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over a rope they d tied to staples driven into two of the trees. City boys.
He snorted. Like a bunch of ants, you kick over their hill.
More flurries of the icy drops hit Shadith in the face, went trickling down
her neck. Tsoukbaraim!
She scraped the wet out of her eyes, pulled her shirt together at the collar
and glared at Silvercreep who was yelling invective at his men while they
fought the canvas and the wind and tried to pin the tarp s edges to the ground
with a handful of wooden pegs.
After they got the improvised tent anchored solidly, the locals went rushing
about the glade collecting their blankets and the pile of firewood. The rain
started com-ing down steadily, the wind driving it at a strong slant.
Shadith thrust two fingers in her mouth and produced a whistle that knifed
through the storm noise.
Hey, she yelled, What about us?
They ignored her, treated the whistle and her screaming like windhowl and
forgot it as they built a new fire under shelter of the canvas and left the
old one to drown in the rain.
Well, that shows what we re worth.
Sar! Bless us Three, pneumonia and catarrh and misery.
A few minutes later one of the locals came out, a smaller piece of
canvas wrapped about him.
Shoulders rounded, the wind at his back snatching at him, making him unsteady
on his feet, he crossed the glade to the cage and settled himself on a root of
the nearest tree, out of reach but close enough to hear them if they moved or
spoke.
Rohant leaned down, his mouth close to Shadith s ear. The needier, you think
it ll penetrate that tarp?
With this wind? I don t know. To say true, I ve had it less than a year, just
took a few practice shots. On a calm day ... she peered at the huddled figure
of the sentry, a blot barely visible in the rapidly diminishing firelight, at
about twice that distance, a needle ll go through an inch of hardwood. I never
tried it on cloth, so I don t know ... anyway, I doubt it would reach him from
here, it s too light to carry well against a blow this strong.
His fingers beat against his thighs, he whistled an irritat-ing two-note
dirge. He was close enough for her to feel the shiver-pulses shaking him. We
wait, he said finally. Let them get to sleep, it shouldn t take long.
Shadith smiled at.the red glint in his narrowed eyes. Tell you what, Ro, take
the cats over with you, and you and Kikun and them clear out my way and I ll
operate on a couple those bars. It rains much harder you can walk right up to
that d dab and tunk him on the head before he knows what s happening.
Shadith stretched out on her stomach and felt at the bars near the ground
because she couldn t see much more than black columns barely blacker and more
solid than the night; they were slick with rain, slimy with debris from the
slow rotting away of the outer layer of wood. She sucked on her teeth and
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thought about that a minute.
Take it slow, Shadow old girl, or you ll be without a hand. Ahlahlah, this mud
is ice.
She pushed up, laid her left leg out straight and drew the knife from
the bootsheath. Holding it carefully away from her, she eased herself onto
her stomach, slithered to the chosen bar and set the cutting edge against
it. Wrist resting on her fist so she wouldn t tremble, she applied pressure
whisper bit by whisper bit. A shake at the wrong time or a shift off the
horizontal and the blade could whip back on itself and slice her hand off.
Slowly, slowly, the knife sank into the wood, cutting through the bar like a
hot wire through butter.
When the blade was nearly through, she let go of the hilt, sloshed onto her
back and lay massaging her wrist, her arms and hands shaking. She tucked her
hands into her armpits and lay with her eyes closed, the rain beating on
her face, until the worst of the tension was out of her.
On her stomach again, she braced her wrist, eased the knife from the wood and
stopped her hand immediately. One, she said aloud.
She dealt with the second pole in the same way, then slid the knife into the
wood again before she tried getting to her feet so she could make the second
cut in each of the bars. Two, she said. She was cold, stiff, suddenly and
desperately tired, but she wasn t going to get warmer or more comfortable, so
she lifted onto her knees, then pulled herself all the way up; when she felt
ready, she bent down, retrieved the knife and, braced herself against the next
bar over, set the edge against the wood and started the freeing cut.
Three. She turned her head, called to Rohant, Any interest in us?
None so far. She could barely hear him through the rain.
She moved cautiously to the second vertical, making sure of her footing before
she shifted her weight.
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