“I never thought you could do it, M’lord. Never ,” Tala breathed. “How did you ever get them to agree without-?” Her eyes cut to his sword hilt, and he chuckled.
“As to that, it wasn’t so hard a thing. Mind, that farmer’s missed his calling, for he’s one could make money selling stones to Purple Lords.” He shook his head and looked at the three unprepossessing animals behind him. “My folk wouldn’t be wasting pot space on two of these, and the third’s no courser! I’ve no mind at all to hear what old Hardak or Kulgar would be saying if they knew I’d paid for nags like these!” He shook his head again, trying to imagine the expressions of the two captains who’d led a very young Bahzell on his first raid against the vast Sothōii herds if they could see him now. Imagination failed, and he was just as glad it did.
“But how did you talk them into it?” Tala pressed, and he shrugged.
“I’d a heavy purse, and it’s a lighter one now. They took every Navahkan coin I had, and the lot of us spent ten minutes breaking down paddock fences and scuffing the ground.” He shrugged again. “If any of Churnazh’s men track us back to them, why, they’ve proof enough how hard they tried to stop my stealing these miserable racks of-that’s to say, these noble beasts.” He sounded so wry Tala chuckled, despite her exhaustion and fear, and he grinned.
“There’s the spirit! Now let’s be getting Farmah in the saddle.”
Neither woman had ever ridden a horse. Tala, at least, had ridden muleback a time or two before she fell into Churnazh’s service, but Farmah had no experience at all, and she was in no fit state for lessons. She bit her lip, wide skirt bunched clumsily high, clutching at the high cantle of the saddle and trying not to flinch as the stolid horse shifted under her, and Bahzell patted her shoulder encouragingly. It wasn’t hard to reach. Even mounted, her head was little higher than his.
“Don’t be fretting, lass,” he told her. “These are war saddles,” his palm smacked leather loudly, “and you’ll not fall out.”
She nodded uncertainly as he buckled a strap around her waist, snapped it to rings on the saddle, and grinned at her.
“I’m thinking friend Turl-the son of Hirahim who parted with these nags-wasn’t always a farmer. Not with these in his barn.” He bent to adjust the stirrups to her shorter legs and went on speaking. “But however he came by them, it’s grateful I am he had them. Wounded stay with the column or die in war, lass; that’s why they’ve straps to hold a hurt man in the saddle.”
She nodded nervously, and he gave her shoulder another pat and turned to Tala. The housekeeper had split her skirts down the middle and bound the shredded halves tightly about her legs; now she scrambled up into the second saddle without assistance. Fortunately, the plow horse under it was staid enough not to shy at her clumsy, if determined, style, and Bahzell nodded in approval and showed her how to adjust the straps. She had the reins in her hands, and he managed not to wince as he rearranged her grip, then tied the lead from Farmah’s horse to the back of her saddle.
“But . . . what about you, M’lord?” Tala asked as she glanced at the third horse. It had no saddle, only a pack frame.
“Now wouldn’t it be a cruel thing to be putting the likes of me on a horse’s back?” Bahzell replied, slinging his rucksack to the frame. “I’ve yet to meet the beast that can carry me more than a league-or outpace me over the same distance, for that matter.”
“But I thought-” Tala broke off as he looked at her, then shrugged. “They do call you ‘Horse Stealers,’ M’lord,” she said apologetically.
“And so we are, but that’s for the cooking pot.”
“You eat them?!” Tala looked down at the huge animal under her, and Bahzell chuckled.
“Aye, but don’t be saying so too loudly. You’ll fret the poor beasties, and no Horse Stealer would be eating anything this bony.” Tala blinked, and Bahzell lowered his ears more seriously.
“Now pay me heed, Tala. Churnazh will be after us soon-if he’s not already-and I’m thinking there’s no way the three of us can show them our heels.” One ear flicked at Farmah, drooping in the saddle, her small store of recovered energy already spent, and Tala nodded silently.
“Well, then. When you can’t outrun them, it’s time to outthink them. That’s why I’ve gone west, not east for Hurgrum as they might expect. But when they miss us on the east road, even the likes of Churnazh will think to sweep this way, as well.”
He paused, ears cocked, until Tala nodded again.
“I’d a few words with Turl,” he went on then, “and there’s one lad as wants us caught no more than we do, not with the questions they’ll be asking when they see saddles on the horses I ‘stole’! From the way he tells it, there’s a village-Fir Hollow, he called it-two leagues northeast of here. Do you know it?”
“Fir Hollow?” Tala repeated the name and furrowed her brow, then shook her head. “I’m afraid not, M’lord,” she apologized, and Bahzell shrugged.
“No reason you should, but here’s what I’m thinking. The road forks there, and the right fork-the eastern one-hooks north towards Chazdark.”
“Oh!” Tala nodded sharply. “I know that town, M’lord. Fraidahn and I were there once, before-” She broke off, pushing the painful memory aside, and Bahzell squeezed her forearm.
“Good. We’ll be heading cross-country a while longer, then cut back to reach the road between Fir Hollow and Chazdark, and I’ll find a place for the two of you to lie close during the day. Tomorrow night, you’ll be back on your way to Chazdark, and I’m thinking you’ll reach it before dawn.”
“We’ll be on our way, M’lord?” Tala asked sharply. “What about you? ”
“I’ll not be with you,” he said, and she sat very straight in the saddle and stared at him. He pulled a ring off his finger, and she took it, too stunned even to argue as he dug a scrap of parchment from his pouch and passed it over, as well.
“It’s sorry I am to be leaving so much to you, Tala,” he said quietly, “but a blind man couldn’t miss the three of us together, and even ahorse, Farmah can’t move fast enough. They’ll run us down in a day at the best pace we can make if they spy us in the open, so we’ll not get Farmah to Hurgrum without showing them another hare to chase.”
“What do you mean, M’lord?” she asked tautly.
“Get off the horses when you near Chazdark. Tether them in the woods somewhere you’re certain you can be describing to someone else and leave Farmah with them. Then take this-” he touched the parchment “-to the city square, and ask for a merchant called Ludahk.” He repeated the name several times and made her repeat it back to him three times before he was satisfied. “Show him the parchment and the ring and tell him I sent you. Tell him where to be finding Farmah and the horses, and that I said he’s to take you to my father.” He held her eyes in the moonlight, face grim. “Tell him one last task pays for all-and that I’ll be looking for him if it should happen he fails in it.”
“W-Who is this Ludahk?” Tala asked in a tiny voice.
“Best know no more than you must. He’ll not be happy to see you any road; if he thinks you know more than that he’s a merchant who trades with Hurgrum-aye, and maybe does a little smuggling on the side-he might be thinking he should take his chance Churnazh can lay me by the heels and cut your throats himself.”
Tala paled and swallowed hard, and Bahzell grinned at her.
“Hush, now! Ludahk knows I’m not so easy taken as that, and he’ll not want the least chance that I might come hunting him, for he knows I won’t come alone if I do. He’ll see you safe to Hurgrum-just don’t you be looking about you at anything you shouldn’t be seeing. Understand?”
“Yes, M’lord.” He nodded and started to turn away, but she caught his shoulder, and he turned back with ears at half-cock. “I understand, M’lord, but what I don’t understand is why you don’t come with us. If this Ludahk can get us to Hurgrum, why can’t he get you there?”