"I'm with you!" Boyce assured him, in three short gasps.
With strength summoned from the deepest recesses of their souls, they began to run faster and steadier, and the ridge that was once distant began to move closer and closer with each
successive stride that they took.
Behind them, the light of Sedara shrank and the stars revealed a small cloud moving in the same direction as the men.
The cloud was Trephor's army. Some were on horse-back but the major part of it was made up of infantry, running as the men ran.
The faster that Boyce and Lloyd had run, the lesser ahead they thought that they were going.
Lloyd turned his head for an instant and saw the small hermaphrodite army, in hot pursuit, gaining ground with every second that expired.
In his heart Boyce prayed that they could make the crest of the ridge before they passed-out, and there it was. The ridge.
"Oh God, lend us strength!" he gulped to himself.
The sounds of horses and feet grew louder and louder. The hermaphrodites were nearly upon them. Abruptly the men lost the sounds of the army as they lost their footing and they plunged into a drop in the ground, then lost consciousness.