Eleeri tried to explain and gave it up, simply sending her emotion in a rush of feeling. Increased anger at the treatment of mare and foal, friendship that could be deeper with an intelligent mind, admiration of the pair—of the mare’s courage, of the foal’s beauty. It was that last which melted the receiver a little.
*My son is a fine colt. I marvel, human, that you appreciate him. Yet I suppose even a dull human can see his beauty.*
Eleeri assured her she could. She glanced at the slender legs as they hung over the bedroll and a thought occurred.
“That man will pursue us all, I am sure of it. Do you know much of this land? Is there a place where you might be safe?”
*If he follows us alone, there are few places. There is nothing to divert him from our trail. Nor would my kind become involved. They would see no reason to do so. I see no chance of being free of him unless he is killed.*
Eleeri walked on in silence, considering. If Gerae wouldn’t stop following, then he would just have to be dealt with. She’d seen his eyes on her and her possessions. If he could kill all of them, he would have a good horse, its gear, and everything else in her saddlebags. It might even be that the thought of loot pulled him more strongly than the death of the Keplians.
There’d been something else in his last look. If he took her unaware, she, too, might be a long time dying. He hadn’t scrupled to torture a foal. Out here where no one would know her ending, he was unlikely to have scruples about her, either.
To take her mind from the thought, she began to question Tharna. “What do you know of the Dark?”
The mare’s skin shivered in response. *There is a tower on the lands my people graze. For long and long it was empty. Half-ruined. Then one came. The Keplian stallions answer his demands. They have become still more cruel. We have always been enemies to others who share the lands. We kill them where we can, as they kill us. Now the tower lord demands we do not do this.*
“How does he enforce that?”
*He can lay on us a compulsion. At first he did so often. The stallions were used to bring humans to him.*
“How did they bring humans?”
Tharna snorted in apparent amusement. *Humans love horses. Are my kind not far more beautiful? We appear tame. When we appear willing to be ridden, humans will risk much for that favor. Once on our backs, they are caught. Unable to dismount. They may thus be borne to the tower.* She whisked her tail in disgust. *I do not approve. That is, I did not. Now I think it would be well if humans were all taken to this tower lord. They are his kind. Let him use them.*
“What does he do with them?”
*I know not. Only that they go in and do not come out again.* Eleeri was left to consider that in silence. Her mind then returned to the worry of Gerae. The mare, too, believed he would follow them. He might even be able to obtain help from others if he lied with sufficient conviction.
Her eyes went to Hylan. His legs were badly bruised, and she was no trained vet. It would be at least a week before the injuries healed sufficiently for the foal to do his share of the walking. On the other hand, Gerae already had two good horses, thanks to her bargain. He could ride both into exhaustion to catch her—if he could find them at all. With luck he was floundering about on a riverbank many miles from here. She regretted giving up the horses she had cared for and loved. Gerae might ill treat them in an effort to catch up. But if she kept to her tactics of muddling trails, he would spend more time watching the ground and riding slowly. That would spare innocent beasts as well as possibly gaining her and the Keplians time and miles on him.
Tharna agreed. Not that the Keplian cared for horses, or for humans, but the safety of Hylan was everything to her. If this man could be kept from her foal, she would agree to any idea which might work. She, too, understood the danger; with her colt unable to walk, she must reluctantly depend on the human to keep him safe. It galled her. But at least the human spoke to her fairly, treating her as a Keplian and not as one of the stupid beasts they rode.
Two days passed as they continued to follow the river road. At intervals they halted for the colt to nurse. At night they took it in turns to watch, half a night each. Both had the feeling that behind them Gerae followed.
They were right. Worse still, he was not alone but had successfully convinced two others to join him. Thus far they had been spectacularly unsuccessful in their hunt. They had chased the trail upriver, found the deliberate hoofmarks, and wasted more than a day following farther upriver as they scanned the banks. Then, fearing they had missed where their quarry had left the water, they had backtracked very slowly. They had then ridden on into the beginning of the mountains.
“She wouldn’t come here, Gerae. It’s to my mind they’ve gone on down the other fork.”
“Why would they do that?”
His companion snorted angrily. “I reckon they won’t take that foal into the mountains. It won’t be able to walk yet, not for days. No, they’ll stick to the plain. Hope to lead us into some Keplian trap. If we split up, we can check the bank on both sides at once. That’ll cut down tracking time.”
It did, but by the time they struck Eleeri’s tracks again, she and the Keplians were skirting the mountain spur. They kept within the foothills. As long as they traveled at a walk, the foal was no great burden to the horse. At first the mare’s bruises and lash marks had pained her greatly, but with the passage of days they healed slowly. The girl’s obvious concern for her, the offering of herbs to help her heal, surprised the mare. She was not used to a human who liked her. That Eleeri honestly did, and that the emotions of that liking and would-be friendship were coloring her every mind-send, were gradually winning the mare over.
They had spoken little as they marched. Now Tharna found herself wanting to talk, to discover why this human was so different from those others she had known.
She hovered over her foal. Hylan was improving with each day that passed. Soon he would be able to walk part of the trail instead of being carried the whole time. The human’s interaction with the foal had also surprised her. Hylan clearly trusted the girl and Tharna wasn’t sure she approved that. But the human had helped the colt’s injured legs, rubbing on the juice of mixed herbs to ease the pain. She laughed with him, stroked and patted him with affection. Lifted him with such care at each resting place. The mare watched her colt as he trusted, and slowly she, too, began to trust.
Behind them the pursuit had quickened. The three had met others, who had loaned them spare horses in their supposed pursuit of killers in exchange for their own leg-weary mounts. The trade enabled the trio to press the trail hard.
Days slipped by. The colt spent more and more of his time walking on his own legs now, strengthening with the love and care showered on him. Tharna felt strange as she watched the human throw gentle arms about him. She felt the overflow of love as Eleeri stroked her son. Without consciously deciding to do so, she had steered their trail around the Keplian lands. Thus far they had met none of her own kind.
She feared their reaction if they did. How would they see her wanderings with this human? Worse still, how would they view the friendship between a Keplian foal and human? She could guess at that one. She had no desire to see her son slaughtered as a traitor. As they walked, she began for the first time to question her allegiances. She wanted to talk over her thoughts but feared to speak. This could still be some trick of a cunning and clever race. Perhaps the girl had fooled her. Time would doubtless show, if she made no foolish moves herself. She paced on, following the lead horse.
Unknown to Eleeri, they had been seen. Valley scouts had spotted them as they skirted the mountains, and watched the direction of their travel. They had not been close enough to see more than a girl with three horses, but they mentioned it to the next travelers they met. These were Gerae and his men, well astray to the northwest. With that information they rode hard to intersect Eleeri’s path.