DragonKnight - Donita K. Paul [81]
“I see,” Bardon said. “How did our mapmaker glean all this information?”
“He noticed the state of the gateway when he passed through. In a tightly woven structure, you should feel pressure on your lungs as you exit. Of course, I didn’t notice because smaller creatures like me don’t feel the pressure.”
“Now that you mention it, I didn’t feel the usual tightness when I came through. I was distracted by the sight of the bisonbeck and didn’t take note.” And that just proves I’m not as observant as Sir Dar expects me to be. “Do you suppose Granny Kye knows how to weave the border?”
“She says she does not. It takes a wizard.”
“I helped Wizards Cam, Fen, and Lyll Allerion once when they were constructing a huge gateway.”
Jue Seeno eyed him with a speculative gleam. “Do you think you could do it on your own?”
“Not a chance. I needed the other wizards, Kale, and Regidor to even keep up with the weaving.” Bardon looked away from her beady eyes. “What will happen if the gateway unravels before we all get through?”
“Granny Kye thinks those in the passage will be thrown out at different spots along the way. That mapmaker thinks everyone will be annihilated.”
Bardon growled deep in his throat. He hated making decisions with only conjectures to consider. “Neither one knows for sure, so it’s just speculation.”
Jue Seeno spoke softly. “There is One who knows for sure.”
“Thanks for reminding me, Mistress. And He is our guide. We will trust Him to show us what to do.” He placed her on the ground. “Now I shall take your poppers and lead those men on a merry chase. You usher as many of our party as you can through the gateway. When I’ve taken those soldiers far enough away, I’ll double back.”
“The gateway may be in too dilapidated a state at that point for you to come through.”
He shrugged and mimicked her moue. “The fortunes of war, I’m afraid.”
He loaded his pouch with her supply of poppers.
Jue Seeno handed one string of poppers after another to Bardon as she whispered, “That mapmaker says the Himbernese have developed a way to put the black powder from the poppers into a metal tube with a pellet of iron. When the powder explodes, the pellet is propelled with great force out of the tube. To anyone standing in its way, the strike can be most injurious…This popper dust always irritates my skin.” She rubbed her palms over her fur.
Bardon likewise cleaned his fingertips on the rough material of his tunic.
Jue Seeno’s whiskers quivered. “Sounds like a fool toy to me. A pea-shooter is bad enough in the hands of rough and thoughtless boys.”
“It sounds like an ominous weapon to me, Mistress.”
She tilted her head in thought for a moment. “It does, indeed. And a dangerous thing in the hands of rough and thoughtless men.”
Bardon cocked his head, remembering a principle. He decided to paraphrase it instead of quoting. “As is a rock in the hand of one with evil intentions. It is not the rock that is the problem, but the heart of man.”
Jue Seeno smiled at him and nodded.
He slipped away from the camp and stole through the forest to enact the plan that Jue Seeno had communicated to the prisoners. He stopped two hundred yards beyond the last tent and lit a half-dozen poppers, quickly tossing them to the ground. At the sound of their explosions, he darted through the trees and ignited another set.
The plan was for the bisonbecks to follow him. At the sound of the first explosions, Holt and Bromptotterpindosset were to watch for an opportunity to grab weapons and deal with whomever had been left in the camp. N’Rae, her grandmother, and the children were to run to the gateway, with Jue Seeno as their guide, while the two men guarded their retreat.
Bardon heard deep shouts from the camp. The crashing of bulky bodies through the underbrush told him soldiers were in pursuit. He ran a short space, exploded some more of the harmless toys, and ran on. He repeated the pattern, sometimes allowing his pursuers to gain some