K'lrsa called, "Fallion, azah." He froze, obeying her command to be absolutely still, but his eyes rolled around in panic. "Best hurry. He won't stay that way for long."
Lodie stepped forward and stroked his muzzle, whispering to him in a soft sing-song. As soon as she touched him, Fallion calmed and nuzzled at her hand.
"How did you do that?" K'lrsa asked, amazed.
Lodie shrugged as she stepped around to look at his wound. "I have a talent with animals. Requires physical contact, though, so not much use most of the time." She scratched Fallion's jaw and he nuzzled at her face.
Lodie explored Fallion's wound with her fingers. "So, what happened to you?
"We were attacked. Fallion was shot. I was stabbed. We escaped, but we got lost. Fortunately, those men found us this morning."
Lodie glared at her, eyes narrowed.
"What really happened to you?" She asked the question in the pidgin speech of a Rider.
How did this woman know Rider-speech? Had she been married to a Rider once? K'lrsa refused to think that maybe this woman had once been a Rider. It wasn't possible. No Rider would allow themselves to be taken as a slave. They'd die before they'd let that happen.
Except, isn't that exactly what K'lrsa had done?
No. What K'lrsa was doing was different. They weren't the same. She had nothing in common with this bitter-root-addicted crone.
"I told you. We were attacked."
"Were you now?" Lodie cleaned Fallion's wound with a rag soaked in hot water. He didn't even move although he flinched at each stroke.
"Yes."
"Where? And how did you get here?" Lodie waited for her answer.
"I'm not sure." K'lrsa tried and failed to meet the woman's steady gaze. "We didn't know where we were. We just ran and ended up here."
Lodie finished sewing up Fallion's wound in silence, chewing on a new pinch of bitter root as she worked. Finally, she sat down next to K'lrsa once more and nodded to the sleepweed. "You'll be wanting that, sooner rather than later."
She was right. K'lrsa's arm was throbbing. K'lrsa chewed on the small pinch of sleepweed. It spread through her body, numbing her senses as it went.
Lodie leaned forward. "Harley may be a fool. G'van certainly is. Well, foolish or greedy. Usually end with the same result. But I am not. So what really happened to you?"
K'lrsa swayed, trying to stay upright as the sleepweed spread. "I told you."
Lodie laughed, a harsh, bitter sound like rocks grating against one another. "No, you lied to me just like you lied to them. That horse wasn't shot with an arrow. If I had a guess, I'd say you shoved an arrow into his shoulder. And that stab wound of yours? Gave it to yourself, didn't you?"
Lodie stared into K'lrsa's eyes. "So tell me, girl. Why are you really here? Why would you hurt your horse and yourself to fall in with this lot?"
K'lrsa's stomach clenched. She had to leave.
She tried to stand, but her body wouldn't obey her.
The last thing she felt as she descended into sleep was Lodie's fingers digging into the soft flesh of her good arm.
Chapter 19
When K'lrsa awoke, she was in a tent and it was night, the air cool against her face; a small sliver of moonlight shone through a gap in the top of the tent. Lodie snored on a pallet across from her, blocking the path to the exit. The space smelled of bitter root and healing plants. She could make out the faint outline of desert bluebells hanging from the peak of the tent and other bundled herbs beyond those.
She lay there in the darkness for a moment, wondering what to do.
Lodie knew she'd lied. Would she tell Harley? She obviously hadn't yet or K'lrsa wouldn't be sleeping comfortably in a tent.
But she still could in the morning.
If so, now was K'lrsa's only chance to escape.
Her shoulder ached abominably when she sat up. She rubbed at a spot just above the wound, wondering just how serious the injury was. She flexed her arm a bit to test it. Stiff, but nothing more.
She hoped the same was true of Fallion's wound.
She rubbed at her face, feeling the grit of the desert caked on her skin.
She'd made such a mess of things so far…
Maybe she should go home. Run back to her tribe while she still had the chance. Who was she to think that she could find the Daliph and kill him? Just a foolish young Rider who'd almost killed herself and her horse, that's who.
