Tahlia had felt her own body tense at the mention of the bone pit and its deep black waters. Then calmness settled on her at the realisation that there was in fact someone nearby who could help them. She would just have to hope that Brefoir was not as handy with a sword as Tasker claimed.

She took a deep breath.

And screamed.

Tasker gave her a fierce look, and the second he took his eyes off her brother, Grifford pounced. The blow he aimed at Tasker's face almost landed, but the older boy raised his arm swiftly, as though he held a rail-shield, and knocked the fist away. Then he stepped aside, and as Grifford's momentum carried him forward, he lifted his sword to strike.

Tahlia screamed again. Brefoir clamped his hand over her mouth, but her noise had done its work.

From beneath the water tower came a ripping sound, and Tasker, his arm still raised to strike at her brother, was suddenly pulled into the air, a gnarled claw clamped about his sword arm. At that moment, Tahlia bit ferociously into Brefoir's hand, causing him to jerk it away. She elbowed him in the stomach and he stumbled backwards, the point of his sword scraping sharply at the side of her neck. The squire cursed and lunged towards her, but he too was swiftly plucked from his feet.

There was a frenzied lapping of water as the Pit-master raised the two boys clear of the mist, the torn tragasaur tarps flapping about its long limbs. It made no other sound, but Tahlia could hear the wet writhing of the red tentacles between its bulbous body sections.

* * *

Dak stood staring up at the two boys suddenly hanging above her, and she did not see Grifford move as he swung around to punch the third squire. The boy was still holding her arm, and just like her, was staring upwards at his two stricken comrades. The blow landed in his stomach, and he reeled backwards as the air was forced out of him. Tahlia was already moving, disappearing into the mist, and Grifford did not wait, following swiftly after.

Dak continued to stare upwards, until Tasker's voice jerked her from her daze.

"Let me go, beast!"

Dak watched him struggling in the Pit-master's indefatigable grip, trying to force apart its thick fingers with his free hand. As though feeling her gaze, he looked down at her.

"I will kill you all!" he hissed, and it was those words that forced her to flee, running into the mist after Tahlia and Grifford. "I will kill you!" came the near hysterical shout from behind her. "I will kill..." Tasker's final bellow of rage was suddenly cut short.

Dak, who had reached the krodillis vines hanging over the entrance to the terrace, turned back to the horrifying scene behind her. More slithering sounds were coming from the mist that still shrouded the Pit-master. Something red tentacled and sinuous was crawling up the gnarled beam of the arm that still gripped Tasker tightly. It reached the whorled lump where it bent like the warped bole of a tree, and continued up towards the squire.

"Right," he hissed and reached to his belt with his free hand to pull the knife there from its sheath.

With a thudding of fear in her chest, Dak turned and pushed her way out through the krodillis vine.

* * * * *

Gefry was still engrossed in the imagined retributions he intended to inflict on Grifford and his sister. He only realised that he was not paying any attention to the hedge of the gardens when the distant scream broke him from his reverie. He stood up from his hiding place and listened again. He heard an angry voice shouting, but he could not make out the words. Then there was no further sound.

He wondered if he should go up to the gardens. It sounded like the girl and her brother had been caught, but Tasker's instructions had been clear, and he did not want to be on the end of the older boy's anger. He crouched back behind the shed and waited. Five minutes passed before there was a sudden movement in the shadow of the hedge, beneath the southern shield bastion.

The sun had finally risen, but the gardens were still in misty darkness, and it was only when it stepped into the sunlight that he saw the single small figure appear from the shadows, followed by a second taller figure, and then a third.

It was them! It had to be them! He cast around quickly along the hedge, back to the open arch where his own friends had entered the gardens after the Engineer girl. There was no sign of them. He looked back to where the three figures had been, and saw them making their way down the hill, moving swiftly beneath the corona tower of the shield-bastion. He had no choice. He left the cover of the work-shed and broke into a run, heading straight for the distant figures.

He closed the gap between himself and his targets as much as he could risk, and they had reached the bottom of the hill where the ground levelled out before he shouted to his comrades.

"Tasker!" he cried. "Tasker! I have found them. This way!"

He ran on, as quickly as he could, confident that his friends would not be far behind him.

* * * * *

Grifford heard the shout and glanced over his shoulder to see the lone figure closing on them.

"Keep going!" yelled Tahlia, and ran.

