Night came down.

Ning Chen stopped beside a stream.

He got down off the horse and his thighs shook under him, both legs trembling as though he had a fever.

He wasn’t much of a rider, and the whole way at a gallop had rubbed the insides of his thighs raw.

He reckoned he was something like thirty miles from the imperial city by now.

On a warhorse he could have taken the highway, which would have been faster… but he was afraid of being run down.

So he had kept to the back roads instead.

By the time he got this far, man and horse were both spent.

He stopped to let the horse get at the water weed. He himself was in a bad way — he had left in too much of a hurry to bring food or water.

He watched the water a while. It was too shallow, and he couldn’t see any fish in it.

Nothing else for it. He set a simple snare in the trees beside the stream and hoped for a rabbit or a bird.

At least he had a fire striker on him.

He built a fire, pulled the heavy cloak tight around him, and fell into a doze against a tree.

He had barely been under when the horse began to whinny, restless and unhappy.

It jolted him awake. He turned his head. The warhorse was agitated, snorting through its nose, pawing at the ground over and over.

Before he understood it, a wolf howled and every muscle in him tightened.

Christ… From the sound of that, it isn’t far off.

Ning Chen went over fast, untied the rein, and slapped the horse on the rump. “Go.”

An old horse knows the road. He trusted it to find its own way home.

It was a warhorse and he didn’t want it ending up inside a wolf… and it was far too conspicuous besides. Anybody could pick it out. He had been meaning to send it back anyway.

The warhorse went off at a run.

Ning Chen built the fire up. Wolves are afraid of fire.

Then he got himself up the big tree behind him, and quickly.

After a while something moved in the long grass some way off. The weeds shivered.

The wolves were here.

There was a fire below him and he was up a tree, and he was still nervous.

Wolves are treacherous and sly and extremely intelligent, and they fight very well together.

The weeds swayed, and several wolves put their heads out of the grass.

They were afraid of the fire and wouldn’t come near it. They watched all around them, wary, looking for something to kill.

From up in the tree Ning Chen could see it all clearly. Pair after pair of vicious eyes giving off a green glow that turned his stomach, and saliva coming down between the sharp teeth.

Wolves are very patient.

They will follow a kill for days on end.

Ning Chen held his breath. He had no wish to draw the pack.

All he had was a dagger. If they settled on him he would have a very hard time getting away.

If only I had a gun.

If I get out of this alive I am going to find a way to build one… Anything carbon-based can be shot dead.

Then his foot slipped and he nearly came out of the tree, and the fright brought the cold sweat out all over him.

The noise of it told the pack he was there.

Low growls started up, one after another.

Ning Chen smiled without any humor in it. When it rains, it pours.

The tree was safe enough, though. Wolves can’t climb.

There were a dozen or more of them. They circled the fire, growling low, watching Ning Chen up in the branches.

That was how he got through to first light.

He was tired and hungry and worn past bearing.

Hold on a little longer. Daylight will fix it.

Then hooves, coming this way.

Everything in him tightened. He stood up in the tree and looked out.

Several men on horseback were riding toward him.

When they were nearer he saw them properly, and dropped into a crouch at once, keeping the trunk between himself and them.

Five of them, in fish-scale coats, long swords at their hips.

These were Inspectorate men.

Ning Chen knew the Inspectorate answered to the Xuan Emperor and to nobody else.

He had injured the Fifth Prince. The emperor had sent them to take him, without a doubt.

He had lost too much time here. They must have followed the hoofprints in.

“Chief. Ashes here.”

One of them said it, swung down, and went over to the ashes. He put a hand to them. “Still warm. He can’t have gone far.”

Don’t look up. Whatever you do, don’t look up. One glance upward and the man would have him.

If he did look up, Ning Chen’s only move was to drop on him and finish it… and then what about the other four?

Inspectorate men were first-rate fighters, every one of them. His own body had come a long way in the last few days… but four of them at once was not a fight he could win.

Then he noticed something. The wolves were gone.

He looked out at the long grass, and from up there he could see them exactly — the whole pack lying hidden in it.

Sly animals.

They had settled on the five Inspectorate men.

The one crouched over the ashes had his back squarely to them.

Sure enough, one of the wolves picked its moment, came out of the grass with its jaws wide, and went for the back of his neck.

The man could fight. He placed it by sound alone, rolled where he was without thinking, came out from under the wolf, and got up on his feet with the sword already clear of the scabbard.

The wolf had missed and did not try again. It arched its back and growled low in its throat.

“Careful, all of you. There’s a pack.”

The man in charge shouted it, held his frightened horse, drew his sword with one hand, and took a crossbow off the saddle with the other.

A wolf howled.

A dozen and more came out of the grass at once.

The horses went wild, whinnying, and nearly threw the men still on them.

“All of you. Off the horses.”

The man in charge gave the order.

The Inspectorate men swung down and closed up at once, back to back, watching the pack come in around them.

One wolf sprang high and came at them.

Their chief raised the crossbow and loosed.

THWIP.

The bolt went through the air with a tearing sound and took the wolf in the head. Dead on the one shot.

The smell of blood made the pack worse.

One after another they came at the men.

More bolts tore the air.

These men could all shoot. Three wolves went down at once.

But a crossbow has one great weakness. It sends one bolt at a time, and reloading takes time.

The wolves were not going to give them any.

The Inspectorate men had to drop the crossbows and fight with the swords.

The wolves were savage. It often took several cuts to kill one.

But they could all fight and they knew how to fight together, and not one of them was hurt.

Ning Chen was watching the whole time for his chance to get away.

Then somebody screamed.

Ning Chen looked down. The man who had checked the ashes had a wolf on his arm and another on his leg, both of them tearing.

He had been fighting on his own, cut off, with four wolves around him.

He could fight. He put a bolt through one and cut another down in two strokes… but the last two came at him front and back, and working them both wore him out, and one slip put him on the ground.

The wolf was tearing at his arm for all it was worth, and he couldn’t keep hold of the sword.

The other Inspectorate men tried to get to him and could not. The rest of the pack had them ringed.

Something moved in Ning Chen’s eyes. These men were strong. The pack could not do anything with them, and finishing the wolves was only a matter of time.

If not now, when?

Ning Chen slid down the trunk and got ready to slip away.

(End of Chapter 30)