Free Black Spice (Book 3) by James R. Sanford Page B

his feet, and the attacking Baskillian changed his mind, pulling up
short.  Aiyan went at him and he fell back.  Under a furious press of feints
and cuts, he retreated until he backed against a tree, then Aiyan plunged
Ivestris into his chest, the light Baskillian armor useless against it.
    Kyric
looked for Mahai and found that he had vanquished the last guard, the man
running down the path to the large clearing, holding an arm that hung at an odd
angle.
    Lerica
jumped down and flung open the door to the house.  The first room was empty. 
Behind a second door sat three teenagers and an Hariji woman who began
screaming like an animal.  When Lerica tried to shush her, she screamed even
louder, so she punched the woman in the nose and in the eye.  That quieted her.
    There
were two girls, a short one with curls and a button nose, about fourteen years
old, and a willowy seventeen year old with sharp cheekbones and long straight
hair.  A boy with wide, curious eyes, maybe thirteen, sat between them.  They
all scooted away from Lerica, but they brightened when they saw Mahai in the
doorway.
    Speaking
in Avic, Lerica said to Kyric, “Ask them if they drank his blood.  We need to
know.”
    “Even
if they did,” Kyric said, “we’re still taking them.”  But he was afraid to
ask.  If he had lost his gift he didn’t want to know right then.
    “You
must come with us,” Mahai told them in Baskillian, “those who are free are
taking to the boats.”
    The
older girl asked, “Where is Tiblan?  They moved him to another room yesterday.”
    “He
married a Hariji girl,” said Lerica without looking at her.  She hauled the
younger girl to her feet.
    “They’re
coming!” Aiyan called from the front door.  “We have to leave this very
second.”
    Mahai
took the older girl’s hand, and Kyric grabbed the boy by one arm, and they went
out of the wedding house with the Silasese singers in tow.  They trotted down
the path they had come by, Aiyan bringing up the rear.  He had recovered
Kyric’s pistol, and he pointed it down the path to the big clearing and pulled
the second trigger, with booming success this time, dropping the first hunter
in line.
    “That
will give them something to think about,” he said.
    “What’s
your name,” Mahai asked the older girl.
    “I’m
Dinala.  This is Meithu and Rillah,” she said pointing to the boy and girl.
    As
they approached the top of the ladder, Mahai yanked Dinala into the underbrush
and they all followed his lead.
    ‘ Death
guards coming up the ladder ,’ he said-signed.  ‘ Too many to fight .’
    Aiyan
pointed to the north, away from the big clearing.  ‘ Go that way .’
    They
pushed through thick shrubs with leaves the size of elephant ears, but they
only went a hundred paces before they came to the edge of the cliff.  It had
made a sharp turn to the west once it passed the town.  The drop to the forest
floor was nearly a hundred feet.
    They
followed the cliff edge back toward the ocean, looking for a way down and
finding none, and came to where it thrust out before bending around to the
south.  Behind them, Kyric could hear dozens of men beating the bushes.  Out on
the bay, a small flotilla of outrigger canoes were setting sail.  To the north,
scores of Silasese pulled double-hulled boats from their hidden sheds along the
tree line and hauled them toward the shore.  A long, sleek double outrigger
waited on the beach, only fifty yards away if they could get down to it.
    “Should
have gone the other way,” Aiyan said.  “Could have got them out overland.”
    Lerica
stood looking down on a tall palm tree growing close to the cliff.  The top of
it came to within thirty feet of where they stood.
    She
grinned at Kyric, kicking her boots off and tossing them over the cliff.  “I’ll
be back shortly,” she said.
    “Lerica,
what are you — “
    She
took a skipping step to the edge and leaped, arcing toward the palm tree,
hitting its top dead center