Escaping from the city with his prize was the most dangerous part. He would have to climb the dyke to reach the fence that ran along its top, and that would make him visible to the sentries that patrolled it. His only chance was to once again pose as a Merlin tribesmen and hope that no-one challenged him. Fortunately there was a tribesmen just ahead of him, standing on the flat strip of ground at the top of the dyke and looking out across the deep ditch that ran between the inner and outer dykes. There were other guards, but they were fairly distant and they were also looking out across the grasslands that surrounded the city. They were sure to glance in his direction now and then, though. His only chance was to keep them from realising what they were looking at.

  He whispered to Daphnis to lie flat on the ground. Then he tied her ankles together and tied her feet to her wrists. He examined her for a couple of moments to make sure she wasn't capable of making the slightest sound or movement, and then he climbed the steps that ran up the side of the dyke.

  As he reached the top, the guardsman saw him and came over curiously. It was a John Henry tribesmen, he saw. A man he didn't recognise, which would hopefully mean that he wouldn't recognise Skoll. Unfortunately, Skoll had always been the kind of man who attracted attention, which might work against him now. Couldn't be helped. Skoll would just have to roll the dice and hope for the best. His heart was pounding with excitement, though. What he was doing, the danger, the audacity of it, was thrilling! He was enjoying this in a way he'd never enjoyed anything in his life!

  As the John Henry tribesmen drew near, Skoll feigned shock and surprise and pointed out over the fence. The guardsman turned to see what he was pointing at, and as soon as his back was turned Skoll jumped forward, slapped a hand over his mouth, pulled the man's dagger from his belt and thrust it into his back. He held onto the man while he struggled, both terrified and elated by the danger that one of the other guards might look in his direction at any moment. Fortunately the man grew weaker very quickly, and when he ceased struggling Skoll dragged him down the stairs to where he'd left Daphnis.

  She'd been struggling while he'd been away, but hadn't managed to free herself. Skoll untied all her bonds except for the gag and the strip of leather around her ankles. "Get dressed in his clothes," he told her. "Quickly."

  She stared at him in astonishment and Skoll brandished the knife at her. Her eyes widened with fear and she began taking his clothes off. She dressed slowly, clearly hoping someone would come along and rescue her, until Skoll brandished the knife again and told her to hurry up.

  When it came time to put her leggings on he re-tied her hands, freed her feet and put them on her himself. Then he put the guardsman's moccasins on her feet. They were way too large. All the clothes were too large and hung on her like a sack. That was good. They would hide her feminine curves.

  He pulled her to her feet, untied her hands and, with one hand keeping a firm grip on her arm, he told her to climb the steps to the top of the dyke. The guardsman further along the dyke spotted them as they reached the top and watched curiously as Skoll helped Daphnis up onto the walkway. "Don't try to attract attention," he warned her. "Keep your other hand by your side. Do anything that looks suspicious and I'll kill you." She nodded to show she understood.

  Skoll pointed out towards the horizon while continuing to keep a firm grip on her arm with his other hand. She had to be thinking about trying to pull free and run while both her arms and legs were free, but the other guards would have noticed immediately if she'd still had her hands tied. As it was, all they saw was a guard bringing a friend up onto the dyke to see the sunrise.

  The fence was made of sections of woven grass tied to plethin rods that had been driven deep into the top of the dyke. Skoll used the dead guard's knife to cut the strings holding the sections together until he was able to push one of them open like a gate. He pushed Daphnis through, followed after her and they scrambled down the steep slope on the other side to the ditch below. Daphnis tried to run away, but Skoll grabbed her again and pulled her up the gentle slope to the outer dyke. Skoll heard someone shouting and glanced back at the inner dyke to see two guards staring after him. Their cries were bringing others and Skoll saw more people joining them at the fence. Some of them were squeezing through the gap he'd made and were following him down. Meanwhile, the guards on duty on the outer dyke were running in from left and right to intercept him.

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  Reaching the top of the outer dyke, Skoll slashed his way through the fence and again pushed Daphnis through, following after her to the bottom of the ditch below. He tried to push her up the slope on the other side, but she fell to the ground and lay there, a dead weight. Skoll had to pick her up and carry her. She pounded on his back and scratched at his skin with her hands, but he ignored her and ran across the fifty yards of bare ground that surrounded the city. Ground kept clear so that no bandits could approach the outer dyke unobserved. He heard the alarm bell ringing, and voices from behind demanded that he stop and give himself up. They were gaining on him fast.

