Men were massing at the city gate. Aufors picked up his pace and they slogged toward the ship under the cyclopian gaze of the nearest cannon. Though the crowd at the gate grew larger, no one came after them.
“Why did she run?” asked Aufors.
“Somehow, she knew they were coming. The assassins.” He laughed, a little wildly. “I wish she’d given us more notice.”
“The place was attacked?”
“Oh, they attacked right enough. If she hadn’t warned me, they’d have overrun the place, but as it was, she barred the outer door and I got the city door barred just before they came hammering at it. I put a man on the roof, to watch, and he said they were bringing ladders down the street just when the message came to get out. They’ll be in over the roof by now . . .”
His words were lost in a crumping noise that shook the soil beneath them and made them stagger. Over their shoulders they saw the gatehouse disappear behind a cloud of dust and smoke that spewed through the opening in the city wall. The crowd outside the city gate howled.
“The Prince?” cried the Captain from the ramp top.
“He wasn’t there, sir,” answered the com-man. “He’d gone off with the Invigilator, hunting . . .”
As they came up the ramp, the crowd at the city gate screamed itself into a frenzied attack. The man at the slip line tugged it loose and followed them inside where the Captain had men waiting to pull the ramp aboard. As the ship wallowed sluggishly upward under its slowly inflating balloon, they looked down onto the approaching mob, now a sea of blades waving impotently as the ship ascended to the slow hiss of gas being released into the huge bags. Behind the dunes, no one moved, though a few huddled forms still lay there.
The Captain tallied the men aboard and reported to Aufors. “All here but the Prince, the Invigilator, the Marshal, and two guards.”
“And my wife and child,” snapped Aufors. “I can’t believe this attack. It makes no sense at all!”
“You’ll have to make some sense of it, Colonel, for you are now in command,” said the Captain through his teeth.
The com-man from the residence had his head out a port, watching the confused mob below. Aufors grasped his shoulder and pushed him into a seat, then sat across from him and demanded, “Tell me everything that happened after I left. Every detail!”
The man rubbed his head and took a deep breath. “I guess the first thing was a messenger came from the Shah to invite you and the Prince and the Invigilator to go hunting with His Effulgence.”
“Me?” snarled Aufors. “By name?”
“You, sir. By name. Or rank, rather. The Colonel, that’s what the man said. Well, you were out here at the ship. The messenger said they could wait until you returned, but the Prince said he could do without you quite nicely. He was a bit miffed, sir, them asking for you along with him and the Invigilator. Anyhow, off the two of them went with the Shah’s man—”
“Out of which door?” demanded Aufors.
“The desert door, sir. I stood there with the guard, while he mounted and rode out onto the sands. Well, he was no sooner gone than another messenger came to the city door, to invite the lady to walk in the garden again.”
“Aha,” said Aufors.
“Does this mean something?” the Captain asked.
“It would seem they were picking us off a few at a time, wouldn’t it?” Aufors grated. Then, to his informant, “Go on. What next?”
“Let’s see, sir. Ah. I guess the next thing was the Marshal agreed your lady would go. Since the baby-tender was out here with you, the Marshal took the man who was off duty and set him down next the baby. Baby went to sleep. Meantime, your lady was getting herself dressed.”
“When was this?”
“Not long after you left. Well, she was soon dressed, but the escort didn’t come for her. No one came. Well, you know the Marshal, sir. He waits on no man, and he was soon thundering about full of bloody bedamn this and bloody bedamn that, putting on quite a show . . .”