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jarred her knee and ankle, and her attacker cried out and fell to his
knees.
Then she was away and ru
without purpose or direction. She ran simply to get as far from them as
her flying legs would carry her. Then gradually she brought her panic
under control. She glanced back, but saw nobody following her.
As she reached the edge of the lake she slowed her run to conserve her
strength, and she became aware of the warm trickle of her own blood down
her arm and then dripping from her finger-tips.
She stopped.and rested her back against the rough hole of one of the
palms while she tore a strip of cloth from her ripped blouse and
hurriedly bound up her arm. She was shaking so much from shock and
exertion that even her uninjured hand was fumbling and clumsy. She
knotted the crude bandage with her teeth and left hand, and the bleeding
slowed.
She was uncertain of which way to run, and then she saw the dim
lamplight. in the window of Alia's shack across the nearest irrigation
canal. She pushed herself away from the palm trunk and started towards
it. She had covered less than a hundred paces when a voice called from
the grove behind her, speaking in Arabic, "Yusuf, has the woman come
your way?"
immediately an electric torch flashed from the darkness ahead of her and
another voice called back, "No, I have not seen her."
Another few seconds and Royan would have run full into him. She crouched
down and looked around her desperately. There was another torch coming
through the grove behind her, following the path she had taken. It must
be the man she had kicked, but she could tell by the motion of the torch
beam that he had recovered and was moving swiftly and easily again.
She was blocked on two sides, so she turned back along the edge of the
trail. The road lay that way. She might be able to meet a late vehicle
travelling on it. She lost her footing on the rough ground and went
down, bruising and scraping her knees, but she jumped up again and
hurried on. The second time she stumbled, her outthrust left hand landed
on a round, smooth stone the size of an orange. When she went on she
carried the stone with her; as a weapon it gave her a glimmer of
comfort.
Her wounded arm was begi
Duraid. She knew he was badly wounded, for she had seen the direction
and force of the knife thrust. She had to find help for him. Behind her
the two men with torches were sweeping the grove and she could not keep
her lead ahead of them. They were gaining on her - she could hear them
calling to each other.
She reached the road at last, and with a small whimper of relief climbed
out of the drainage ditch on to the pale gravel surface. Her legs were
shaking under her so that they could hardly carry her weight, but she
turned in the direction of the village.
She had not reached the first bend before she saw a set of headlights
coming slowly towards her, flickering through the palm trees. She broke
into a run down the centre of the road.
"Help me!" she screamed in Arabic. "Please help me!'
The car came through the bend and before the headlights dazzled her she
saw that it was a small, darkcoloured Fiat. She stood in the centre of
the road waving her arms to halt the driver, lit by the headlights as
though she were on a theatre stage. The Fiat stopped in front of her,
and she ran round to the driver's door and tugged at the handle.
"Please, you must help me."
The door was opened from within, and then was thrown back with such
force that she staggered off-balance.
The driver leapt out into the roadway and caught her by the wrist of the
injured arm. He dragged her to the Fiat and pulled open the back door.
"Yusuf! Bacheed' he shouted into the dark grove. "I have her." And she
heard the answering cries and saw the torches turn in their direction.
The driver was forcing her head down and trying to push her into the
back seat, but she realized then that she still had the stone in her
good hand. She turned slightly and braced herself, and then swung her
fist with the stone still clenched in it against the side of his head.
It caught him squarely on the temple.
Without another sound he dropped to the gravel surface and lay
motionless.
Royan dropped the stone and pelted away down the road, but she found
that she was ru
lit her every movement.
The two men in the grove shouted again and came up on to the gravel
roadway behind her, almost shoulder to shoulder.
Glancing back, she saw them gaining on her swiftly, and she realized
that her only chance was to get off the road and back into the darkness.
She turned and plunged down the bank. Immediately she found herself
waist-deep in the waters of the lake.
In the darkness and the confusion she had become disorientated. She had
not realized that she had reached the point where the road skirted the
embankment at the water's edge. She knew that she did not have time to
climb back on to the road, and she knew also that there were thick
clumps of papyrus and reeds ahead of her, that might give her shelter.
She waded out until the bottom sloped away steeply under her feet, and
she found herself forced to swim. She broke into an awkward
breast-stroke, hampered by her skirts and her injured arm. However, her
slow and stealthy movements created almost no disturbance on the
surface, and before the men on the road had reached the point where she
had descended the bank, she reached a dense stand of reeds.
. She eased her way into the thick of them and let herself sink. Before
the water covered her nostrils she felt her toes touch the soft ooze of
the lake bottom. She stood there quietly, with just the top of her head
above the surface and her face turned away from the bank. She knew her
dark hair would not reflect the light of a probing torch.
Though the water covered her ears, she could make out the excited voices
of the men on the road. They had turned their torches down towards the
water and were shining them into the reeds, searching for her. For a
moment one of the beams played full on her head, and she drew a deep
breath ready to submerge, but the beam moved on and she realized that
they had not picked her out.
The fact that she had not been seen even in the direct torchlight
emboldened her to raise her head slightly until one ear was clear and
she could make out their voices.
They were speaking Arabic, and she recognized the voice of the one named
Bacheet. He appeared to be the leader, for he was giving the orders.
"Go in there, Yusuf, and bring the whore out."
She heard Yusuf slipping and sliding down the bank and the splash as he
hit the water.
"Further out," Bacheet ordered him. "In those reeds there, where I am
shining the torch."
"It is too deep. You know well I ca
"There! Right in front of you. In those reeds. I can see her head."
Bacheet encouraged him, and Royan dreaded that they had spotted her. She
sank down as far as she could below the surface.
Yusuf splashed around heavily, moving towards where she cowered in the
reeds, when suddenly there was a thunderous commotion that startled even