from the winter winds. And people. It would take them months to search. Ultimately a pointless exercise as it would be easy for someone to move about unseen in the dark.

      ‘If not your phantom watcher …?’ Tohmarz let the half-asked question tell her he had been paying attention.

      She pointed. Alltud drew up beside her and leaned across so he could squint along her arm. He straightened and the pair of them exchanged a worried glance.

      ‘Shit.’

      ‘What?’ Tohmarz sounded alarmed.

      Jeniche swapped arms so that Tohmarz could look to where she was pointing.

      ‘I don’t see… That speck? A bird?’

      ‘No.’

      They watched until their eyes began to water. Jeniche heard Tohmarz sigh just before he turned his horse and walked the few steps back to the top of the slope. He called out a series of orders and she heard the troop respond.

      ‘You two,’ he said. ‘Stay close to me.’

      With that he disappeared down the slope.

      Jeniche and Alltud looked at each other, looked back at the approaching speck, and then followed Tohmarz down the loose, stony scree. By the time they reached the track, the troop had split and was dispersing. One group was at full gallop heading south, another already trotting after them. They joined the third group as they made off in the opposite direction until they reached a ravine they had passed earlier in the afternoon.

      Tohmarz stayed on the road, watching as his troop disappeared into their three separate hiding places. Once he was sure they were off the track, he rode with Jeniche and Alltud into their chosen hideaway. The group that had ridden in here were already dismounted and the horses were being led up under the trees, staying as close to the mouth of the ravine as they could.

      Once they had settled, Tohmarz walked the line to ensure all were well concealed. Jeniche had no doubt the sub-commanders of the other groups were doing the same. She watched with interest. They had clearly done this before.

      It was a long wait, but no one broke ranks. Tohmarz came back and joined Jeniche and Alltud. They sat in silence in the shade of a tree close to the mouth of the ravine and listened. Eventually, a faint buzz reached them. It might have been one of the bees that drifted in the sage bushes just behind them near the crest of the rise, but the pitch was more insistent and never once broke off. Before long it drowned out the sound of the tiny, dark honey makers.

      In the warm afternoon, the heat drained out of Jeniche and she sat miserable and cold as the airship passed close by. It had approached from the west and now, as they watched, swung sharply round at the valley’s edge to cut back across at an angle all the time heading slowly north.

      ‘Searching,’ said Tohmarz, perhaps to himself.

      A scrabbling sound came from further up the ravine, stones rolling down a slope. One of the riders approached. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘The surface gave under me.’

      ‘Any dust?’

      ‘No, sir.’

      ‘All right, go on.’

      ‘No other ships in sight and this one didn’t slow or set down at all.’

      Tohmarz dismissed the man with a wave and turned his attention back to the valley just as the airship swung round on the far side.

      They watched two more sweeps of the terrain, the airship pulling slowly further away from them, conscious always that any move on their part would be seen straight away from that altitude.

      Moving cautiously, they climbed the opposite side of the ravine and lay with just their heads over the top, peering between some thorn bushes. The airship was on their side of the valley again, moving more slowly, almost drifting with the breeze. Swinging round, it turned to face them. For a moment they tensed, half expecting it to head back in their direction. Then they heard faint firecracker sounds.

      Jeniche closed her eyes and lowered her head. ‘Bastards.’

      ‘What?’

      ‘They’re not searching,’ she said, looking up again. ‘They’re hunting.’ She turned her head to look at Tohmarz. ‘You’ve heard that before, haven’t you? Seen those ships. Faced those killers.’

      More mosket fire reached them. The ship shuddered, swinging round again and losing height. Lines were dropped, tiny figures sliding down, moving on the ground. His face a mask of stone, Tohmarz made no reply.

      Jeniche turned away, from Tohmarz, from the slaughter. Perhaps the Occassans had seen some goats and were replenishing their larder. Perhaps. She thought of the small huddle of refugees, of the look in the child’s eyes. All the more reason to run.

      It was several hours before it was safe to move. The ship had remained anchored for a while and then resumed its pursuit northwards, back and forth across the valley. Once it was completely out of sight, the troop reassembled and they galloped south until the horses needed to rest.

      There were no fires that night, which suited Jeniche and Alltud. And the Moon wouldn’t be up until much later if it could be seen at all. As they had ridden up out of the valley onto the southern end of the broken lands, the sun had set, painting the southern cloud with gory colour, bruised reds fading through a charred brown to heavy darkness. For a while, the air had grown oppressive and they had seen flickers of lightning along the horizon.

      Thin forest was their only shelter; deep shadows and a heavy layer of pine needles. On Tohmarz’s order they СКАЧАТЬ