Lord Kuo was right, he thought. There is something here. Maybe something bigger than Wen-chin suspected.

Pan ku came in. "Oh. Excuse me, Lord."

"I've just finished, Pan ku. Have you taken the pulse of the legion?"

"They're bored, Lord. They resent being stuck on a dead frontier. Today seems to have perked them up."

"No serious problems?"

"No. This is an old legion. A good one. Well trained and disciplined, with conscientious centurions and decurions. It'll do what you ask of it."

"Good. Good, Thank you, Pan ku."

"Is there anything I can do for you, Lord?"

"Don your battle gear. We're going into the desert."

Shih-ka'i flashed through the portal an hour later. He found that his hunters had chosen a good position in which to wait. After surveying their dispositions, he prepared a number of magicks. "Just in case," he told Pan ku.

The soldier nodded. He was familiar with his master's obsession with being prepared.

Two dust clouds came closer and closer. Hsu Shen was doing a perfect job of pushing without pushing too hard. Shih-ka'i took a look off the back side of the low hill where he waited. Dust clouds were converging on a point several miles eastward. "Setting an ambush of his own," he murmured.

Pan ku came round the hill. "Lord, they just had word from Lord Lun-yu. Two of those bodies jumped up and tried to kill him."

"Uhm? I should have warned him. He's all right?"

"Yes, Lord."

"Good."

Their quarry moved into the pocket. Shih-ka'i counted twenty-five. Someone said, "I thought they were supposed to be carrying their dead?"