第104节

to think

about it too much . . .

At 3,000 feet the air was noticeably colder. But no doubt things would

soon start to warm up. He joined the others, slipping between them to

take the lead as they drifted westwards, rising on a gentle updraft.

Clearwater waved, Cadillac gave him a thumbs-up sign. Jodi and Kelso

punched the air with their fists; the exultant victory sign used by

TrailBlazers.

Steve responded instinctively. YO!

They'd been lucky. Everyone had pulled their weight, but it was

Clearwater who had saved the day. He'd been lucky too. If the arrow

hadn't hit the strut first it could have gone right through his

thigh.

Sweet Mother! It was really hurting. Still, there wasn't too much

blood. He would survive. And getting it out wouldn't be as bad as

when Cadillac had pulled that crossbow bolt through his arm.

But apart from that - all in all - quite a reasonable start to the

day...

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Clearwater's revenge upon Lord Yama-Shita and his companions was, in a

sense, a hollow victory. Despite being buried in the wreckage, Lord

Kiyo Min-Orota was found to be alive when his body was uncovered. His

escape, with only minor injuries, was viewed by his rescuers as

miraculous. Shigamitsu, the Heron Pool commander, who was only inches

away when the freak earthquake had hit the stand, had been crushed to

death.

The samurai was fortunate to have been granted so swift a demise; had

he lived, Lord Min-Orota would have had him cruelly tortured. Despite

his rank, he would not have been allowed to commit seppuku. He would,

instead, have been treated like a common criminal, forced to endure in

public the grossest indignities that could have been devised.

Even in death he did not escape Min-Orota's vengeful wrath. His

mangled body was beheaded and then quartered. The pieces were hung

from the tiled lintel above the gates to the Heron Pool and his head

impaled on a wooden pole by the entrance, with a placard denouncing his

criminal incompetence. His wife, whose sole crime was her marital

status, was ordered to kill their two children and then herself, and

their bodies were hung alongside his.

In Min-Orota's eyes, the blame for what had happened lay entirely with

the staff of the Heron Pool.

Had they been more vigilant, the long-dogs and their Mute accomplice

could not have staged this unprecedented revolt. He preferred to

ignore his own involvement in the affair, and refused to face the

implications of the terrifying display of demonic powers that had

climaxed the long-dogs' assault.

All surviving members of the Heron Pool staff, the Tracker renegades

who had spent the day confined to their quarters, and the Mute slaves

who had done their cleaning and cooking, were assembled in the compound

under heavy guard. Lined up with them were the soldiers from the

parade detachment. In Min-Orota's eyes they were as guilty as the

rest. It was their cowardly behaviour which had allowed the

perpetrators of this outrage to escape.

When their wrists and feet had been shackled, they were marched out on

to the road by their whip-toting escort and led in single file towards

Bo-sona. Ahead of them, several parties of Mutes were digging

post-holes by the roadside. The holes were set 100 paces apart.

Each time a hole was reached, the column was halted.

The leading man or woman was then forced to take a post from the loaded

cart ahead of them and help plant it firmly in the ground before being

tied to it and left to die an agonising death.

The process, which Lord Min-Orota watched from the comfort of his

carriage, was doubly sadistic, for the remainder of the column was

obliged to march on past the succession of tortured victims - leaving

them in no illusion as to their eventual fate.