We scarcely paused as we drew lances and swords and goaded our mounts towards them, yelling as fiercely as they did.

Then we clashed and the fight was on.

I found myself engaged with a blue warrior who wore around his waist a girdle of grisly spoils from the earlier encounter—severed human hands.

I decided to claim some recompense for those hands.

Being mounted, I was more at an advantage than I had been, for the Argzoon were not. Apart from the advance guard I had originally seen, there seemed to be few mounts among them and I concluded that their need for secrecy had made them wary of using too many.

The warrior struck at me left-handed, catching me by surprise. The weapon was a battle-axe, and it took all my skill to block the blow and at the same time avoid the lunge of his sword.

He pressed down on my sword with both weapons and we remained in that position for several moments, testing each other's strength and reflexes. Then he tried to raise the sword to aim a blow at my head, but I whipped my own blade out from under his axe and he was unbalanced for a second. I used that second to pierce him in the throat.

Meanwhile there was general confusion around me. Though it seemed we were beating the Argzoon, we had many casualties. It seemed we had only about half our original strength left.

I saw Darnad having trouble with a couple of blue warriors and rode in to help him.

Together we quickly despatched our opponents.

From the fifty Argzoon we had fought, only two had surrendered.

We used the same technique on them as we had used with the previous prisoners. At last they began to answer our questions surlily.

"Did you see any of your comrades take a Karnala woman with them?"

"Perhaps."

Darnad fingered his knife.

"Yes," said the Argzoon.

"In which direction were they riding?" I said.

"North."

"But where did you think they were going?"

"Maybe towards Narlet."

"Where is that?" I asked Darnad.

"About three days' ride—a brigand town near the borders of the Crimson Plain."

"A brigand town—dangerous for us, eh?"

"It could be," Darnad admitted. "But I doubt it if we don't make trouble. They prefer not to antagonize us if we make it plain we are not seeking any of their number. In fact," Darnad laughed, "I have a friend or two in Narlet. Rogues, but pleasant company if you forget that they are thieves and murderers many times over."

Again we put the prisoners in charge of one man and our somewhat depleted force moved on towards Narlet.

At least we had some definite information and our spirits rose as we rode full speed towards the City of Thieves.