breath, Pagonel gathered Merwan Ma across his shoulders.
He heard voices on the stairs, then a shout of, ?Fire!"
It was a movement that only a Jhesta Tu, and only a master of that order, ould ever have accomplished. Pagonel ran full speed to the open window, reached into himself to buoy his body magically, then leaped out, across the alleyway, flying fifteen feet to the next roof. He sprinted across that roof, hardly slowing, then leaped again, right to the top of the south wall, and then, hardly slowing, hopped over that wall and fell the fifteen feet to the sand below, landing as softly as he could, bending as he hit to cushion the blow for the man draped about his shoulders.
Without delay, hearing shouts from at least one soldier who had spotted him - or had spotted something - the mystic laid Merwan Ma out straight at the very base of the wall and fell down beside him, working frantically to cover as much of them as possible with loose sand.
He heard more cries from above, but they weren't directed at him, he realized, but at the fire that was now burning more furiously.
Pagonel lay very still, concentrating on his Chi. He brought his hands to Merwan Ma's wounds and sent his hot life energy into them, transferring his strength, his healing, to the near-dead Shepherd.
The fire burned into the night, and cries of ?Murder!" resonated about the streets. Pagonel could only listen with helpless horror as the Behrenese took out their anger over the murder of the new Governor of Dharyan on the other To-gai-ru slaves.
Gradually, the screaming died away, replaced by the quiet stillness of midnight.
Pagonel pulled himself from the sand, then lifted Merwan Ma across his shoulders, and in truth, he wasn't even certain if the man was still alive.
And then he ran, out into the darkness, using the stars to guide him. He ran all through the night, and most of the next day, as well, pausing only pe-!odically to use his healing energy on the gravely wounded Shepherd.
That night, he ran on again, tirelessly, stopping only when he heard a ornmand to halt, issued in a telling melodic voice.
Only then did the mystic allow himself to realize his exhaustion, and he slumped into the sand, lowering Merwan Ma beside him.
"A fine gift," Belli 'mar Juravi el said to him when he awoke sometime later.
The mystic craned his neck to see Merwan Ma, wrapped in blankets across the small fire, with Cazzira sitting beside him and Agradeleous off in the background.
"It may be," was all that the exhausted mystic could reply at that time and he lowered his head and went back to sleep, knowing that he would need all of his strength and more if he was to have any chance of keeping Merwan Ma alive the next day.
It was late in the day before he awoke once more, to find Cazzira stand-ing guard over Merwan Ma.
"Juraviel and Agradeleous flew out before the dawn, to keep watch over Dharielle," she explained.
"Dharyan, once more," Pagonel corrected, and he pulled himself up and moved toward the injured man.
"Eat first," Cazzira offered, pointing to the side, to a steaming small pot, and Pagonel veered toward it.
"Juraviel believes that the Behrenese will move soon."
"Very soon," the mystic replied. ?Into To-gai in pursuit of the Dragon of To-gai and her army."
Cazzira laughed.
"Who is he?" she asked a few moments later, pointing to the injured man.
"His name is Merwan Ma," the mystic explained. ?An attendant of the Chezru Chieftain, named governor of Dharyan and then nearly murdered, on orders from the Chezru Chieftain."
Cazzira's look was predictable puzzled.
"A Chezhou-Lei cut him down."
"A rogue act, perhaps?"
Pagonel was shaking his head before she ever finished the question. ?They are unquestioningly loyal to the Chezru Chieftain. Never would a Chezhou-Lei take such an action of his own initiative, not when it involved a man so closely tied to Chezru Douan."
"But why?"
"That is what I hope to find out," the mystic replied, and he took another sip of the stew, then wiped his mouth and moved beside Merwan Ma, falling right back into doyan du cad ray chi, ?the warm healing hands."
Belli'mar Juraviel and Agradeleous returned that night, bringing the wel-come news that the bulk of the Behrenese army had marched west and were even then scaling the narrow passes of the plateau divide into To-gai.
"It was all that I could manage in keeping Agradeleous from attacking them," the elf admitted a while later, when