They went pell-mell, pulling their stumbling comrades up with the line as they ran, and the back runners were virtually dragged along. Suddenly the air was full of harsh cries, and a number of dark shapes descended upon them. It was a fierce onslaught on slaves and slavers alike. The screams of the injured echoed round in the forest. Auma felt sharp claws strike back at her back. She bared her teeth, snapping at the thing that was attacking her.

“Help, help! Eeee!”

Caught by several of the strange attackers, Skan the shrew began to rise into the air. He screamed and kicked for dear life. Tim and Mattimeo felt the slaveline straining and dragging them back as Skan was pulled upwards. Auma turned and grasped the rope in her teeth. Aided by Tim and Mattimeo, she tugged sharply. Skan fell to earth with a bump, but even this quick action had not saved him. Auma seized the limp form and swung it across her broad back.

*   *   *

Rushing from the forest, they found themselves on the broad shores of a wide river, it glimmered and waved in the starlight. Slagar stood by a broad trench covered with boughs urging them on.

“Come on, in here, hurry!”

Gratefully they threw themselves under its protection. Most of the slavers had already arrived, and they sat shivering and breathless. Slagar was the last to enter. “Scringe, Vitch, cover each end of this trench,” he ordered. “Keep yourselves awake, and keep an eye on those woods. Threeclaws, did all the slaves make it?”

“All except Skan the shrew. He’s had it, Chief.”

“Then unchain him and sling his worthless hide out. What about you lot, are you all right? Anybeast missing, Halftail?”

“Two of ours, Chief; Browntooth and Badrag. I saw ’em go meself. It was ’orrible, screamin’ an’ kickin’ they were. By the claw! What are those things that attacked us?”

Stonefleck squatted impassively. “The painted ones,” he said, his voice flat and matter of fact.

Slagar moved aside as two slavers carried the dead Skan out. “Look at that, a good slave lost to those devils out there. It’s just as well Browntooth got taken. I’d gut him myself if he was here, screaming and yelling like that.”

Auma rubbed a paw across her bleeding back. “Painted ones, I’ve never heard of them before.”

“Quiet back there!”

Slagar paced the slave line. “You lot can have a long rest. It’s too late to cross the river now, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow night. Right, Stonefleck?”

The rat strung his bow. Selecting an arrow from his quiver, he poked it through a gap in the boughs which covered the trench and fired straight up into the night sky. The arrow gave a shrieking whistle as it sped upward.

There was a moment’s silence, then an answering whistle from an arrow fired on the other side of the river. Stonefleck unstrung his bow.