“Oh, yes,” Roald said. “Probably more than one. Probably not finished yet, or they’d be all over us/’
“A tunnel could just as easily come in on this side of the wall,” she whispered, looking around to be sure that no one else heard her. “It could come out below the town. Have you thought of that?”
Roald nodded wearily. “Lady Westriding, we’ve thought of that and of three or four other things that would be equally dreadful. People are beginning to talk about the winter quarters, how long they could hold them against a Hippae assault.”
“So, if the tunnel isn’t finished, what will the Hippae do next?”
“Burn the estancias,” he replied, “just as they did Opal Hill. That’s one of the things we figured out while you were out there enticin’ the Hippae. We all agreed. Given their nature, if they can’t get in here yet, they’ll start fires.”
“Has anyone warned the estancias?”
He buried his head in his hands. “Nobody’s had time! And who are they going to listen to? Obermum bon Damfels? They might believe her. They certainly won’t believe me.”
Marjorie went away to make copies of the letter, to get Tony onto the Star-Lily, and to find Rowena.
No one answered the tell-me at Klive. At the bon Laupmons’, someone answered but declined to respond either to the information that Taronce had survived or that the estancia should be evacuated. At Stane, however, after learning that both Dimoth and Vince were dead, Geraldria bon Maukerden begged Rowena to send whatever help would come from Commoner Town to evacuate the house and village. Mayor Bee already had all available aircars and trucks going to all the villages, the bon Damfels village included.
“The damned bons can char on their own griddle if they want to,” he snarled. “But we’ll get our village people out.”
It was too late to get them out of Klive. Even before the tunnel had been blown up, Hippae had attacked Klive. There were no people left alive there, not in the estancia, not in the village, except one man, Figor, found wandering among the charred houses, a laser knife in his hands.
When she heard the news, Rowena wept, wiping the tears away with her left hand. The right arm and shoulder were in a Heal-all, mending. “Emmy’s here,” she said. “Amy’s here. Shevlok’s here, alive in a way. Figor will be all right. But oh, I grieve for Sylvan. And my cousins. And old Aunt Jem.”
No one had time to grieve with her. There had been a trail leading from Klive to the swamp forest. All the Hippae on Grass seemed to be congregating there.
The evacuation fleet shuttled back and forth across the prairies, continuing even after fires sprung up at Stane and at Jorum, the estancia of the bon Bindersen’s. Obermun Kahrl and Obermum Lisian refused to leave the bon Bindersen estancia, but their children, Traven and Maude, left willingly enough with the people of the village and many others from the big house.
At the bon Haunser place, Eric joined the evacuees along with Jason, the Obermun’s son. Felitia had died outside the bon Laupmon walls, during what Rigo had come to remember as “The Joust.”
The bon Laupmon place was totally destroyed before the cars arrived, though the commoners had cut a fire break around the village and, armed with harvesting knives, were standing fast with their livestock. At the bon Smaerloks’, the drivers were told that the bons had gone hunting with the bon Tanligs. All of them, even the old folks. A vast crowd of hounds and mounts had showed up early on Hunt morning, and every occupant of the estancias had gone a-hunting. The only people left in the estancias were children. The children and the villagers were evacuated; a wide Hippae trail led from the estancias toward Commons.
The order station became the nerve center for Commons. From there one could see what went on at the port and receive messages from approaching ships. From there one could direct the defenses if Hippae came in through some other tunnel-In the winter quarters below the order station a makeshift hospital was set up to house Rowena, Stella, Emmy, Shevlok, Figor, and a dozen others who had been badly injured before or during the evacuation. People with only superficial injuries were treated and dismissed. When the last of them had been attended to, Lees Bergrem insisted upon going back through the gates to the hospital with several of her assistants.