Of course, we couldn't stay there. The blaze was still spreading, and though unfortunately it would probably grow into a huge forest fire there was nothing we could do about it. All we could do was get out as quickly as possible.

We were given a small miracle, though, or as we saw it, a great one. When we'd been walking for about an hour it started to drizzle, and after another ten minutes it started to pour. We were extremely grateful because the fire would be extinguished (though it was a Baron forest anyway) and because we got water to drink, as we were both exceedingly thirsty.

Even so, Tuck ended up half carrying me most of the way, until we found a place he deemed safe from any lingering flames and reasonably hidden from enemy eyes. And then we went to sleep, and I didn't wake up again until the sun was well risen in the clear, blue sky.

Actually, the only reason I woke even then was because of a sharp pain in my side. Tuck was cleaning and dressing my wound from the night, and though he was no doubt attempting to be gentle, he just didn't have a medic's touch. I bit my lip and tried not to complain.

I failed. "Ow, what are you doing? Stabbing me deeper?" I protested acidly as he put down the wet piece of blue cloth he'd been using and gestured for me to sit up, now that I was awake.

"Hey, give me a break. I'm sacrificing my shirt for this," was his response, and I saw that the tank top he'd worn under his uniform was now torn into various strips and pieces to serve as bandages.

Without too much trouble we managed to get a few strips tied around my waist to hold a patch in place, and we started off on our latest mission: to locate and warn the approaching Col army of the danger facing them.

* * *

It wasn't long before we were being chased by Barons again.

It was our own fault, too, though really it was inevitable. We were moving deeper into Baron territory searching for an army of whose destination we had no idea, so even Tuck could only guess as to where we were going. We overestimated our abilities a bit and took a shortcut through a populated area. We imagined ourselves slick enough to make it past any keen Baron eyes and we were three quarters of the way through before being spotted, but of course that wasn't good enough.

Luckily, the first Baron to notice us shouted immediately and loudly, "Hey!" so we knew the second our cover was blown. At top speed we left the settlement and made it into the forest. Once there, I thought we were safe, until a knife flew past me and into a tree a meter beside my path. Gasping involuntarily in surprise I looked back for a second and saw that we still had three pursuers. At least three, that is. The distance between us seemed to increasing, though, and before too long I could no longer see or hear them. That didn't mean they'd stopped chasing us; in fact it was unlikely they had. But this was a good time to hide and make our break clean. We didn't surrender any of our speed, though I felt ready to collapse. My side throbbed painfully.

I was utterly grateful to stop when we came to a large building, thought this was obviously not a place where we wanted to be. If no new Barons spotted us here, the open space would only aid the ones on our tail. I could hear them again now that we'd stopped running. And as they topped a hill I saw them still coming strongly as ever, armed and dangerous.

Tuck started running again and I followed, but he only ran around to the back of the building. Well, this wasn't an adequate hiding place, I almost pointed out, until my teammate pulled at one of the building's doors. I was surprised when the door opened, but I guess buildings in the middle of the forest don't have much need to be locked. At that point I almost hissed, "Are you crazy?" except that I already knew he was crazy, and speaking would only increase the chance of our being found and taken prisoner. So, following him, I stepped inside.

I still looked at Tuck as he silently closed the door behind us, as if to say, "Why on the planet are we doing this?" He put a finger to his lips and shook his head, not very reassuringly. As I quietly sighed, though, I could appreciate his strategy. We were both tired from last night despite resting well into the morning, and surely he could feel his endurance draining as well as I could mine � a result of having little to eat or drink since being captured. And inside a Baron building was the last place our pursuers were likely to look for us.

We were in a small, dim, and fairly dirty hallway. It looked a place where footsteps would echo resoundingly, but eventually curiosity got the best of me and I took a few surreptitious steps inward. Tuck was suddenly in front of me, moving faster than I was and still not making a sound. I really have to have him teach me how he does that, I thought wistfully as I followed, trying to increase my pace but not letting my competitive spirit overcome caution.

The hallway divided, continuing to the right with a closed room ahead and a stairway going downward to the left. We could see through the window in the door that the room was empty, and the chance of being seen seemed greater along the now large and illuminated hall, so we chose the stairs. We took them slowly and carefully as they were even darker than the hallway had been. For a second I took myself out of the situation and couldn't believe what I was doing: sneaking around and exploring a Baron building while hiding to escape more Barons in order to warn an army that the enemy was prepared for their coming. Up until the previous night, I would have found that prospect thrilling. But now, it just seemed crazy. A lot of life on planet Skye suddenly just seemed crazy�I stepped on something that made a slight crunching noise, and forced myself to focus. Just because this was absurd didn't make it any less dangerous.