Dak also broke into a clumsy run, but Grifford hung back. It was only Gefry after all. He was preparing to make a stand and meet the approaching squire when he saw a unit of soldiers appear from behind one of the Enclosure's work sheds. They stopped€, and were looking up at the misty terraces of the gardens, but then one of them spotted Gefry and a squad was ordered in pursuit.

Grifford turned and ran after his sister.

The sun had now broken fully over the horizon, and the southern shield-bastion looming overhead cast a straight shadow ahead of him to the west. The cliff beneath the Workshops' barbican-fort was hidden in the wedge of shadow. He could not easily see the fort's entrance, so he followed the distant figure of his sister as she disappeared from the bright plane of sunlight into the shield-bastion's shadow. He soon caught up with the clumsy Engineer, passed her, and ran on. As he crossed the boundary between sun and shade he glanced over his shoulder to see Dak some way behind, and the running squire close to catching her.

'She is only an Engineer's daughter. They will not do her any harm.'

Tasker had threatened to kill her too.

'What is a knight's duty?'

"Damn it!"

He skidded to a halt, his feet dug into the grass, and he turned and ran back towards the two running figures. As he drew close, Gefry caught up with Dak and seized her by the arm, causing her to spin and fall forward onto her knees, but the satisfied grin on Gefry's face fell away as he looked up and saw Grifford closing on him. He opened his mouth, but his words were never uttered. Grifford drew close, and without slowing, smashed his tightly balled fist into his face.

Gefry let go of Dak's arm and stumbled backwards, his face washed with fresh blood. Grifford thumped him again, square in the stomach, and he keeled over onto the floor. Grifford took control of his anger long enough to glance upwards at the approaching soldiers. They were still some way away, but closing swiftly.

He grabbed Dak's hand and pulled her to her feet.

"Come on! Move!" he snarled, and they both broke into a run back towards the shadow beneath the barbican-fort.

* * *

Tahlia's feet, which had started to warm from the slowly rising sun, felt chill once more as she ran through the shield-bastion's shadow. The cliff face on her right blocked her view of the gate to the barbican-fort, and she only caught sight of it when she rounded a final outcrop of smooth rock. As she did, her heart dropped. The gap between the gate and its protective earth wedge was filled with soldiers.

She skidded to a halt in the wet grass, and crouched in a low dip in the ground. As she knelt there, the moisture from the wet grass soaking into her dress, details of the scene around the gate became clearer. The soldiers were not guarding the gate. Rather, they were lined up facing it, and opposite them stood two Forge-guard, barring their entry to the Workshops.

Two soldiers, presumably the Unit-leaders, stood very close to the Forge-guards, and there seemed to be some heated exchange going on as one of the soldiers was gesturing wildly, waving his hands around in front of the face of the larger of the two Guards. The man whose nose these frantic gestures were taking place under seemed nonchalantly impervious, and stood there unmoving.

It was then that Grifford skidded to a halt beside her, and then Dak stumbled to her knees on the other side, gasping and out of breath.

"What is happening?" she said between breaths, but Grifford said nothing. From under lowered brows, he looked at the soldiers gathered around the gate.

"Can we get through?" he asked.

"If we can get to the gate," said Tahlia. "Maybe if we are quiet we can get around them."

Her brother glanced over his shoulder.

"Well we have not got much time."

Tahlia looked behind them, and saw the approaching soldiers. One of them had stopped at the kneeling form of Gefry, and was bending over him, his hands on his knees, but the others were now running towards them. They were all dressed in Vikas burgundy.

"And look," said Grifford, pointing further up the lower slopes of the hill.

Scrambling down the low ridge beneath the southern shield-bastion, were Tasker and his two accomplices. Tahlia shook her head in exasperation.

"How did they get away!"

"He took out his knife..?" began Dak, but Tahlia did not give her time to finish as she scrambled out of the ground's cover, ready to run towards the soldiers at the gate.

"Come on!"

"You had better be able to get us in, Engineer!" Grifford growled.

"Of course she can get us in!" said Tahlia. "Can you not, Dak?"

Dak was looking over her shoulder with wide eyed shock, first at the soldiers, then up at the approaching squires.

"If you are thinking I can," she said. "Then maybe I can."

"See!" said Tahlia,before getting her feet under her and running towards the barbican-fort's gate.