Read Implied Spaces for Free Online

moment in one green-skinned hand, then reared back and pitched the rock up into the grey sky. They all watched as it fell onto a granite pinnacle two hundred paces distant. There was a thud, and a cry, and a clatter as of a weapon dropped over the edge.
    “Good shot!” said Grax, impressed rather in spite of himself.
    “There’s one more.” Nadeer chose another rock, hurled it. There was a clang, and then they saw a body pitch off the crag, landing some thirty paces below.
    Aristide looked at the ogre. “Your depth perception,” he said, “is better than I expected.”
    Nadeer dusted his hands. Aristide turned his attention once more to the valley below.
    “We’re going to have to keep them from getting above us,” he said. “May I suggest small parties to secure each height before the main body arrives?”
    They grumbled about that, and Grax pointed out that his Free Companions were mounted soldiers, not mountain goats. But in the end they worked out an arrangement, much as Aristide had suggested, and the convoy again began to advance.
    Hours passed before every beast and cart at last began the precarious descent into the Vale, and then finally a rest halt was called with the convoy stretched along the headwaters of the Cashdan River, with every beast and every person within easy reach of water. It was impossible to laager, because there was no single place level enough to hold the entire body. On the other hand the possibilities of attack were severely limited, and the air was fresh and cool. Dry tongues, dry skins, rejoiced.
    The convoy continued its slow crawl down the escarpment, crossing and re-crossing a river that grew louder and more swift as streams running in from the side-canyons contributed more water. Two horses and a lizard were swept away, but their riders were saved. The clouds fled and the green hills of Gundapur, full of vines and the shimmer of olive trees, were now visible below them. The silver river cast its loops back and forth across the fields, with the sultan’s road a straight brown line across the land.
    Two more rest stops had been called before the caravan ran into trouble. One of the advanced parties, sent to secure a ridge above the track, was repelled by a shower of arrows and rocks. Nothing daunted, Nadeer reinforced the party and tried again. Advancing under the cover of their own archers, and aided by Nadeer’s remarkable throwing arm, the party pushed the bandits off the ridge, and onto another fold of higher ground beyond, where they remained, watching and jeering.
    The engagement was over by the time Aristide arrived. He had been in the middle of the convoy when the fight broke out, helping one of the immigrants with the repair of his cart, and by the time he managed to ride to the head of the column, threading between carts and camels, the fight was over. He left his horse under the care of one of Grax’s lieutenants and scrambled up the ridge, where he was in time to dissuade Nadeer from launching another attack on the enemy survivors.
    “They can always retreat to the next ridge beyond,” he pointed out. “And they know this country better than we do. You could run into an ambush.”
    “Wretched bags of ratpiss!” Nadeer lisped, referring no doubt to the bandits.
    An arrow protruded from one shoulder, where it had penetrated his armor but failed to pierce his hide. He wrenched it out with a petulant gesture.
    “I want them crushed!” he said.
    “You’ll get your chance soon, I think,” Aristide said. “I expect there will be more of them soon. These were intended to attack us in flank when the main body hit us somewhere else.”
    Nadeer’s single eye turned to him. “Are you certain of this?”
    “No. I claim no more than the average amount of precognition. But it’s logical—these weren’t numerous enough to fight our whole force, and they must have known we were coming.”
    Nadeer glared at the bandits on the next ridge. “If we move on, it will