"No—we cannot find her. She piloted the ship that took you to the Argzoon camp, but the ship was empty when we recovered it. We think that..."

"I know what has happened to her!"

"You know? Then why did you not tell us? Why-?"

"I was seized by no battle-rage, Darnad. I discovered that Shizala had been abducted. I was on my way to try to rescue her when you set upon me. How long ago was this?"

"Last night—about thirty-six shatis ago."

"Thirty-six!" I got up, giving an involuntary groan. Not only my head ached. The exertions of the previous two days had taken their toll of my body. It seemed a mass of bruises and minor wounds. My worst wound—the one on my armwas throbbing painfully. Thirty-six shatis—more than four hours ago!

As quickly as I could, I told Darnad all the details of what I had learned. He was as surprised as I had been to learn of Horguhl the Vladnyar woman.

"I wonder what part she plays in this?" he said with a frown.

"I have no idea. Her answers were ambiguous, to say the least."

"I am sorry that I made that mistake, Michael Kane," he said. "I was a fool. I heard you shouting something. I should have listened. With luck we should have rescued Shizala and all would be over. The Argzoon are scattered. We and our allies will soon have cleansed Karnala of them. We will be able to question prisoners and discover how they managed to reach Varnal undetected."

"But while we are doing this Shizala could be taken anywhere! North—south—east—west. How are you to know where they will carry her?"

Darnad dropped his eyes and stared at the floor.

"You are right. But if you think Shizala is with this Vladnyar girl, then we must hope that some of our prisoners will have seen which way they went. There is also the chance that in our general routing and capturing of the Argzoon we will manage to rescue Shizala."

"There is no time for recriminations of any kind," I said. "So let us forget the errors of judgment we have both made. The heat of the battle must be held to account. What do you intend to do now?"

"I shall be leading a force with the specific intention of capturing Argzoon and questioning them on the whereabouts of Shizala."

"Then I shall accompany you," I told him.

"That is what I hoped you would say," he said, patting my shoulder. "Rest while the last preparations are being made. I will call for you when we are ready to leave—there is nothing else you can do until then, and you had better regain as much strength as possible—you are going to need it. I will have food sent."

"Thank you," I said gratefully. He was right. I must make myself relax—for Shizala's sake.