She buried her face in her hands, wishing for her father. He'd know what she should do. He'd tell her how strong she was and how much he believed in her.
She hugged herself, fighting back the tears. No point in crying. It wouldn't bring him back.
She dashed a tear away as it crawled down her cheek. She wanted her father to tell her what to do.
But he was gone. Forever.
She was alone now. No one was going to support her or help her. It was up to her to decide. To see this through, or admit defeat and slink back to her tribe like a whipped dog, tail between her legs, crying not to be beat.
She shook her head, dispelling the fear that weighed her down.
Her father wasn't with her, but she knew what he'd say. He'd tell her she could do this, that she could accomplish anything she put her mind to. She was strong and capable.
She pulled her thin blanket closer and nodded to herself.
She could do this. She had to. She had to avenge him. If she didn't, no one else would.
She moved towards the tent flap. She needed to be outside in the fresh night air, to stare up at the moon and check on Fallion. She needed to feel Fallion's comforting weight as he snuffled at her hair.
But Lodie was now awake, sitting cross-legged as she silently watched her.
"What do you want?" K'lrsa asked. She knew she sounded surly, but she didn't care. How long had the woman been watching her? Her grief was her own and she didn't like the thought that this old crone had watched her cry.
"The truth." Lodie's hands rested comfortably on her knees. K'lrsa didn't know exactly how old she was, but certainly old enough to hurt sitting like that. She wasn't, though. Here in the privacy of the tent she moved with the lithe grace of a young woman.
"Are you a Rider?" K'lrsa leaned forward to study Lodie more carefully.
"Pzah. I'm a slave with some skill for healing."
"But you were?"
Lodie shrugged. "I've been many things in my life."
"Including a Rider?"
Lodie waved the question away. "We're not talking about me, child. We're talking about you. Why are you here?"
When K'lrsa didn't answer, Lodie shook her head and dug around until she found a cloth-wrapped bundle. She tossed it to K'lrsa. "Eat."
K'lrsa unwrapped the small square of cloth to reveal a flat disc of bread and strips of dried meat. She took a bite of the meat and grimaced.
"Salt. It takes some getting used to." Lodie put a plug of bitter root in her mouth and sucked on it as K'lrsa ate the food in silence.
"I'm not going to tell Harley. Or G'van." She spat into a small cup and mumbled an insult so extreme that K'lrsa had only ever heard it used once before.
K'lrsa stared at her, shocked.
Lodie laughed, suddenly looking ten or even twenty years younger. "Ah, to be young again…Trust me, child. Live long enough you'll find reason to use that word yourself. Especially if you find yourself in the Daliphate. The men there are not like the men you know."
"How so?"
Lodie stared at the wall as if she could actually see the Daliphate, her brow furrowed and lips pressed tight.
After a long moment, she shook her head. "No. I won't speak of that. Not tonight. It was enough to live it." She turned her attention back to K'lrsa and demanded, "Why are you here, child?"
K'lrsa bit her lip. She had no reason to trust this woman.
But she was scared and lonely and didn't know what she'd committed herself to. She needed help. She couldn't do this alone.
And Lodie had been
to the Daliphate and was once a member of the tribes.
Lodie moved closer until the smell of bitter root stung K'lrsa's nose. She leaned forward and touched K'lrsa's moon stone. The stone answered her touch with a soft blue glow of welcome and acceptance.
"I had a pendant like that once." Lodie spoke softly, her lips twitching into a sad half-smile.
No one would willingly give up their moon stone or sun stone. K'lrsa had never been without hers since the day she was born, except for the few times when she'd needed to change the cording.
"What happened to it?"
Lodie let out a little grunt of sound. "I followed its advice. And lost it."
K'lrsa leaned forward, eager to hear more. Most saw the moon and sun stones as symbols, nothing more. Some could use them to find shelter, but most dismissed even that skill as luck. Only a rare few believed their stones were capable of anything else.
When she was younger, K'lrsa had told her mother that her moon stone spoke to her sometimes, not in words but in sensations. Her mother had shook her head and told K'lrsa to get over her childish fantasies.
