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CHAPTER 16

      ARM WAS jolted out of sleep by a sword-thrust of thought: "She's reached the river; I'll crush your bones to paste if she slips away now! Search. Find her!" The silent voice battered his defenseless mind.

      Master, we've scoured . . . Arm was silenced by a jolt of pain just behind his left ear. A sob escaped his lips and his nose began to bleed.

      "Get up! Take your worthless men and search up and down the river. Go NOW!"

      "Master, I will." The exhausted Arm dragged himself to his feet and forced his voice into tones of command: "Up, men, it's time to run. Sniff every bush and branch along the water. Sleep? No sleep for you again until we've found the woman with yellow eyes."

      The weary soldiers sprang up and ran, terrified by the mad voice that followed them . . . but what they heard was only an echo of the terrible voice that tormented Arm's mind — the voice that would not let him rest. "Find her, Arm, and there will be rich, delicious rewards . . . fail me now and I'll punish you until you beg to be roasted alive rather than continue to live. You're close now. Keep looking."

      Running, the Arm coughed once and tasted blood. The voice stayed with him, threatening, cajoling, shouting orders.

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