And as the sounds of the foe drew nearer, he surrendered himself to a whoop to match the howls rising from all around him. They breasted one hill and then the next—and the air was suddenly thick with black Mang shafts. One glanced from his hauberk, and his belly clenched; but then he saw, in the fore of the vast array of Mang, the face of his enemy, the one who had slain his love, and a red veil descended over his eyes, fury washed away his doubts and most of his humanity.
For the second time, Perkar Kar Barku raised Harka against the creature who had once been called Ghe, and pounding hooves closed the gap between them.
XXXV Shamans
HEZHI clenched her saw as the horses hurtled madly down the hillside. The sounds behind them were lost—the Huntress and her Hunt, the Mang, and Perkar—swallowed by the forest and the gorge they were descending into. All that existed now were rocks skittering down sharp, sometimes vertical slopes as their mounts struggled to retain footing. Even as Dark recovered from a stumble, one of Sheldu's men shouted as his stallion fell, rolling over him twice before smashing into a tree. The rider, hopelessly tangled in his stirrups, cried out again, more weakly as he and his mount reached a steeper gradient and vanished down it.
“Tsem!” Hezhi called back over her shoulder. “You dismount and walk!” The Giant was well behind them, his overlarge beast clearly unwilling to negotiate the vertiginous path. Tsem nodded reluctantly and got off, stroking the mare's massive head. He reached to unstrap his packs.
“Leave them!” Sheldu shouted. “We are near enough now as to have no need of that!”
Tsem, looking relieved, pulled out his club, threw his shield onto his back, and started down the hillside, puffing and panting.
“How much farther?” Hezhi snapped at the strange man who had somehow—she failed to understand how—become the leader of her expedition. Mindful of Perkar's assertion about him, she watched him carefully.
“No distance at all, as the crow flies,” Sheldu replied bitterly. “On foot, however—it will take some little while. But when we reach the bottom of this gorge, we can ride more freely.”
“Tsem cannot.”
“He can keep up; we won't be able to run, and even if we could, the horses would never manage it.”
Hezhi nodded, but her heart sank; she knew how quickly Tsem's massive bulk tired him.
True to Sheldu's promise, however, they soon reached the narrow bottom of the gorge. A stream coursed swiftly down it, and the air itself seemed cool and wet, smelled of stream. It raised her spirits somewhat, and Tsem, though round-eyed with exertion, seemed able enough to keep up with them on the soft, level earth. Hezhi let Dark lag so that she could stay beside him.
“Will you make it?” she asked worriedly.
“I will,” Tsem vowed.
“If you can't—”
“I'm fine, Princess. I know what you think of me, but I'm done complaining about how useless I am.”
“You were never useless, Tsem.”
He shrugged. “It doesn't matter. Now I know that I can contribute to this battle. Even if my strength to run fails I can turn and defend you against any enemies that might follow us.”
“Tsem, Ghan is already dead.”
“You don't know that, Princess. It couldn't have been Ghan. It must have been someone who resembled him.”
“I'm going to find out. Do you recognize either of those two?” She gestured at the man and woman who rode beside Sheldu.
“Yes. The woman is named Qwen-something-or-other. The man is a minor lord, Bone Eel.”
“A lord and lady from Nhol, here. Then it was Ghan, wasn't it?”
Tsem nodded reluctantly, but they discussed it no further.
Not much later, Sheldu called a halt when another horse collapsed. They stopped and let the animals drink.
“Perkar and the Huntress are doing their work, I hope,” Sheldu said. “I don't hear any pursuit.”
“You won't,” Ngangata pointed out. “This gorge seals out sound from beyond itself. We won't hear them until almost they are upon us.”
“We have to rest, if just for a moment,” Brother Horse said. “Sheldu is right about that.”
Hezhi made certain that Tsem drank some water, and then she walked across the thick carpet of leaves to where Qwen Shen and Bone Eel sat against a tree bole.
When she approached, both quickly came to their feet and bowed.
“Princess,” Bone Eel said. “We are your humble servants. Forgive us for not introducing ourselves until now.”
“I have two questions, and no time for courtly protocol,” Hezhi snapped. “The first question is, why are you here?”
Qwen Shen bowed again. “Your father sent us, Princess, to save you from the agents of the priesthood.”
“My father? The priesthood?”
“Yes, Lady.”
Hezhi blew out a puff of air. “You can tell me more of that later. When you joined us, another man rode with you, a man who tumbled from his horse. Who was he?”
Bone Eel lowered his head. “I believe you knew him,” he said. “That was Ghan, the librarian. It was he who convinced the emperor of the need for our expedition. He was—we shall miss him. I'm sorry.”
Qwen Shen was nodding, and Hezhi thought she caught the sparkle of a tear in the woman's eye. She swallowed the tightness in her own throat.
“Ghan himself—why?”
“He learned of a plot to find you and kill you, or return you to the River. It was commanded by a young Jik, whom I believe you also knew.”
“I knew him in Nhol, and I have seen him more recently in a vision,” Hezhi muttered. “But he is dead. I saw him killed.”
“The priesthood has great power,” Bone Eel told her. “They can create sorcerous creatures. This 'Ghe' is not the man you knew.”
“The man I knew is not the man I knew,” she nearly snarled.
“Mount up!” Sheldu shouted. “We must continue.”
Hezhi leveled a cold gaze at the two. “I will hear more of this later, and I will know, too, how you came to be acquainted with this man Sheldu.”
“Ah,” Bone Eel began. “He is well traveled, an agent of sorts—”
“Later,” she repeated sharply. “I'm confused enough as it is. Much of what you say makes no sense. Just tell me this, quickly. You know what our mission is, here?”
Bone Eel nodded solemnly. “You seek to slay the River.”
“If you interfere, my friends will slay you, do you understand?”
“Indeed, Princess. We have no wish to interfere. It is what Ghan and the emperor agreed upon.”
Hezhi tried to keep her face neutral as she returned to Dark. They were lying, lying, lying, and she knew it. But how much of their talk was false?
Once back in the saddle, she leaned over to Tsem. “If those two do anything even slightly suspicious when we reach this place we are going,” she said softly, “I want you to kill them. Can you pass that along to Brother Horse and Yuu'han?”
Tsem's eyes widened in surprise. “Princess?”
“I mean it, Tsem. We've been through too much to allow agents of my father—or whomever they work for—to interfere. I don't trust them; they act as if they were friends of Ghan, but he would never be friends with such as they.” She paused and almost told him of Perkar's warning about Sheldu, but then she decided that it was best to give Tsem only one thing at a time to worry over.
They resumed, beneath a sky that had begun to don a cloak of dusky clouds. She thought that the rest had done the horses scant good, but the Mang and “Sheldu” probably had greater understanding of the needs of the beasts. Dark's flanks heaved and white foam matted her hair, and Hezhi worried; Dark was her first horse, a beautiful creature, and she did not want to see her die.