"What did it tell you to do?" K'lrsa asked.
Lodie stared at K'lrsa for a long while, a sad little smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "It didn't tell me to do anything. I told it what I wanted to do and it showed me how I could achieve it."
"Then how did you lose it?"
Lodie spit a gob of bitter root juice into the cup. "I journeyed to the Daliphate. Our gods have no power there. The stone was taken from me on the day I was made a slave."
K'lrsa clutched at her moon stone. She couldn't imagine losing that gentle presence. Without it she'd be blind in the desert, vulnerable to the Trickster and the shifting sands.
Lodie smiled a soft, sad smile. "Don't worry. Harley won't take it from you. He isn't smart enough to do so."
"Then why did he take yours?"
Lodie stared at her and K'lrsa felt like a hare caught by a hawk's gaze. She froze, suddenly scared.
"Harley didn't take it. And he didn't make me a slave. The one who took mine knew exactly what it was and what it could do."
"Who?"
Lodie licked her lips and looked away, the moonlight slashing across her face like a wound. "My sister."
Lodie spit into the cup again, the red juice of the bitter root running down her chin.
"Your sister took your moon stone from you?" K'lrsa couldn't imagine anyone of the tribes doing something like that. "But why?"
Lodie took the now-empty cloth from K'lrsa and folded it into smaller and smaller pieces. She shook her head as if trying to shake off a bothersome sand fly. "It doesn't matter. It was long ago. That's the least of the injuries my sister inflicted on me."
She looked at K'lrsa. "Now, are you going to tell me what you're doing here? Or will you force me to guess?"
K'lrsa wanted to tell her, but she couldn't bring herself to talk about it just yet.
Lodie set the cloth aside. She laced her fingers together and rested her chin on them as she studied K'lrsa. "Fine. I'll guess. Something happened. You swore revenge. When you did, the Lady Moon came to visit you. She showed you what your life could be like if you turned back. A vision of your child, perhaps? Or your husband? Did she let you see yourself as a grandmother holding his hand, surrounded by your children and grandchildren?"
K'lrsa didn't dare answer, she just nodded.
Lodie picked the cloth back up and started to refold it once more. "Me too."
She smoothed the fabric across her lap and met K'lrsa's stare. "I believe those images were real. She showed me what my life would've been."
"I don't." K'lrsa crossed her arms tight across her chest.
Lodie raised an eyebrow at the vehemence in her tone. "Why not?"
K'lrsa shook her head. "Because there's no man in the tribes I want to marry. Not even close. How can I have that beautiful dancing child she showed me when I can't find a man I want to spend more than a meal with?"
Lodie laughed. "Ah, so young."
When K'lrsa glared at her, Lodie patted her knee. "Child, it only takes one. You can be bored or disinterested in all the rest, but if the Lady Moon said there was a man out there for you, there was. Unless you're a…?"
K'lrsa shook her head. "No. I want a man. I just never found one." She scratched at a patch of mud caked to the knee of her pants.
"Well, you would have if you'd stayed. The Lady Moon doesn't send false dreams."
K'lrsa glared at her. "But the Trickster does."
Lodie shook her head. "Even he's not fool enough to pretend to be the Lady Moon. Or Father Sun. That's who showed you the path, isn't it? After you refused to turn back?"
K'lrsa nodded, not daring to speak. How could she know so much?
Lodie pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them. "He showed me my path, too."
She said it with such regret that K'lrsa blurted out, "Did he mislead you?"
Lodie laughed, a loud bark of sound. "No. The path he showed me led to exactly where I wanted to be. And I accomplished what I set out to do."
"Then why not go back to your tribe?"
Lodie's face went blank, all emotion hidden somewhere deep under the surface. "It was too late for that."
"Because you were a slave? You could escape. You're healthy, strong."
Lodie glared at her. "And then what? Where would I go? My husband's dead. Our child is dead. I'm an old woman. What tribe would take me?" She shook her head. "No. There's nothing left for me."
