For all their bulk andaggressiveness, Yavanni are remarkably sensitive to the sight of their ownblood, and the thought of charging into a knife or knifelike instrument cangiveeven the hardiest a moment of pause. But only a moment. Like most otherunpleasantries, anticipation is often worse than the actual event, and as soonas their molasses minds remembered that they'd be all over me.

But I wasn't planning to be here when that happened. With the windbreak goneand the Yavanni bunched together, I now had a completely clear exit route at myback. Flipping my shard of glass at the lead Yavanne, I turned and ran for it.

I got only a couple of steps before they set up a startled howl and lurchedinto gear after me. They'd eventually get me, too—in a long straightaway human legscouldn't outmatch Yavannian ones. But for the first few seconds, until theygotall that body mass moving, I had the advantage. All I had to do was findsomething to do with it.

I knew better than to waste time looking over my shoulder, but I could tellfrom the sounds of their foot thuds that I still had a reasonably good lead when Ireached the corner of the taverno and swung around into the narrow pedestrianalleyway separating it from the next building over. An empty alleyway, unfortunately, without what I'd hoped to find there. The Yavanni hove aroundthe corner; lowering my head, I put all my effort into getting every drop of speedI could out of my legs. They would probably get me, I knew, before I couldcircle the building completely. If what I was looking for wasn't around back, I wasgoing to be in for some serious pain.

I rounded the next corner with the Yavanni uncomfortably close behind me. Andthere it was, just as I'd hoped to find it: a pile of half-meter-long logs forthe taverno's big fireplace, neatly stacked against the wall and reachingnearlyto the eaves of the roof. Without slowing my pace, I headed up.