traveling on
horseback. They were greatly angered to come so far in to reach
Kaydessa, though they could not have been too close, or you would not
have escaped at all. Yes, strong bait."

"Such bait as perhaps the knowledge that there were strangers across the
mountains?"

Menlik turned his wand about in his hands. He was no longer smiling, and
his glance at Travis was sharp and swift.

"Do you sit as Khan in your tribe, Lord?"

"I sit as one they will listen to." Travis hoped that was so. Whether
Buck and the moderates would hold clan leadership upon his return was a
fact he could not count upon as certain.

"This is a thing which we must hold council over," Menlik continued.
"But it is an idea of power. Yes, one to think about, Lord. And I shall
think...."

He got up and moved away. Travis blinked at the fire. He was very tired,
and he disliked sleeping in this camp. But he must not go without the
rest his body needed to supply him with a clear head in the morning. And
not showing uneasiness might be one way of winning Menlik's confidence.

9

Travis settled his back against the spire of rock and raised his right
hand into the path of the sun, cradling in his palm a disk of glistening
metal. Flash ... flash ... he made the signal pattern just as his
ancestors a hundred years earlier and far across space had used trade
mirrors to relay war alerts among the Chiricahua and White Mountain
ranges. If Tsoay had returned safely, and if Buck had kept the agreed
lookout on that peak a mile or so ahead, then the clan would know that
he was coming and with what escort.

He waited now, rubbing the small metal mirror absently on the loose
sleeve of his shirt, waiting for a reply. Mirrors were best, not smoke
fires which would broadcast too far the presence of men in the hills.
Tsoay must have returned....

"What is it that you do?"

Menlik, his shaman's robe pulled up so that his breeches and boots were
dark against the golden rock, climbed up beside the Apache. Menlik,
Hulagur, and Kaydessa were riding with Travis, offering him one of
their small ponies to hurry the trip. He was still regarded warily by
the Tatars, but he did not blame them for their cautious attitude.

"Ah--" A flicker of light from the point ahead. One ... two ... three
flashes, a pause, then two more together. He had been read. Buck had
dispatched scouts to meet them, and knowing his people's skill at the
business, Travis was certain t