K'lrsa leaned forward. "That can't be true. There must be somewhere for you to go."
"No. Not anymore." Lodie stood in one fluid movement and stared down at her, the moonlight striking her face so that it turned the space where her eyes should be as black as the night. "If you continue down this path, child, you won't be able to go back either. You'll be forever changed. Forever alone."
She turned away. "Just like I am."
Lodie ducked out into the darkness of the night, leaving K'lrsa sitting alone in silence, trying to absorb her words.
K'lrsa shook her head.
She wouldn't be alone. She had no intention of living past the moment she stabbed her knife into the heart of the man responsible for her father's death.
Chapter 20
She dreamed again. Not of the Lady Moon or Father Sun.
She dreamed of the young man with blue eyes and skin the color of the desert sands as the sun touched them at dawn. He held out his hand, smiling softly. When she took it, she felt comforted, safe, like she'd found the one place in the world where she belonged.
He pulled her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it; the brush of his lips against her skin sent fire through her blood.
She turned away from him, shaking her head.
What cruelty was this?
She'd chosen her path. Why would the Lady Moon send her visions of what could never be?
She left him behind, walking all night through the soft sands of the desert, stumbling and falling, until dawn came and she awoke once more in Lodie's tent, shivering in the cold of pre-dawn.
She squeezed her eyes shut, forcing herself to remember how her father had looked in his last minutes. The hollows where his eyes had once been, the blackened wound in his stomach, the torn flesh of his hands.
It wasn't quite enough to drive away the image of the young man from her dreams, but it was enough to keep her moving forward, intent on her goal.
She would avenge him.
No matter what, or who, it cost her.
Chapter 21
Harley found K'lrsa and Lodie later that morning as they ate fried desert flowers and baru meat in front of Lodie's tent. The bandaged woman was there, too. She hunched in on herself when he approached and Lodie rested a hand on her knee to calm her. The woman had yet to utter a single word; she just ghosted between her tent and Lodie's fire, flinching whenever anyone came too close.
"Can she ride?" Harley asked, looming over them, h
is hands on his hips as he glared between K'lrsa and Lodie.
K'lrsa studied him as she waited for Lodie to answer. If Lodie were to stand, she'd be at least three handspans taller than the man. It fascinated K'lrsa that such a short, ugly man could lead anyone, let alone this group of men, each one meaner and nastier than the last.
Lodie finished her bite of food before answering. "We can leave tomorrow. But it's not the girl that's holding us back. The horse needs another day before we can move on."
Harley glared at Fallion, eyes narrowed.
"Oh, don't be a fool, Harley. It's an Amalanee horse. Do you know how rare they are? That horse is worth more than that whole lot of slaves you just dragged across the desert."
As he chewed on the inside of his lip and studied Fallion, K'lrsa held her breath. He wouldn't leave Fallion behind would he?
Finally, he nodded. "Fine. Tomorrow."
Before he could turn away, Lodie added. "The horse won't be able to carry a rider for another three or four days after that. And we'll need to take more frequent breaks until he's fully healed."
Harley shook his head and stormed away, cussing softly.
He came back a short while later and stared between K'lrsa and the bandaged woman, once more chewing on the inside of his cheek as he studied them.
Lodie was gone, tending to the slaves, and K'lrsa didn't feel inclined to speak, so the silence stretched until K'lrsa could feel the tension like someone was squeezing the back of her neck.
Finally, Harley nodded to himself as if he'd made a decision. He pointed to K'lrsa. "You. Get up."
She stood as tall as she could, trying to hide how scared she was. Lodie hadn't betrayed her yet, but she worried that G'van might say something or Harley would decide to give her to one of his men.
Harley snarled as he looked up at her—she wasn't as tall as Lodie, but tall enough that he only reached her shoulder. He stalked away without another word, obviously expecting her to follow.
K'lrsa trailed along behind him until he stopped at the cloth contraption from her vision, its bright colors in stark contrast to the weathered tents and wagons of the rest of the camp. "You'll ride in this tomorrow."
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