Del knelt, putting one hand on the reddened, abraded area. "Is it broken?"
"I don't think so. But I'm betting it'll color up nicely by morning." I tried again, arrived on my feet. The leg was very sore but whole. I was lucky it hadn't been crushed. "I've got to see the stud."
"Nayyib has him. He'll be fine."
I limped over anyway, talking to the stud as I approached so I wouldn't startle him. "He's cut," I said sharply.
Nayyib, still holding the stud's head, nodded. "Sword blade. Just a slash, I think, but painful."
It was in the fleshy part of the stud's left haunch, about six inches long. It wasn't deep enough to sever muscle, but it had laid the flesh back. Blood bathed his left hind.
"Oh, son," I murmured, "the bastard got you."
"It'll need stitches." Nayyib stroked the stud's nose gently even as he worked the rein. "I have silk thread in my pouches, and a needle."
The stud, bothered by dripping blood and sweat, kicked out sideways with his left hind. I shook my head. "He's not about to put up with that right now."
Nayyib nodded. "We'll need to get him down, have someone sit on his head. And tie his legs—and probably his tail—so he can't kick or blind me."
I looked at him sharply. "You?"
"I've done it before." He smiled crookedly. "When I was no longer a child playing with sticks, I dreamed of being a sword-dancer in my head. What I did outside of it was work with stock; my father has a small horse farm near Iskandar."
"Then why aren't you there?" I asked. "Or do you have so many brothers he doesn't need you?"
"Oh, no, there is only me and my sister. But we had a disagreement, he and I."
"Don't tell me. You told him you wanted to be a sword-dancer."
Nayyib soothed the stud with his hands and voice. "He did not approve."
I sighed, winced as I put too much weight on my aching leg. 'I think about all I'm good for is sitting on his head. But he'll go down if I give him the signal; I trained him to that for sandstorms."
Nayyib looked doubtful. "After a fight?"
I considered it. Possibly not. "Let me try," I said.
Nayyib nodded.
I went to the stud's head, looked him in the eye, told him I needed him to go down, then gave him the signaclass="underline" a slap on the left shoulder. He wrung his tail and made no move.
"Oh, come now," I said. "You've done this before."
Another slap, plus a prodding thumb.
Nothing. Except for a very stubborn look in his eye.
"All right, we'll do it my way," Nayyib said. "Del can mind the rope snubbing up his one leg, while I stitch." He glanced over his shoulder at Del, who had caught her gelding and Nayyib's and waited out of the way. "Can you get into my saddlepouches? There is a leather pouch in there, dyed blue. It contains medicaments. And I need you to bring me every halter rope and my spare burnous."
She nodded and turned to his horse.
Nayyib eyed me sidelong. "I've stitched men, too."
I shook my head. "Bruised, not bloodied. I'll wrap my knee later for support." And maybe my elbow as well.
His tone was coldly angry. "I have never seen anyone purposely run a horse into another. To purposely risk a mount with such brutality, just to kill another man."
I wasn't sure if he was angrier about the risk to horseflesh or human. "If you live long enough, I guess you see everything."
And then Del was back, bringing ropes, burnous, and pouch, and we forgot about dead men, dead horses, and tended a live one.
TWENTY-NINE
BY DEL'S tense silence, I knew she was worried. It's not often you attempt to drop a stallion to the ground when he has no interest in going there. But Nayyib was right: the only way we could get the slash stitched up was to put the stud out of commission temporarily. He wasn't a man; you couldn't explain to him what needed to be done and why and expect him to agree. Nor could you get him drunk, and none of us was strong enough to knock him unconscious. So while Del and I got him unsaddled, with blankets and pouches pulled off and deposited on the ground, Nayyib calmly rigged a lip-twitch and a rope harness, winding wide strips of his spare burnous around the hemp to pad it.
"Hobble his back legs." He handed me a pair of sheepskin-padded hobbles he'd conjured from his saddlepouches. "And bind up his tail."
Very dictatorial, Nayyib, when it came to horses. But I deferred, impressed by his confidence and quick thinking. Carefully I did as he asked, snugging the padded cuffs around both back legs. They were shorter than usual, also, meant to keep the legs closer together. A long leather thong controlled the tail, which was long enough—and strong enough—to blind a man if it slashed tough horsehair across his eyes.
"Hold him a moment," Nayyib told Del quietly, and as she took the bridle the kid efficiently set about looping padded ropes around various parts of the stud's body. "All right," he said. "Tiger, come hold his head. Del, take this rope. When I say to pull as hard as you can.
It sound risky to me. "What will you be doing?"
Nayyib's smile was brief. "I'll be on the other leg. If all works well, he'll go over onto that right shoulder. Once he does, sit on his head. Hold him there. Use the twitch to take his mind off everything else." He glanced at Del. "Keep that rope snubbed tight. I'll stitch as fast as I can. If I'm lucky, the rear hobbles will keep him from kicking my head off."
"Then what?" I asked.
"Once I'm done, I'll clear out. Del, you'll loosen your rope. Tiger, you get off his head. He'll come up lunging, but the hobbles will hold him in place. All right?"
"Yes," Del said. I nodded.
Nayyib drew in a deep breath, moved to the stud's left fore. "Pull, Del!"
She pulled. Nayyib grabbed the left leg and folded it up. The stud flung his head, which nearly decapitated me, then went down hard on the ground, rolling onto his right shoulder as the kid had hoped. I was aware of Del working swiftly to snub and hold taut her rope. Then I plopped myself down on the stud's head up behind his ears, where the neck began, and caught hold of the rope twitch in my left hand. He was breathing hard, muscles twitching, nostrils fluttering with explosive snorts that raised puffs of dust. The visible eye rolled, displaying reddened membranes.
"Hurry up!" I gritted, gripping the twitch and bridle.
My back was to the stud's body, so I couldn't view anything Nayyib did. If I glanced to my right, I could see Del leaning against the rope crossing over the stud's neck But mostly I watched his visible eye, balancing my weight evenly. With a knee on either side of him, one hand locked into the headstall of his bridle and the other tightening the rope twisted around his bottom lip, I realized my gehetties were in a rather perilous position. If he flung his head up, I'd likely be unmanned.
I swore again, spitting a faint sifting of dust from my mouth.
"How is your leg?" Del asked tightly.
"Ask me when we're done."
Stitching seemed to take forever. But eventually Nayyib warned us to be ready. "Del, loosen the rope just a little. When Tiger gets off his head, give the stud as much slack as you can. He'll come up hard and fast, but clumsy." He paused. "Tiger?"
"I'm ready."
"Del?"
"It's loose."
"All right, Tiger."
I let go of twitch and bridle and pushed up and away with planted legs, propelling myself forward. I rolled, crouched, stood, hopped briefly as my left leg complained. Saw Del feeding more rope, then jumping back. Nayyib was near the stud's head, freeing the twist of rope around his bottom lip. And indeed the stud came up hard and fast, lunging frenziedly. The padded rope slid from his neck and chest, pooled on the ground around his right leg. He wobbled a little, discovering his rear legs were still hobbled, then found his balance. He stuck his big head high in the air, eyeing me, then released a pent-up snort of severe annoyance that sprayed slime in all directions.