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hard on the already weary macain.
They started shuffling, stumbling, gulping in air, wheezing it out, letting
their heads hang low. Serroi slid off her mount and was quietly pleased
when Hern did the same. They started walking, leading their macain,
hearing behind them shouts of triumph from the minarka. They went around one
bend then another, then started laboriously up a triply looping switchback. On
the third and shortest loop
Serroi stopped. She took two arrows from the case by her shoulder then
handed the reins to Hern. "Go on ahead, Hern."
He touched the side of her face. "You sure?"
"Very." She pointed. "When they come around that bend I'll have a good clear
shot at the leaders. And I
can be around there before they can shoot back if they even have bows. I
didn't see any." She nodded at the curve behind her.
Hern closed one hand on her shoulder, squeezed it in a wordless
expression of fellowship, then began walking away, the macain plodding
after him. He was taking short cramped steps, his own strength drained by the
long, long day.
Serroi got set, arrow nocked, then eased off stance. She walked back and forth
along the short level stretch, afraid her muscles would grow stiff if she
stood still too long.
She heard the hooves of the beasts before she saw the riders. Nocking one
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arrow, holding the other between the last two fingers of her drawing hand, she
waited, breathing slowly, steadily, sinking herself into the mindless
receptive state she'd labored long to achieve.
Two men came round the bend riding side by side. She pulled, loosed, flipped
the second arrow into place, pulled, loosed, then lowered her bow and smiled.
The minarks were collapsing off their mounts, arrows lodged in the narrow
space between the two sections of chest armor, having sliced neatly through
its leather backing. She watched a man crawl hurriedly, nervously, to the
bodies and start hauling them back around the bend, then she turned and
began walking af-ter Hern.
He was waiting for her around that first turn in the road, sitting on a rock.
He got to his feet slowly and stiffly. "Do you ever miss?"
"Not often." She took the reins of her macai and walked on in silence,
unwilling right then to say anything more.
The minarka hung back for over an hour though she knew they were
coming still, feeling them like a black fog behind her, stubborn in
their malice. Again she chose a place of vantage and waited. This time she
dropped only one of them because they were riding in single file and more
cautious about coming around bends. Hem and Serroi plodded on, winding up
and up through the mountains, reaching the saddle of the pass at the end
of another hour.
Hern wiped at his neck with a sodden rag. "Still behind?"
"They expect to catch us at the wall."
"Wall?"
"There is a wall of sorts up ahead." She looked back along the trail. The
minarka weren't visible yet but they were creep-ing up again; she picked up a
rising expectation and a touch of anticipation. "I didn't tell you about the
wall?"
She frowned, tried to remember but found recent events too hazy to sort out.
"About a mile past the saddle. Road goes through a long narrow canyon.
Guardhouse with a well. Gate's usu-ally not barred, they don't try stopping
the
Sleykynin, just beat the gong once they're through." She started down the
long straight incline, stepping carefully over and around the ruts,
slanting a glance at Hern. The elegant boots were scuffed, stretched, and
beginning to sag at the ankles far less elegant and far more comfortable than
before. But the soles were still thin and slippery; his feet had to be sore
and burning. She sighed. Once again she looked back.
A minark stopped at the top of the slope, stared down at them.
Another man came up behind him, yelled and beck-oned. Serroi dropped
the reins and lifted her bow. The mi-narka scrambled hastily out of sight.
Hern chuckled. "You've got them pretty well trained." He was standing on
one foot, leaning against a drooping macai.
She scooped up the dangling reins and slapped her macai on the rump, grimaced
at the sorenes of her calves and started down again. "Just as well," she
said. "TheDom's get-ting low and the Jewels don't give much light."
She yawned. "Another hour at least."
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