“We have to track them,” Ngare declared for the third time.
“But we must inform the Counsel,” Raahi countered. “The child and Dorthea cannot be put in the kind of danger such a mission entails. I was adamant that they shouldn’t be brought even here.”
“So was I,” Ngare said.
“I know,” Raahi agreed, “but the Counsel sees far, and they insisted that Robert and Dorthea belonged with us.”
Ngare sneered. “And what good have they done? They are fine souls with much music between them, but now they hold us back. Can they be left behind?”
Raahi thought. “To the ravages of Alavariss alone? No, if left too long, they would develop the sickness of the Black City and never make their way out.”
“What then?” Ngare said.
“They’ll have to make the escape with us. We’ll send word by hawk to Shrine that things have gone terribly wrong.”
“Can we take them to the wilderness?” Ngare was skeptical.
“If we fly fast enough we may overtake the Phoon in the pass at the Narlith Mountains west of Alavariss. There we can try to effect rescue.”
“And if we cannot?”
“I don’t know. I guess they could camp by the mountain, outside the wilderness, as we enter to engage the Phoon.”
“Not a very safe position. We will be closely followed by Alavariss.”
Raahi shrugged his shoulders. “What else?”
Ngare said nothing.
“Um, excuse me, sirs,” one of the Guards interrupted. “Supposing we overtake the group of Phoon before they reach their difficult lands…they are twenty-five Phoon man-hounds, and we are four Elites. One of us is wounded and at the edge of death. There is the woman and the small boy among us. And of course one of us is, no offense to you, sir, a flautist.”
Dorthea and Robert walked back into the room.
Raahi smiled. “No offense taken; I assure you, before this ordeal has run its course, we will have need of a song or two.”
“We have to leave,” Ngare said, resolute. “The palace will send a battalion, at least, of troops into the field. It will take some time to organize, and they will be slow exiting the city; but once in open country, they will be swift. We must reach the Phoon before they do.”
“What about the princess?” Raahi asked. “We could leave her here. Her people should find her eventually, restore her to the Palace.”
“You had better return me home, slave,” Yaris snapped.
To Robert, the words sounded quite hollow. He wondered if she wouldn’t rather come with them.
Ngare rubbed his temples and sighed. “The Alavarisians still do not know about the princess switch. If they find Yaris here and afterwards get to Esmeralda before we do, they will surely kill her, knowing she is not the true princess.”