  He dropped Daphnis and struck her hard on the side of the head with the hilt of his dagger, making her fall unconscious. Then he turned to face the two approaching guards. There was no time for a prolonged fight, there would soon be another twenty coming to join them. He would have to finish them off fast. Gripping his knife tightly, therefore, he charged forward to attack.

  It was a Robin Hood tribesmen by the look of him, and Skoll grinned with savage delight that it was a friend of Tarvos he was about to kill. Not as good as killing Tarvos himself, but the next best thing. The guardsman's eyes opened wide with fear when he got his first clear sight of who he was facing and he hesitated, fatally, as Skoll brushed his knife-hand aside and plunged his dagger deep into his heart.

  The other guard had pulled the sling from around his neck and was fumbling in the pouch he wore on his waist for one of the rocks it contained. He fitted it to the sling and began whirling it around his neck, but Skoll was too close. The guard had no time to bring it up to speed. He used it as a cosh instead, trying to hit Skoll's head, but Skoll ducked under it and slashed his neck with a swing of his knife.

  Blood sprayed, but Skoll turned to run before the man's body had time to hit the ground. The other guards were too close, and not even he could fight them all af once. He returned to where he'd left Daphnis, scooped her up in his arms and ran for the tall grass just a few more yards ahead. Once he was within it, he could lose himself in the darkness and then all he had to do was get far enough away before the sun rose.

  He was carrying a heavy weight while the people chasing him weren't. If they'd been able to see him they'd have caught him quickly, but away from the oil lamps of the city it was pitch dark. The only light came from the stars, of which the brightest was Caelus, almost directly overhead. That wasn't enough for his pursuers to see him, though, and Skoll heard them shouting as they passed him on his left and right, unaware of how close to him they were. He crouched down, bringing his head lower than the flowering tops of the grasses, until they had passed.

  After a few minutes he felt Daphnis starting to stir in his arms. He put her down long enough to tie her hands and feet, then picked her up again. Gradually the sounds or pursuit grew fainter as they got further from Festival City, and eventually he found that he couldn't hear them at all. When the sun finally rose, a couple of hours after his escape from the city, casting a pink light across the endless sea of waving grass, he rose to his full height to look around and saw no sign of pursuit anywhere in any direction.

  He breathed a sigh of relief, then started laughing in triumph, his head giddy with exhilaration. He put Daphnis down and untied her feet, so that she could walk on her own. No need to carry her any more. Then he untied her gag and pulled the thick wad of cloth, sodden with spit, from her mouth. She gasped with relief at being able to breathe easily again.

  "You won't get away," she told him, glaring defiantly into his eyes. "The whole city will be hunting for you."

  "Let them hunt," Skoll replied. "Maybe I'll catch one or two of them. I need finger bones for my new trophy necklace." That reminded him of Hati's necklace, which he was still wearing. He took it off and dropped it to the ground.

  "If you let me go, I'll persuade them to go easy on you. Maybe they'll let you just go into exile again."

  Skoll laughed. "I killed many of them," he said. "If they catch me they'll treat me as a bandit. Which is good because a bandit is what I'm going to become. There's a bandit tribe camped just a few days journey to the west. We're going to join them."

  "With me as your wife?"

  He saw her eyes widen with fear. Bandits stole women to be their wives all the time. In all the several centuries it had been going on, only a handful of them had ever escaped to return to their own tribes. The bandits were very good at holding onto their women.

  "Yes."

  He opened the front of her tunic and looked admiringly at her body. She tried to pull away, twisting her tied hands uselessly, but Skoll kept a firm grip on her with his other hand. "Speaking of which, it's time for our marriage ceremony," he said,

  "I'll never marry you of my own free will."

  Skoll laughed again. "Don't worry," he said. "The bandit marriage ceremony is very simple. It goes like this."

  He took off her lower clothes until she was wearing only her tunic, hanging from her wrists behind her. Then he lowered her to the ground and raped her.