GAME

"Riding," says Sabiha, "but the contact shouldn't be there until tomorrow afternoon or evening. Plenty of time to get there and ambush Osan."

Tobias massages his horse's legs as the last heat of the day rises up from the sere land into the dark starry void above. There are no clouds and the chill comes quickly.

Distantly, you hear hyenas laughing.

After about an hour, the horses stand comfortably and you are able to mount and ride. The sound of hyenas comes closer as the horses walk. Sabiha guides you by landmarks vaguely visible as faint silhouettes against the stars - a distant mountain, a ruined tower, even a constellation. The hyenas have been silent for a while.

"About a half an hour more," Sabiha says, and then the sound of hyenas comes from all around you and then they are among you.

There's mayhem of leaping and laughing and biting and horses thrashing around, and somehow none of you break a leg, but you're tumbled off your steeds and ignored by the hyenas for now as they hamstring and slaughter the horses first.

You're all without horses, standing kind of on the edge of the debacle. You could run, or you could fight.

You soon put enough distance from the feasting hyenas that it is very unlikely they would bother to leave their kill to chase you. Likewise you can expect that any other predators will go to the scent of fresh blood.

After about two hours running then jogging then walking, Sabiha says " There" and you see the silhouette of a ruined temple that once had three towers set in a triangle.

A light flickers in a lower window. Too yellow to be a torch. An oil lamp and somebody moving around it.

"I hope it's Osan," Sabiha says viciously. Then cautiously: "I really hope it's not anyone else."

Separating from the others, Tobias moves quickly and silently up to the window and looks in. He sees a small, muscular man with a pointy red goatee. The man is pacing in a circle around an oil lamp that is set on the blue-tiled floor of the room. The room looks opulent in an ancient-temple kind of way. There are murals on the walls but they either are masked by shadow or maybe they've been defaced, it's too dark in there to tell for sure. The lamp does not really light the room that well. The pacing man is gesturing to himself, counting on his fingers and moving his lips as if he is rehearsing talking points.

Tobias returns to the group and reports what he saw. Sabiha nods sharply, her eyes flashing green. "That is Osan!" she whispers intensely. "He has the gem. Quickly, let us kill him and take — no, that will not work. I need the letters of credit. We must bide for the contact to come."