Xintel loaded her crossbow. Barry stood beside her with a spear ready.
"Now!" the voice outside boomed.
Men poured into the lower room, shouting to keep up their courage. Xintel, her face pale, squinted along her crossbow and thumbed the trigger. A man screamed. A spear thwacked upward into the baskets as the girl put her strength against her weapon's reloading ratchet.
"Can you hold them off a minute?" Barry whispered.
She nodded, and he leaped to the upper room. One basket remained, and he found that by standing on it his head was just below the roof's lower surface. With his knife he began cutting into the matted fibers of the roof. He was nearly through when a whisper from above made him pause.
"Psst! Lart, be very sure your thrust misses."
That was Sanlan, Barry guessed.
The other Venusian growled under his breath.
"Komso will have your skin if you disobey," Sanlan warned.
"But why?"