第27节

escape route, causing them to wheel about

in confusion, swords waving in the air. A fold in the ground blocked

Steve's view of the ensuing clash of arms, and by the time he had

managed to get safely across the river the sight and sounds of battle

had faded.

Yeah, well, you win some, you lose some...

Whichever side carried the day was immaterial to Steve. He had no

reason to believe that renegade Iron Masters treated Mutes any better

than their law-abiding kin. Only one thing mattered: he, Steven

Roosevelt Brickman, was still up and running.

And so was the horse. Once they were .clear of the fire-fight, Steve

had allowed it free rein and it now moved forward purposefully along

the steepening forest trail towards the forbidding ramparts of the rock

tower which Steve had mentally christened 'Big D' in affectionate

memory of Buck McDonnell, the crewcut, granite-jawed Trail Boss on the

wagon-train known as The Lady.

The great stretch of landscape that now lay below and beyond the trees

reminded him of the view from the cockpit of his Skyhawk. His thoughts

drifted back to the moments of danger he had shared with McDonnell and

the rest of the crew during the Battle of the Now and Then River. Jodi

Kazan, his Flight Leader, swept overboard, wrapped in a white-hot ball

of fire while attempting to land her Skyhawk during the height of the

storm. Gus White, fellow-graduate wingman, who had flown away leaving

him to die in a blazing cropfield. And the rest of the flight section

who had all perished on the same fateful day. Booker and Yates,

consumed like moths in a flame when their aircraft were hit by

lightning. Webber, killed in the take-off ramp. Caulfield, his head

transfixed by a crossbow bolt, hauled from the cockpit with his

eyeballs hanging out of their sockets. Ryan plunging to earth,

incinerated on impact by his own planeload of napalm.

Lou Fazetti and Naylor who, seized by a sudden, inexplicable madness,

shot each other down.

By a combination of luck and circumstance, Jodi, her face and neck now

disfigured by scar tissue, had survived with the help of a band of

Tracker renegades. But her luck had run out at the same time as

theirs. She was now in the hands of the Iron Masters and on her way to

Heron Pool. Prior to her capture and trade-in by the clan M'CalI, she

had saved Steve's life, and he had made up his mind to rescue her along

with Cadillac and Clearwater -just as he had vowed to get even with Gus

White. And the others. The people who had conspired to deny him the

graduation honours that were rightfully his. The memory of past

injustices, and the cynical way he had been pressured by the threats

against his kin-sister Roz, put the iron back in his soul.

So many scores to settle. So much still to do...

As the horse emerged above the tree line, Steve looked down towards the

valley. Most of it was obscured by the forested slope he had just

climbed, but he could see, almost directly below him, the stretch of

broken water where the wild bunch had crossed over the river.

From his previous flight experience he judged himself to be some 800

feet above it. The horse moved on, picking its way along an

increasingly precipitous trail through the scrub that clung like a red

foam to frozen cascades of fallen rock.

Trees and rockfaces held no terrors for Steve. He had a good head for

heights and flying like a bird was the greatest thrill of all. But

this was something different. He was not standing on his own two feet

and his hands were not firmly on the controls. He was balanced

precariously on top of a strange beast that might stumble and lose its

balance at any minute. That unsettling thought, plus the constant

swaying back and forth, was making him feel distinctly queasy. More

than once he felt compelled to get off and bring up his snake-meat

breakfast but, by the power of positive thinking, he succeeded in

holding down the bile that kept rising in his throat and stayed on

board.

The horse worked its way slowly towards the eastern flank of the rock

tower. Steve looked up and scanned its weathered face. Big D looked

unassailable - like the man it was named after. The animal must know