Ice Dragon

That was only the first step. Armed parties went out, to clear the grounds of possible surviving soldiers, lay ambushes for any new patrols, provide warning of new attacks, and hopefully hold open a corridor for retreat into the mountains. Working parties set demolition charges all over the clinic, destroyed any written material that could not be removed, packed up anything light enough to carry and valuable enough to be worth salvaging. Those not assigned to either the patrols or the working parties received personal weapons and packed their own gear.

Leyndt now seemed to have fully recovered from her shock, but Blade noticed that her hands sometimes shook for a moment as she bustled about, packing key records and a kit of medical supplies that would enable her to cope with emergencies on the march. Blade recalled that he had never had a chance to complete his explanation of his theory about the aliens, and if he and Leyndt wound up separated, he might have a long search for another, equally reasonable person to talk to about it.

Stramod drove everybody as though Conciliator soldiers were already descending from the sky on them. The ones that had launched the first assault had come in by the back roads in five large trucks, which the patrols discovered as they went out. More than a few people suggested that they use the trucks when they moved out, but Stramod said no. In the trucks the refugees would be far more conspicuous than if they were on foot. Both Nilando and Blade supported Stramod, and the others gave in.

So it was on foot that sixty-odd men and women from the Union headquarters moved out some four hours after the last shot of the battle with the soldiers. Stramod and Blade would have liked to have moved out even sooner, but that would not have been humanly possible. They could only head into the hills and hope the Conciliators had not thrown an impenetrable cordon around the whole area. Stramod doubted it, but Blade was disagreeably aware of war's habit of taking the one thing you most doubted would happen and hitting you over the head with it.

As they passed over the crest of the first hill and started down the path into the wooded valley below, the rear guard still on the crest saw the smoke and flames rise into the sky over the treetops behind them. The demolition charges were going off, and now it mattered little when or whether a Conciliator legion descended on the resort itself, for there would be nothing for it to capture, interrogate, or carry away except blackened rubble.

Stramod turned to Blade as he saw the coiling smoke clouds and shrugged wearily. «That is one chapter in our history closed. But we got the people away safely, thank the High Spirits of the Hills. And with the people, we can go on. If they had all been burning in that smoke and flame…» He left the thought unfinished and turned away to scuttle down the hill and resume his place at the head of the line. After a moment's further looking, straining his eyes to see if he could catch a glimpse of low-passing fliers, Blade shouldered his beamer, readjusted the straps of his heavy pack, and moved on in his assigned place at the rear of the line.

They were well down in the valley and the day was drawing toward evening before they heard the whistle of fliers overhead. But those were not the danger, for they could not land on anything except flat, clear ground or water; Blade knew that the Graduki had never invented the helicopter. Pursuit on foot was another matter. Although Conciliator soldiers tended to be city-bred and therefore indifferent woodsmen, so were most of the Union people. It was at Nilando's suggestion that those few who had camping or hunting experience, or came from farms, were placed at the rear of the line to wipe away as much of the traces of their passage as possible. Otherwise, as Nilando put it, «a blind and half-witted girl-child could follow us.» Apart from that, there was little to do but keep going, to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the abandoned resort, certain to be the first goal of the enemy.

The Union people kept going, in fact, until it was almost too dark to find a proper campsite. Many of the people were by now so exhausted that they simply staggered to a convenient patch of ground, unrolled their sleeping bags, and fell asleep without further movement. But Stramod posted sentries, and when he had made the rounds of the sentry posts, he called Blade, Nilando, and Leyndt aside for a private conference.

He repeated what he had said to Blade earlier: the need to find safety in flight to the Treduki. But how? Even assuming they could evade the searches for that length of time, it would take several months to reach Treduk territory on foot. Such a trek would be as far beyond the abilities of most of the people as would be swimming an ocean. Nor did a voyage by sea hold much more promise. To reach the coast they would have to travel for several days through the most heavily populated area of the Graduk lands and then steal a ship without detection and travel north for more than a week without being over taken by Conciliator ships or fliers. And even if they reached the coasts of the Treduk lands, they would have no few days' march overland before them still; Graduk raids from the sea had driven the Treduki well inland. (Nilando nodded grimly at this, and for the first time seemed to be feeling some resentment at having to cooperate so much with the sworn enemies of his people.)

But, among the pilots assigned to a flier base on a lake less than two days' march away, there were four who were Union members. Two or at most three of the fliers would be enough to carry every person in the group as far north as Tengran. There they could hide or if necessary destroy the fliers and vanish into the woods, at least if the Treduki would hide them. The base was of course well guarded, and entering it and finding both the pilots and fully fueled fliers would be a risky proposition. But unless the Union elsewhere was still by some miracle strong enough to provide them with a hiding place, they had no real alternative.

«And,» went on Stramod wearily, «if we wait to find out for certain what has happened to the Union elsewhere, it may be too late for us. None of the messages sent out received any replies, which leads me to think the worst. Here we have the most important part of the Union, at least for the moment, and it must be saved.»

Nilando nodded; Blade kept his peace. He knew he and Nilando would come more into their own when they had reached the Treduk lands. Meanwhile, he was prepared to leave the leadership to Stramod, who had all the selfconfidence and gambler's temperament the situation demanded. But Leyndt had her own objections.

«Whatever we must do ca

«I thought you had injections-«

«They will not create energy where none exists. When the time comes to take the base, well and good. But now they must restore themselves by natural means. That is my professional opinion as a doctor, as well as a leader of the Union. And I speak for the good of the Union.»

Stramod's face clouded, but he nodded in recognition of both her facts and her position. Then he shrugged. «Very well. We will not stay in one place tomorrow, however, if I have to carry all the people on my back. Do you think they can march as far as the end of this valley?» He sketched out a route with a gesture across the unfolded map on his lap.

«I suppose so.»

«Good. From there on to the base-«his hand moved to the northern end of a large lake «-is mostly open country. We will do well to cross as much of it as possible at night. And we will have to contact our people at the base and make plans for penetrating it and boarding the fliers. But that, I agree, can wait a day or two.» He stretched, lifting his u