The stairway turned ninety degrees and opened into what seemed a fairly small room, though it was too dark to tell for sure. The solitary ray of light came from a window in the wooden door leading to the next chamber.

The only path we could see well enough to take safely led straight from the bottom step to the door. The room seemed bigger walking through it than it had looking into it, only jammed full with barrels and crates. The light was bright in the next room, emanating from lamps of the sort that only trained crafters commanded the skill to make, among Cols, anyway. We peered in the windows, barely allowing our eyes above the solid wood. As I'd expected of a room so brightly lit, there were people inside, two men to be exact, and one was dressed in Baron military uniform.

"Can you see what they're doing?" I whispered to Tuck.

"No�shh," he answered.

Fortunately both men had their backs to us, though that did make it more difficult to discern what was going on. They seemed to be standing in front of a low counter and staring at a large, squarish metal both with several wires protruding in various directions. The uniformed man, the younger of the two, had his hands on his hips and what I judged to be a skeptical expression on his face; the other was earnestly tinkering with the wires and the metal box.

I cringed as I suddenly heard an awful noise � buzzing and crackling and shifting in volume and pitch. The uniformed man had much the same reaction, while the other only worked more intensely. A few sparks shot from the box.

"Aaah � control that thing, you old fool!" the military man spat harshly.

"I remind you, I am not your soldier to command!" the other man snapped back. "I'm generously allowing you to use my conference room as storage space for a few days. In my laboratory, I am the one �" he was cut off by a burst of sound so high it hurt my head. I suddenly realized that the noises were emanating from the metal box on the counter.

More crackling and droning followed, and the older man turned away from his companion and back to his contraption. The buzzing suddenly increased in volume, and to my astonishment I thought I could make out words, or fragments of words, anyway.

"Bzz�re-eet�buzzbuzz�iss is intra-actic�iance�fre-cy�crackle�who �" the voice suddenly because a high shriek, against which I covered my ears and closed my eyes. When I opened them the uniformed man had backed away, and the other was kneeling in front of the counter. Then my eyes grew wide as the man began speaking, slowly and loudly, to a second, smaller device on the counter!

"We are Allies requesting assistance," the man stated. "Our mission has been forgotten and our people abandoned for several centuries. We have just now reestablished communication and request military assistance."

Though he spoke clearly, I couldn't make any more sense of the man's words than I could of the box's. So the Barons had invented a metal box that could not only talk to them, but they could also talk back to it? My teammate looked just as confounded as I felt, which didn't please me.

The box began speaking again. "Where is�iss�ission re-eeved�" The words dissolved completely into crackling.

The kneeling Baron took a moment to reply, as if needing time to process exactly what had been said, then spoke at the smaller device, "Planet Skye."

"Re-eet o�buzz�shun�"

I looked at Tuck as the man continued his conversation with the box. My teammate shrugged, obviously understanding the bizarre scene no more than I did. He rolled his eyes toward the stairs behind us, suggesting that our pursuers had probably passed by now, and we could leave the place.

From the other room I heard "Aah � more! Look, you madman, I don't care a centimeter about your crazy 'research'; whether you like it or not, there are twenty-three powder kegs stored ten feet away from that thing and if you can't make it stop spewing out sparks �"

"And I don't care what you say! After years of work I am finally successful! Just wait until I demonstrate to our leaders�"

I wasn't listening anymore. I was looking slowly around the darkish room in which I stood. Tuck gently ran his hand down one of the stacked objects that filled the room. He half grinned at me. I made a face and started moving quietly for the stairs. He caught my arm and whispered, "We should take some back with us."

Inwardly I groaned, but I knew he was right. Twenty-three! I thought, shivering. "How do we get it out?" I asked in a whisper. He couldn't expect to steal a whole barrel away, and we had no weapons to cut the wood�

"Hmm," Tuck wondered, seeing my point. Experimentally I tried to lift the cover off a barrel, and to my surprise, and admittedly, dismay, it came right off.

Tuck grinned impudently at me as he quietly ripped one of the sleeves off his shirt. Our uniform sleeves are designed to tear off for use as sacs to carry water or other materials if needed. My teammate tied one end of the sleeve in a knot, scooped some powder out of the barrel (I winced as he did so) and tied off the other end. I heard another high-pitched whine from the next room. We left as quickly as we dared. There must have been a third entrance to the conference room somewhere, because I couldn't imagine they'd have brought all those barrels down the stairs, or were planning to carry them up that way again. We were careful to make sure no one was about before entering the bright hallway, and, myself fighting not to run down the small passage and out the door, left they way we'd come in. We made our way quickly out of the open field and back into the relative safety of the Baron forest.

