Raven's Shadow (Raven #1)(29)

Ahead of her, Lehr turned off the deer trail they'd been following and started down the steep side into a ravine and began skidding downhill. About halfway down he had to slow and pick his way through the underbrush that lined most of the lower ground. The branches caught at Rinnie's skirts until she fell some distance behind Lehr, who was already off the slope and starting up the valley. She tried to hurry and ended up with her hair tangled around the thorns of a wild rose.

"Wait up," she called, and began working the errant strand free with impatient jerks that did as much to worsen the mess as to free her.

"Wait up?" said an interested male voice from the ridge opposite the one she and Lehr had traveled to get here.

She jerked her gaze up to see Storne, the miller's son, with a couple of the boys he ran with peering down at her. Papa always said that the miller gave Storne too little to do. Leave a young man without a task, and he'll make mischief instead, he'd said.

Then Papa'd looked at her and told her to stay away from Storne when he had other boys with him, no matter how polite he was when they met at the mill, for a boy out to impress his friends will do things he wouldn't do on his own. The boys Storne had with him today were no prizes: Olbeck, the steward's son, and Lukeeth, whose father was one of the wealthier merchants from town.

Rinnie drew the knife out of her belt sheath and cut her hair, stepping out of the bushes. She made no move to leave, because you never run from predators. The knife she kept in her hand as if she'd forgotten about it.

"Rinnie?" Lehr called impatiently. He must not have heard Storne, who'd spoken no louder than he had to.

"Here," she called.

She didn't want to start trouble by implying that she was worried about Storne and the boys who watched her so she didn't say anything more, but something in her voice must have alerted Lehr because he came crashing through the trees at a run. His eyes roved over the strands of hair dangling from the rose bush and traveled uphill to Storne and his friends.

"Should have tied your hair up," he snapped.

Relief gave way to hurt that he would criticize her in front of such an audience.

"Well, if it ain't the little Traveler boy," said Lukeeth, sloe-eyed and slightly taller than Storne.

"Does your father know you walked out on your tutor again?" replied Lehr with such mildness that Rinnie's jaw wanted to drop, especially after the nasty way he'd blamed this on her. Lehr had Mother's quick temper and over the last couple of years, "boy" had become an epithet.

"My tutor wouldn't dare tell him," Lukeeth laughed. "Then I'd tell Father what the silly ass keeps in his water flask and he'd be out like the last one. That your little sister? Another Traveler's brat, just like you."

"Pretty thing," said Olbeck casually.

Rinnie began to get really worried. Lehr was tough; her father had taught him a few tricks, and her as well for that matter. But Olbeck was almost a foot taller than Storne - who was as big as Lehr - and he didn't have that soft look that most of the village boys had. She couldn't read his tone, but it sent the other boys off into laughter that sounded more predatory than happy.

"I'd heard you'd taken to running with scavengers, Storne," chided Lehr before turning to the ringleader. "Olbeck, I thought you'd decided to stay out of the woods after you ran into Jes that time last fall."

A flush rose in Olbeck's face. Lukeeth snickered but subsided when Olbeck glanced at him.

"Predators, not scavengers," said Olbeck. "You're just disappointed that Storne decided he'd rather hunt with the wolves than graze with sheep like you, Traveler's brat," he sneered. "As for your brother - if I'd realized he was crazy I'd have just slit his throat that day, a mercy killing, like I'd do to any other poor beast."

Until Olbeck's words reminded her, Rinnie'd almost forgotten that Storne and Lehr had once been best friends. But something had happened several years ago, Lehr wouldn't say what, and he'd even quit going with Papa to the mill.

"I'll tell Jes you'd like to meet him again," said Lehr pleasantly. "I'll relay your exact words to him. I'm sure he'll be impressed - since you've never so much as gutted a cow. Rinnie, why don't you go home and let us talk a bit."

"No, Rinnie," said Olbeck. He smiled at her, "I think you'd better just stay there. The two of us can have a conversation after we've finished... conversing with your brother."

Lehr turned to her and whispered, "Run, Rinnie, now. Don't stop until you get home."

Knowing that without her there, the other boys wouldn't be as interested in fighting, she fled back up the hill as fast as she could without looking back, the small knife cold in her fist. Home wasn't so far away. If she could get within hearing distance she could call Gura. Even a grown man would think twice before taking on the big dog.

She heard the dull thud of fist on flesh before she topped the ravine. But she couldn't worry about the fight now because at least one of them had gotten past Lehr and was trailing her up the side of the ridge. She could hear him crashing through the brush like an ox.

When she reached the trail and her footing was more certain she glanced back and saw that it was Olbeck who'd taken up the chase, and she stretched out to run as fast as she ever had.