"See, I just wanted to touch your hair. Like gold, it is. Please don't run away.
You can trust me to protect you. Come back and eat your supper. I'll tell the others not to tease
you." He took her hand and towed her after him. A few of the campers looked up in interest as
they returned to the fire.
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"Catch the witch, did you?" called out Orboyd.
Gordoc grunted. "You're not a witch, are you, Princess?"
Tashi shook her head.
"She's just scared of us."
Orboyd laughed. "Scared of you, more like."
Gordoc smiled proudly at his princess. "Oh no, I've given my word I'll not let you lot harm her.
She knows she can trust me." The big man picked up her bowl and thrust it at her. "Here, eat.
You have to go back in with the other one in a moment so you'd better get that down you."
Tashi ate quickly, trying to hide her movements by letting her veil of hair flop forwards, but
Gordoc brushed it back, out of her way. He then led her to a tent so she could wash and use the
privy, then guided her back to the wagon. Orboyd was waiting, holding a rope and scarf.
"I'll do that," said Gordoc. "There now, that's not too tight?" Once Tashi was bound and gagged, he scooped her up in his arms, climbed the steps back into the cage, and placed her gently on
the floor next to Ramil. "Make not a sound now and I'll let you out of here as soon as we've got
to safety." He scattered the straw over her like a blessing.
The night seemed endless to Tashi. Lying on the wooden floor, pricked and near suffocated by
straw, she tried to come to terms with what she was experiencing. None of her training had
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prepared her for this. No one here saw any of the things in her that her own
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people believed; she was not respected, listened to, or loved. So what did that make her? A
demon, according to Orboyd. But she knew she was loved by the Mother; she couldn't be evil,
even if other people fixed such labels to her. A pretty pet to the big man who had sensed her
fear? But Tashi, raised in a land of matriarchs, revolted at the idea.
I suppose I'm left with me, whoever that is these days, she thought bleakly.
Ramil could hear the Princess breathing next to him but was tortured by the fact that he could
not speak to her, not even to ask if she was unharmed. He owed it to her at least to think of
some way of escaping. They were still in Gerfal, heading down to the mountains that formed the
border with Brigard.
The alarm must have been raised by now and his people would be combing the land for them. It
was inconceivable that a caravan such as this would be missed before it reached the border.
At dawn he heard the sound he had been expecting all night: the approach of horsemen.
"Ho there, travellers!" called a Gerfalian soldier. "We have orders from the King to search all vehicles on the roads this day."
"But of course," said Orboyd at his most generous. "We are a peaceful group with nothing to hide. Conduct your search and welcome."
Ramil writhed in his bonds but he was so tightly bound and gagged he could do nothing to alert
them to
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his presence. He heard the tramp of feet and good natured banter as the soldiers passed the
time with the circus people.
"Found anything?" asked Orboyd casually from outside the wagon.
"No," replied the soldier. "What's in there?" He thumped the side of the wagon.
"Our tiger, Kosind. You're welcome to go in." Orboyd lifted the canvas on the front of the wagon, letting in the daylight. The tiger rose on its haunches, stretched and yawned.
The soldier peered into the cage. "It stinks in there!"
"That's wild animals for you. Shall I fetch the key?"
The soldier shook his head. "No, that wil do."
Orboyd dropped the canvas back down.
Ramil cursed the soldier. Sweat was running off him as he pulled on his ropes. This was their last
chance!
Then he heard a thud. Tied less tightly, the girl beside him had enough freedom of movement to
hit her head and heels on the floor in a regular beat-- Thud-thud-thud! Thud-thud-thud!
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"What's that?" asked the soldier suspiciously.
"Tiger's tail thumping. Means he's hungry," replied Orboyd coolly.
The girl changed the rhythm-- Thud-thud! Thud-thud!
"I think perhaps we had better take another look at that hungry cat of yours."
The soldier took a firm grip on the canvas.
"That is a shame." There was a hiss of breath and the
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sound of a body falling to the ground. "I do so hate shedding blood this early in the day," said Orboyd.
Further away, another man shouted but his scream broke off abruptly.
A short while later, the door to the wagon flew open. Ramil's bindings were yanked free and he
was dragged, still half-covered in straw, down the steps and out into the clearing. Tashi was
dumped beside him. In front of them lay the bodies of a Gerfalian forest warden and a Crescent
sailor.
"Look what you made us do!" raged Orboyd, his hands still red with the warden's blood. "We were trying to do this the kind way--no one getting hurt, just a quick dash for the border and
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goodbye. We are peaceful people and you made us kill these men!"
Ramil now noticed that the dwarf, Tighe, was wiping a bloodied knife on a rag. It seemed that he
had been responsible for despatching the sailor.
"I cannot have this. You must play by my rules or there'll have to be more killing." Orboyd seized the whip from the tiger tamer. "Which one of you made that noise? I've got to punish you or
you'll force me to kill again and I don't like it!" He ripped the gag off Tashi, then Ramil. "I hope, Your Highness, it was the witch. I don't want to lay a finger on you if I can help it."
"It was me!" Ramil said quickly.
"He lies. It was me," Tashi said, appealing with a look to Gordoc.
The big man strode forward. "You're not harming
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the girl!" He snatched the whip from Orboyd's hand and threw it back to Pashvin.
"You forget yourself, Gordoc. I say who gets punished and who doesn't!"
thundered Orboyd, going eye to eye with the giant.
The old woman strode over, still wearing Tashi's boots, and spat at the ground in front of her.
"You're wasting time, Orboyd. Now you've killed these men, others will be after us. We've got to
get to the border by nightfall.
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There's time enough for punishment when we get to Brigard."
Orboyd broke away from Gordoc. "All right, Minka, all right, we'll settle this later. Hide the
bodies. Set the horses loose. Gordoc, put our guests back in the cage and tie them up properly
this time."
The bodies of the warden and the sailor were not found until the evening.
Ramil's and Tashi's riderless horses were discovered not long after, trotting back towards the
castle. King Lagan heard the news with dismay. It seemed clear that Ramil and the young
Princess were victims of some terrible crime.
He regretted now that he had doubted his son even for a moment. Were their bodies waiting to
be found too? Fearing the worst, he ordered the search to be intensified. Every wagon was
unpacked, every traveller questioned; all that is except for the cage belonging to one very
hungry-looking tiger. The border guard had peered inside and decided that no one could be in