We were now in the same position in which we'd been that morning � no real idea where we were or where to go but knowing that we had to find and warn an army before all else. It was too bad we hadn't learned anything important spying in the Baron building, but at least we were still alive and free, and now equipped with a sack of explosive powder besides. We'd lost some time, though, which would have to be made up.

That evening, however, Tuck suggested we take a major chance. His idea was to find a tree atop a hill and spend the night there. After a moment I understood the plan � the army would probably light campfires at night, at least briefly, giving us a chance to locate them. The risk was in the fact that we couldn't climb in the dark, and so would have to waste a lot of time that could otherwise be spent moving. I knew how long a shot it was because Tuck actually asked my opinion instead of simply acting the Captain, but I slowly nodded my assent. Our chances of spotting the army were slim no matter what our method � at least this way our eyes could cover a broader area.

So we picked a suitable tree and climbed it, a difficult task with no rope, and found some elevated but comfortable places to rest, places from which we wouldn't fall even in sleep, and scanned the area, Tuck facing one way and I the opposite. Neither of us saw anything to start, but we waited. And watched. And waited. The sun set. My eyelids drooped. We waited. Though we both remained awake well into the night, we saw nothing. I don't remember falling asleep; I just remember waking with the dawn the next morning, keenly disappointed.

We'd lost a lot of time and only determined that the army was nowhere near us. We continued moving south and east, the direction in which we'd first seen them, though by now they could easily be in front of us or have changed their heading. This time we made sure to steer clear of any settlements. We decided to go with the tree plan again, and had the same success as the night before. By our third day searching I began to wonder if we should just give up on the army and take the powder we'd obtained back to Col territory. Tuck was particularly stubborn, though, and insisted that we had to find them, or die trying. I rather thought the latter more likely, but forced optimism on myself as I'd been taught. I thought of the abortive battle Torrey's group had fought, where they'd been caught unprepared. This army would suffer the same fate unless we could warn them in time.

The third night, from my vantage point high in a tree, I spotted smoke against the dark background, and it was all I could do not to shout for joy. Tuck leaned over to look, and indeed there seemed to be at least a dozen fires. Campfires! We forced ourselves to think cautiously. There was no guarantee that we'd found them; for all we knew it could be a Baron army upon which we were looking down. And we couldn't go investigate until tomorrow because we were stuck in this tree! I squeezed the tree branches in frustration.

"Both moons are out," Tuck pointed out quietly. "Both over half full."

He wasn't actually suggesting anything yet, I read from his tone. Even Tuck had admitted to himself how dangerous it would be to climb down in the dark, though he wouldn't admit it to me. I sighed. There was enough moonlight to see a little, but even that would grow thin once we were midway through the tree. I estimated that we were about fifteen meters up. A fall on the way down could easily prove crippling if not fatal, and then we'd never reach the army in time. After finally spotting them, we couldn't afford to fail now for our own overzealous stupidity.

I sighed again and looked at my teammate. His boyish eyes looked restless and annoyed, but he knew as well as I did that for once we had to take the conservative route. Desperation was cause enough to take major chances, even curiosity was worth a risk once in a while, but impatience was not. We had to act with discipline. Tuck pushed himself away from me and back against his tree in response to what I wasn't saying. He wasn't really angry, though, and not even doing a good job of acting it.

"As soon as the sun rises." His voice was completely earnest, I was glad to hear.

"And not a second later," I promised, looking back out at the rising smoke columns in the distance. I found myself wishing, as well as I knew my teammate was, that some emergency would surface for which we'd have to rush down right away. Discipline, I reminded myself.

Neither of us slept that night.

* * *

As promised, at first light we began our downward climb, taking it only slightly more quickly than we probably should have. Tuck, with his charter's sense of direction, knew exactly where to go to reach the army, and we moved quickly over the terrain, somewhat forgoing stealth for speed. It would be best for us to reach them before they left, but we knew they'd probably also begun moving at the crack of dawn. All that was really important was that we found them today. Sure, if we lost them, we could easily find another tree to locate them again, and finally meet them tomorrow, but we really didn't want for it to come to that. The little patience we had between us had been sapped last night. Besides, tomorrow might be too late.

