Eddrith stopped at a wagon. A sorrel horse was tied to one of the rear wheels; as we did, Eddrith used a rope halter. Pulling on the end of the rope would quickly undo the tie. With the stud, I didn’t have that luxury; I had to use a more assertive tie.
“This is my horse,” he said.
“Bring him to Mahmood’s,” I told him. “Walk, don’t mount.”
One tug undid the halter tie. Eddrith was beginning to look resentful. It was an expression a man would show when he wished only to help, yet was treated like a potential opponent. He was young. I doubted he was experienced enough to portray himself as an innocent when in truth he was a raider.
We arrived at Mahmood’s. Del and I untied our mounts as Eddrith waited with his horse. I flipped the lead-rope over the stud’s shoulder, tied it to the pommel. The odors of various meats, bread, spices, and pastries served notice that my belly was unhappy, and I remembered Del and I had not had any breakfast.
Later, I told my belly. After.
“Wait,” I said to Eddrith. “Wait until Del and I have mounted.” The last thing I wanted was for him to be above us holding an unsheathed sword.
His expression now was mutinous. He glared at both of us. He mounted after Del and I were settled. “I’m here to help you!” he said in a simmering anger. “Did I not find the raiders? Did I not take you to them?”
“You did,” Del said, but nothing more.
That did not satisfy Eddrith. “I told you what happened to me, to that caravan! I told you about the raiders and what they did! Why won’t you trust me?”
I leaned forward, palms on the pommel, stretching my back. “A girl’s life is at stake. Would you trust us if it were the other way around?”
He opened his mouth. Shut it. “No.”
“Then let’s go,” Del said. “All this talk-talk-talk.”
She had a point. “Remember,” I said to Eddrith. “Distract one of the raiders. Once he is distracted, mount. Ride down the line and cut the lead-ropes on all five horses wherever you find them. Send them away. As they go, other men may appear from Zayid’s encampment, and we’ll be able to see where it is. That’s where Rashida will be.”
What I didn’t say, what Del didn’t say, was that we hoped Rashida was there and had not been sold away. But this was our best opportunity of locating her.
“That wasn’t what you said before. You wanted a man to question.”
I smiled at him. “I thought of a better plan. Go. Del and I will be watching.”
“You can’t see the horses from here,” Eddrith said, frustrated.
Del asked lightly, “Who said we’d stay here?”
He glared at us a moment. Then turned his horse and walked down the front line of wagons. Del and I rode behind the other row, shielded by conveyances. At the end, we halted, watched.
“So, you changed the plan because you don’t trust him?” Del asked.
“I figured it wasn’t a bad idea. If he is trustworthy, he’ll do what we suggest.”
Eddrith, leading his sorrel, walked to one of the raiders. By his gestures, it appeared he was indeed discussing horses. And as the discussion grew quarrelsome, the other two men holding horses watched as well.
“Now,” I said quietly, watching Eddrith closely.
And as if he heard me, he turned, began to walk away. The raiders watched after him a moment. Then he was moving, swinging up into his saddle. He spun his horse back toward the men as he unsheathed his sword, and rode right at them. The blade swung in morning sunlight as Eddrith rode the line and cut the lead-ropes. He shouted like a maniac to drive the horses away.
“There,” Del said.
A tent we had not seen the previous day disgorged two men who ran to help. Only three of the horses had run at Eddrith’s behest. Two were left behind and two of the raiders quickly knotted the free end of the halter ropes to use as reins and swung aboard. Bareback, they unsheathed swords that had been hanging at their waists.
Eddrith made his horse dance in front of them, easily avoiding the raiders. But that only lasted a moment. With the five men mounted, he’d lost most of his advantage. Wisely, helpfully, he wheeled his horse and rode away into the line of wagons, shouting for Marketday people to get out of the way. One of the raiders went after the loose horses; the coin on four feet were worth too much to lose.
“And now,” I said.
From behind, Del and I rode up to Zayid’s tent. Many of Zayid’s horses were picketed there. Del took one side, I the other. We cut the picket ropes and sliced through tent guy-lines, where saddled horses waited close to the door flap. But there was some kind of interior framework; the tent wobbled but did not collapse.
I gestured. Del nodded. Behind the tent, she swung off her gelding. With infinite care, she made a hole in the oilcloth, then cut a line through it from top to bottom. She ripped fabric aside.
I took the front, doing much the same thing. I could not trust the door-flap; it’s what Zayid and anyone else inside the tent would use to exit. So I made a new opening. As Del went in the back, I jumped down from the stud and broke through the front.
Zayid had a knife at a girl’s throat.
As he intended, Del and I stopped moving. Our swords were ready, but so was Zayid’s knife. He had not run out with his men. Why should he? They could always steal more horses, and the girl was his protection.
She had, as described, gold streaks in dark hair and Neesha’s eyes. Young, but on the verge of womanhood “Rashida,” I said. “Rasha.”
With a knife at her throat, she did not speak aloud. But her eyes said all that she wished to say. Tears ran down her grimy face, making narrow white rivulets. Zayid had tied her wrists in front of her. He held her close against his body, one arm wrapped tightly around her shoulders. The knife was in the other hand, poised at her neck, free to bite into flesh.
Zayid did not waste his breath on words. He knew why we were there.
Del stood lightly balanced at the cut she had made, at least two long strides away from Zayid. I was closer. I could take him if he held no hostage.
From outside, I heard men calling out to one another. A flicker in Zayid’s eyes, a twitch of his lips told me what I needed to know. Eddrith’s distraction was no longer a distraction; the others now returned to report to Zayid.
He watched us closely. He assessed us. He had seen us work at the caravan, witnessed our skill, our competence. Yes, his men had returned, but he was one, and we were two, and if he killed his hostage he’d be dead the next instant. He knew it. We knew it.
Zayid put a hand on Rashida’s back, and shoved her toward my sword. Then he dove out the doorflap.
Del was there. “Go!” she said. “I have her.”
I went out the opening I’d cut, not through the doorflap—that’s where they expected me. Zayid was on horseback, already galloping away. I swore, thrust my sword through one man and jerked it free. I heard Del say something urgent to Rashida, heard a man cry out, then another. The stud was a step away. I took that step, mounted as hastily as I could while holding a sword, and kicked him hard. He leaped forward, running as the lead-rope beat against the ground. I had one hand full of reins, the other full of sword. His lead-rope had come untied. It was dangerous to ride with the lead-rope or reins hanging. If the stud stepped on either, he might go down, and I with him.