As we plodded onward through this desolate and depressing waste, we tried to keep up one another's spirit as best we could and a hundred times I had reason to give thanks that it was Tavia who was my companion and no other.
What could I have done under like circumstances burdened with Sanoma Tora? I doubt that she could have walked a dozen haads, while Tavia swung along at my side with the lithe grace of perfect health and strength. It takes a good man to keep up with me on a march, but Tavia never lagged; nor did she show signs of fatigue more quickly than I.
"We are well matched, Tavia," I said.
"I had thought of that—a long time ago," she said quietly.
We continued on until almost dusk without seeing a sign of any living thing and were congratulating ourselves upon our good fortune when Tavia glanced back, as one of us often did.
She touched my arm and nodded toward the rear. "They come!" she said simply.
I looked back and saw three figures upon our trail. They were too far away for me to be able to do more than identify them as human beings. It was evident that they had seen us and they were closing the distance between us at a steady trot.
"What shall we do?" asked Tavia. "Stand and fight, or try to elude them until night falls?"
"We shall do neither," I said. "We shall elude them now without exerting ourselves in the least."
"How?" she asked.