blink of an eye, it seemed, and so the soldier holding the stolen silk swatch was still not even ready with any kind of defense. He flailed his arms wildly before him to fend off the mystic, but Pagonel wasn't really engaging him anyway, but rather, was using him as a springboard to the top of the merchant's wagon. A great leap brought the mystic up high and he planted his foot on the flailing man's shoulder and leaped away from there, easily gaining the wagon roof and rushing across to the other side.
Paroud heard Moripicus' cry, and though he felt sorry that his friend had betrayed Pagonel, he was certainly glad for the personal reprieve! For those soldiers who had begun to take up the chase on him stopped suddenly and swung back the other way.
The frightened man mingled into a group of merchants, scrambling through their ranks and out the back side of their wagons, making his way to the lower ground by the water's edge. Then he ran along that edge, using the distraction to get all the way out of the oasis. He ran flat out down the eastern road, back the way he had come, back toward the safety of Jacintha.
Across the way, Pechter Dan Turk similarly used the distraction to move away, but he, unlike his companion, headed for the west.
Moripicus hesitated at his spot for a short while, watching Pagonel's furious escape attempt, and even whispered, "Forgive me, mystic," then turned to follow Pechter Dan Turk.
He turned right into the blocking chest of a soldier, though, and one who had obviously heard his soft plea for forgiveness.
Pagonel hit the ground softly, his legs buckling under him as he fell sidelong to the sand. He reversed his momentum completely and rolled back under the wagon, coming to his belly directly beneath it. He pushed up hard with his hands, lifting himself right from the ground to slam up against the undercarriage of the wagon. Out snapped his hands and feet, pressing out against the frame and locking the mystic in place.
Soldiers swept Ly the wagon, scrambling all about to catch up to him. A couple were even cunning enough to fall and glance under the wagon, but none moved under enough and turned his eyes up to see the splayed mystic in his perch.
Gradually, the tide of soldiers swept away, but Pagonel had to hold his position much longer, he knew.
He heard a commotion over by the area where he had engaged the three men, heard a familiar voice pleading for mercy.
"I warned you!" Moripicus begged. "I told you he was Jhesta Tu, yes?"
"And how did you know?" an angry soldier demanded.
Pagonel took a deep breath. He could tell from the soldier's tone that this was not going to go well for Moripicus. The mystic dropped to the sand, landing on hands and knees and looking out toward the voices.
Just in time to see Moripicus forced down to his knees, his head pulled forward forcefully by a soldier tugging his hair, while two others held his arms back.
Pagonel was about to shout out, and to roll out from under the wagon, but it was too late, and all he could do was avert his eyes as another soldier brought his great khopesh swinging down to behead the man.
Tellingly, the executioner invoked the name of "Chezru Tohen Bardoh" as he carried out the death sentence.
Pagonel gave a quick scan of the area, trying to sort out the other two Jacintha emissaries, but neither was to be found. With great regret, the mystic went back up tight under the wagon and waited for the cover of darkness.
Pechter Dan Turk crouched behind a dune, shivering in the cold night air and terrified that pursuit would come out from that now-distant oasis. He knew Moripicus was dead, though he had already been out and running to the west before the execution, and knew, too, that he would also be killed if the soldiers caught up to him.
What to do? He thought that he should return to Jacintha to report this tragedy to Yatol Wadon, though he didn't like the prospects of trying to slip past the legion.
What then? Was he to go on to Dharyan-Dharielle? The man had been uneasy with the prospects of dealing with the foreign To-gai-ru all along, but now the thought of going in there alone positively terrified him. At that time, though, huddled in the cold desert sand, the sounds of the night