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Francesca, whose serious expression had not changed since they left the village, ventured a slight smile “The Hand of God beckons”

With spirits renewed, they forgot they were tired and hungry and that their buttocks were nurew louder, but it didn’t obliterate another sound, a quick whirr as if a river bird had taken flight, followed by a solid tunk

Paul looked down in disbelief A three-foot-long arroas eher and it would have pierced his rib cage He looked toward the shore Flashes of blue-and-white–painted bodies could be seen darting between the trees The ululating war cry filled the air

“We’re being attacked!” Paul yelled unnecessarily

Spurred by the arrows chunking into the water around them, Gamay and Francesca were bent low over their paddles The canoes shot forward out of range

Their pursuers had quickly caught up,the river At one point the trail turned inland to cut through the forest The natives had to fight their way through thick growth to get a clear shot at the canoes They made several attee of their arrows Even the high-tech weapons Francesca helped forge had their limitations

It was obvious that the cat-and-ame soon would turn in favor of the hunters The paddlers were bone-weary They were er paddled in a unified rhytho no farther, they were out of the river and onto the lake They paused for a minute to reconnoiter and to firm up their plan They would cross the open expanse as quickly as possible, ai for the outlet to thethe river would protect them from Chulo arrows

Heartened by the straightforward sche midway between the shore and the falls The thunder of thousands of tons of water pluinable The canoeists could barely see each other in the fine mist that was thrown up at the base of the falls Paul vowed to tell Ga a hotel there They came out of the mist cloud into the open lake Four pairs of eyes scanned the dense forest looking for the outlet

Gamay, as in the lead canoe, pointed with her paddle toward the shore “I see it over there, where the tree line is broken Oh, hell—”

They all saw the source of Gaitation: the flicker of blue and white as three canoes had come out of the river

“It’s a hunting party,” Francesca said, squinting against the sun’s reflection “They’ve been away and won’t knoe’re escaping I’m still their queen as far as they know I’ll try to bluff ht at them”

Gaouts pointed toward the newcon of hostility, and a couple of the from shore Alaric and histo the hunting party The canoes hesitated, then, as the yelling grew louder, they pointed the dugouts toward land The craft had barely touched shore when the hunters were ejected and the chase party took their place

Their prey had taken advantage of the slight pause and paddled madly for the river, but their pursuers quickly cut down the angle

“We can’t make it to the river!” Gamay yelled “They’ll cut us off”

“Maybe we can lose them in the mists,” Paul replied