There was no argument about that. I flung a last look around with the
vague thought that I would see Jan lying here. Then I let Ama guide
me. At a run, we headed back down the declivity and diagonally across
the gully. A rain of arrows came down, clattering around us, but in a
moment most of them were falling short.
"Which way, Ama? Where we go?"
"My people--my village--not too far."
"Which way?"
"Through this cliff. There are passages into the lower valley."
"You know the way?"
"Yes, oh yes."
A dark opening in the opposite cliff presently was before us. The Orgs
were coming down the other cliff now; their bellowing voices and the
whining cries of the mimes were a blended babble.
"A storm is coming," Ama said suddenly.
The distant sky over the lower end of the gully was shot now with weird
lurid colors. In the heavy dark silence here around us, a sudden sharp
puff of wind plucked at us, tossing Ama's long tawny hair.
"This way--" she added.
My arm went around her as another wind-blast thrust us sidewise, almost
knocking her off her feet. Then clinging together, fighting our way
in a rush of wind which now abruptly was a roar, we plunged into the
depths of the yawning tunnel.