By noon we'd reached what had obviously been their campsite, and found it abandoned, but it was easy to see where they'd gone. Before long we spotted the back of the army and shouted in victory upon seeing them clad in blue. We rushed forward, yelling to attract their attention, for a marching army is quite noisy. It felt so, so wonderful to finally spring out from hiding, after practicing stealth and silence for so long. I was grinning broadly as soldiers turned to stare, most stopping in their tracks as they did so. Tuck raced around one side of the massive army and I around the other, and we met at its head. And then I was face to face with a General. The highest fighting rank.

I saluted the man as was proper, and so did Tuck. The General irritably returned the salute and ordered his army to halt. I felt abashed. Running and shouting had felt so good�but we'd acted without discipline just then. This hadn't been the way to make the greatest first impression.

"May I ask what seems to be the trouble, missioneers?" the General asked, his voice a stern reprimand but not really unfriendly.

Tuck answered, with none of the nervousness or embarrassment I felt. "We're sorry to disrupt your march, General, but you've been spotted. The Barons know you're coming, sir."

"Really?" The man's tone was unreadable, though I had his clean slate down. "How did you two come by this information?"

"They had us in custody, sir, when your men were spotted moving far below and behind us. We�we tried to warn you, sir, but the distance �"

"And then they let you go in order to alert their allies to our presence?" The General raised his eyebrows, unbelieving.

"No, sir, two of five remained to guard us, but with their numbers reduced we managed to escape." Even if Tuck wasn't overtly intimidated I'd never heard such deference in his voice.

The man was silent for a moment, pondering, and Tuck looked like he wanted to say more, but a soldier, even a missioneer, could not speak to a General until spoken to. Not even Tuck would break that rule.

"When did this allegedly occur?" the General finally asked.

"Four days ago, sir," Tuck answered.

"They're not aware of our destination, are they, missioneer?"

"No � not that we know of, sir."

Though I realized I'd been holding my breath throughout the exchange, Tuck must have struck the right chord with the General because he ordered his soldiers at ease, and us, too.

After thinking for a brief moment while his army settled, the General frowned slightly and said, half to himself, "While of course I appreciate this information, secrecy is not vital to our effort. Our goal is within a few days' hard march, and so long as we reach the place our assignment will be carried out, no matter who awaits us there."

"But sir, what if you're met before you reach the place?" Tuck didn't look at all abashed that he was disputing a General's word.

"In these parts, soldier, a sufficient force to break this one cannot be mustered in a mere week," the General said sternly.

"One of the Barons went to alert a barracks�" Tuck quickly stopped speaking, realizing that he was way out of turn.

"I know of no barracks near enough to pose a threat." The General sounded as if he were daring Tuck to argue, daring him to question a General's range of knowledge. So much for the right chord. I tried to influence Tuck into silence, and luckily he obeyed, though as usual I didn't know if it were actually my doing or not. My teammate's jaw remained stubbornly set, if he did look less cocky.

The General looked about to send us away, when Tuck, in a rush, said, "Sir, there's a building not three days form here with enough explosive powder stored to burn this army five times over." I groaned inwardly. "With that," my teammate continued, "even a small force could be a threat. Sir."

Instead of reprimanding the young fool missioneer for insubordination, the General's eyes grew slightly wider, and he looked thoughtful. "Would this building," he said slowly, "be called the 'laboratory'?"

I glanced at my teammate, almost certain I recognized that word from the Barons' mysterious conversation.

"Yes!" Tuck's voice was exultant as well as relieved. "Yes, sir. We heard the name mentioned."

The General frowned. "My instructions are to destroy the building, for spies have determined that something potentially devastating to our cause is going on there. The entire building must be a huge bomb. You've actually be inside and seen the powder?"

"Yes, sir, we've got some of it right here!" Tuck yanked his tied-off sleeve out of his belt and held it high. He then handed it to the General, who proceeded to untie one of the knots, peer inside, sniff it, slowly retie the knot, and announce gravely that it was indeed explosive powder. A low murmur rose among the soldiers, most of whom had never seen explosive powder but had certainly heard of it.

"The building should be easy to destroy, then," one of the General's bolder men spoke up. "If it's full of explosive powder."

"Could it be a trap?" another wondered. "Could rumors of the building's importance have been released to our spies deliberately in order to attract an army there?"

The General took it all in quietly. "How did you two come to enter this building and confiscate explosive powder?" he asked, his voice again hard to read.

Tuck glanced at me. "Well, sir," he began, "we were being pursued and needed a place to hide. We didn't know what the building was or what was inside, sir."

"I see."

"Sir?" I felt I had to speak up. I chose my words carefully. "The conversation we overheard led me to conclude that the powder was only there for temporary storage. I've had empathic training, sir, and I believe the powder, some of it anyway, may be out of the building when you reach it." I looked to Tuck for support. He was nodding.

