Raven's Strike (Raven #2)(77)

Kissel nodded slowly. "That would be fine."

Toarsen caught up to them. "Why did you stop?"

"Waiting for you," Kissel said, and started a conversation with Toarsen about the relative merits of two different types of saddles as he urged his horse forward.

Seraph had been just behind Toarsen. She coaxed her gelding until she and Tier were riding shoulder by shoulder. "My mending isn't holding," she told him. "I'll try to fix it later."

After dinner, she tried to patch it again, but, to her frustration, the tigereye Lark's ring would not or could not cooperate again, and she could do nothing.

Even so, when he took out the lute and played a few tunes, he had not the slightest bit of difficulty. Seraph didn't sing, just sat near him and stared out into the darkness.

When it was time to try and sleep, Tier held her and wiped the tears from her eyes. "If I can't sing, will you still love me?" he quipped.

"I'd love you if you couldn't talk." She thumped his chest lightly. "Perhaps more."

He stifled his laugh so he didn't wake the whole camp. "I love you, too."

The next afternoon they came to the beginning of the worst part of the trip, a high pass that lay between them and Shadow's Fall. The steep climb spread the distance between riders until Tier could look down the face of the mountain and see nearly a half a league between him and Jes, who was walking behind the last rider. Tier stopped Skew at a wide spot in the trail and sent Lehr, who had been with him, riding on ahead while Tier waited to bring up the rear with Jes.

Lehr's chestnut mare's coat was dark with sweat, but her breath came easy. It bothered her not at all when Skew stopped and she had to go on alone.

There was a small flat area a couple of leagues ahead, just before the highest and steepest part of the pass, where Lehr could start setting up camp while the stragglers trailed in. Tier was worried about how Phoran's men's horses were going to handle the climb. In his experience, the horses felt the height of the mountains worse than the people.

Rinnie's horse, with its lighter burden, was the first to appear down the trail. She stopped it next to Tier while Gura dropped to rest, panting happily.

"Papa," she said. "There's a storm front coming behind us with snow. I'm trying to send it around us, but I need to know which direction we'll be heading."

"East," he told her. "East and a little north for a couple of days yet. If you can hold it off us for the next two days, we'll be back down, so it'll come down as rain rather than snow."

"There's some snow on the ground that direction already," she said. "We might have trouble coming back this way.'

"We'll find that trouble when we come to it," he told her. "We might have to come back a different way. This is the most direct route, but riding home, a few extra weeks won't make much difference."

She nodded. When her horse started on up again, Tier said, "I'm glad we thought to take our Cormorant rather than leave her in Redern, where she'd be useless."

She gave him a grin and turned her attention to riding the uneven surge of her horse's uphill scramble. Gura hesitated, gave Tier a long look, then took off after Rinnie.

Seraph appeared before Rinnie was quite out of sight. He kissed her as she passed and told her Rinnie was trying to hold off a storm.

"It's never quite warmed up today," she said. "I'll make certain there's something hot for you when you come into camp."

"I'll look forward to it. See you tonight," he said.

When she was gone, he dismounted and slipped the bit so Skew could graze on the sparse edible vegetation. The trees so high up were all fir and pine, and grass didn't grow well under evergreens. All the horses would be a little hungry for a day or two.

He sat on his heels and waited.

Phoran came next, with Toarsen at his side. Phoran's hard-headed stallion looked none the worse for wear, but Toarsen's horse was breathing hard.

"This is hard on the horses," Tier said. "You might have to walk some of the steeper bits."

It was a longer wait for the next rider, Ielian.

"Is someone riding with the Emperor?" he asked.

Tier nodded. "Toarsen was. It looked as though Phoran was holding Blade back so Toarsen could stay with them."

"Good," said Ielian.

Hennea came next. "Jes told me to go ahead and let you know that the others are fine. Kissel and Rufort are taking the climb slower to save their horses. Jes told them to."

"He's right," said Tier. "Seraph and Lehr should have camp mostly up by the time you get there."

It was getting dark by the time Tier and the others caught first sight of the campfire above them.

"Not far now, lads," Tier told them, standing in the stirrups to loosen his knees which were stiffening from the strain of the ride.

"What's that?" asked Rufort. "Down there below us, see that flicker of light? Is there someone following?"

"Ah," Tier said, stopping. "I'd wondered if we'd see them."

"See whom?" asked Jes.

"What, not whom, I think," Tier said. "When I was up here last there were lights and voices and... other things all night. I thought it might have been altitude sickness. I was coming from the other direction - we haven't hit the high stuff yet - and I was pretty well exhausted."