"I agree, sir," Tuck said, "though I'm no empath." I appreciated his phrasing. "It's also not a good location for a bomb. It's in the middle of the forest," he added.

The General looked at us for a moment, in that inscrutable manner of his, before making a decision. "The facts that you have provided may prove valuable," he began, "but unfortunately executive orders take precedence over the gut feelings of two young missioneers, empathic or not. Whether the explosive powder is staying put or not, it must be destroyed. If that means facing an army equipped with powder, so be it. We will do what we must, as Colossan soldiers." He was speaking to everyone now. "We will, however, amend our original strategy to accommodate for the problems that these missioneers seem to foresee. I will divide this army into two groups, for we are enough in number for half to pass as a whole. The first half will attack and if possible destroy the building. If you are met, however, you will fight until the enemy deploys whatever explosives they have accessible. The second half will hang back until the explosives have been detonated and the battle over, and will proceed to the laboratory and destroy it. This way all bases are covered. Understood?"

There was a loud affirmative response from the army, but I didn't sense any enthusiasm. And I understood why! The General had basically just sentenced half his soldiers to death. My mouth was hanging open. As soon as I found my voice, I was the one to start arguing with the General, though as tactfully as possible.

"Sir, with all due respect �" I began, but the General's hard stare cut me off.

"Mind what you are about to say, young missioneer," he said, an icy note of warning in his voice.

"I'm sorry, sir," I stammered, flustered, "but won't that �" I struggled to find a polite way to phrase what I wanted to say. "Won't that plan result in the unnecessary death of much of your army?"

The General looked solemn. "It may result in deaths, but none will be unnecessary. All will be honorable."

"There's a difference between an honorable death and a necessary death," Tuck muttered hotly.

The General's expression again grew blurred. "I think you two missioneers should come with us," he said, grabbing me by the elbow.

"No!" Tuck shouted instantly, fiercely pulling me out of his grasp. He'd practically pulled my arm out of its socket in the process, too, but I didn't even feel the pain; my mouth simply hung open in shock. A missioneer had to follow a General's orders. Even a Captain did. We were now openly defying a General!

"No," Tuck said more calmly, as rage rose behind the General's normally inexpressive eyes. He quickly went on. "A General cannot order a missioneer off his mission, as mission assignments are given by an executive committee of even higher rank." For a fleeting moment I wondered if my teammate really did have a photographic memory, for he sounded as if he were quoting directly from some text he'd read during Mission Training. "Sir. Our mission is to take this powder �" he reclaimed his sleeve from the fist of the incensed General "� back to Col territory to be studied. As you are moving farther into Baron land, traveling with you would be a direct breach of our mission, sir, and we cannot do that."

The General stared hard at Tuck, but it was now my teammate doing the daring. The man's expression calmed. He would not be baited by a pair of emotional young missioneers. "I cannot order you off of your assignment," the General tightly conceded. "I can, however, order you to go directly back to Col ground with that powder, as dictated by your mission. And as a further injunction, in case you find a way around that, I order you not to go near that laboratory building or in any way interfere with my assignment. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," said Tuck, and I echoed his response. As soon as the General bitterly dismissed us, my teammate began pulling me away toward the back of the army, dutifully moving toward Col ground. The eyes of the soldiers watched us as we passed, and sometimes met my own. I was filled with an overwhelming sense of pity and an equally strong wave of anger. These were men and women of my own age, my own training, my own side, just like me. And half of them going to die, just so some weapons could be destroyed. I couldn't believe a General would simply sacrifice his army like this. Was that what it meant to be a General? Being so completely ruthless? I thought of Jossander's grief when one of his men had died due to a mistake he'd made, an honest mistake! And this leader was consciously sending half his soldiers to their demise. Maybe I was na�ve and idealistic. I didn't care. I was appalled.

"Being a soldier's not like being a missioneer, kid," a woman not much older than me said, observing my shocked expression as I passed. That was the truth, I thought, disillusioned and disgusted. Now I saw why Furball and Cat had been so loath to return to their duty, fighting. All of these soldiers really were considered simply expendable.

We passed the tail end of the army and continued on until they were well out of sight. Tuck finally stopped pulling me.

"What are we going to do?" I asked, for we couldn't go back to Colossan land now, even if we had been ordered by a General to do so.

"We're going to run," Tuck responded, his grin gritty with determination instead of boyish. "On a circular route, all the way back to that building. We've got to beat that army there. Luckily," and his smile became even broader, "they're not taking the fastest path, either."