At a broad stretch of track, she and Aleksi cantered up alongside the wagons to the head of the train. They passed the Bharentous Repertory Company, and then the wagons of the Veselov tribe.
"What's Anatoly doing loitering there?" Aleksi asked, pointing toward that young man, who held his horse to a walk abreast of a wagon.
"His wife is driving the wagon," said Tess. "Leave him be. They have little enough time to spend with each other.''
"I don't think he was pleased when Bakhtiian assigned him this duty.''
"Perhaps not, since there's not much obvious glory in it. But if he's wise, he'll see the rewards are greater for him in the long run."
Aleksi shrugged. "Anatoly is ambitious. Perhaps he'll learn to be patient as well. It was kind of you to insist the Veselov tribe be allowed to travel in the front ranks, Tess. I don't think Bakhtiian will approve."
"I did it for the baby's sake." So little, struggling Lavrenti would not have to breathe the dust of thousands of wagons. "And for Diana." So she could ride near Anatoly. Then she forced herself to think of the reason she felt safe, letting the Veselov tribe ride here with her-because Vasil and his jahar rode all the way at the back, with the distant rearguard. Surely that must be far enough away. And in any case, Ilya was with the army, a day ahead of them all. She and Aleksi rode on past the Sakhalin wagons and up to the fore, where Bakhtiian's own tribe led the way, together with the string of wagons belonging to Dr. Hierakis.
"Ah," said Aleksi suddenly, "so that is why the doctor never lets you get far from her.''
"Yes. What's that up there? Yevgeni?" She called ahead to one of the red-shirted riders, the dark-haired man who had once ridden with Vasil and who had been permitted to join Anatoly's jahar in order to ride with his sister. He rode back to her. "What's that smoke up ahead? Is it in the hills?"
"Khaja," said Yevgeni.
"Has anyone been sent to investigate?" Aleksi asked.
"Five riders," replied the young man.
Aleksi nodded at him. "Ride back and find Anatoly Sakhalin and send him forward. Take a few riders with you, and tell the children to get in the wagons. Send a rider back to the tribe behind us to alert them."
"Do you think we might be attacked?" Tess asked. She lifted a hand to wave at Ursula el Kawakami, who pulled her horse in beside them, looking impressively warlike in a lamellar cuirass and bronze helmet. She was armed with a bow quiver strung along one thigh, a short sword belted at her waist, and a lance balanced in her right hand with its butt braced in a holder strung to the harness along her saddle.
"I'd advise you have the women ready their bows," said Ursula in Rhuian. "In this kind of country, we'll need their range and versatility if there is trouble."
Aleksi considered Ursula, considered Tess, and then turned to Yevgeni. "Have the women ready their bows," he said in khush. Yevgeni glanced back at the smoke rising to the northwest and, with a quick nod, he rode off.
But Yevgeni had barely vanished down the line when his sister appeared, galloping in along the curve of the road ahead. Behind her came another rider with an arrow in his thigh and a riderless horse on a lead tied to his harness. The steep hills framed them, two riders, three horses, fleeing some unseen conflagration.
The alert-a high call in khush-went down the line. Tess strapped her helmet on. "Didn't the army clear the hills?" she demanded, feeling sick with fear-not for herself, but for the children in the wagons. But Aleksi had already ridden forward to order the front rank of riders to spread out. They broke aside to let Valye ride through to Aleksi.
"They've fired the road," she gasped. "Put trees and debris in the way and lit them. They attacked the scouting party, and we've already lost-"
"What's our ground ahead?" Aleksi interrupted. "And you, Orlov-" To the rider wounded in the thigh. "Does it continue this narrow?''
"No, it broadens out, wide enough for a camp," replied the rider.
"They fired the road just before that," said Valye. "And there's a troop of them, on foot, behind it. Archers, too."
Aleksi nodded. "Orlov, ride down the line with the alert. All women ready to fire. We'll break through with the jahar and then pull the wagons into a square and force them to come at us."
Orlov cast him an astonished glance at this casual preparation for bows and arrows in battle, but he pulled his mount quickly around and headed down the line of wagons.
"Tess, beside me. Ursula, on her other side. Valye, in the third rank." He paced his horse alongside Tess's in the second rank. "We'll pick up speed," he shouted, "and hit them with our full weight."
Tess glanced back at the wagons, which the troop left behind as they changed pace and broke as one into a canter. "But what about the women?" she cried.
Aleksi shook his head. "They'll pick us off if we stay trapped by the wagons. We need room to maneuver."
The high walls echoed the pounding hooves back at them. Tess had a moment to wonder what in hell she was doing here and then they rounded a steep curve and the hot smell of the fire hit her. Smoke poured up into the pale blue bowl of the sky. Aleksi shouted something, but he was so close to her that it only came to her as an undifferentiated sound. Beside her, Ursula whipped her horse into a gallop as well. Ahead, a horse faltered, shying at the smoke, and its rider whipped it forward.
Shouting. An arrow sang by her, so close she felt its breath. Then they were on the fire. Zhashi jumped over a tangled heap of smoking brush.
Smoke and heat scorched Tess, choked her. A horse screamed. Aleksi's lance shuddered, bending, and then he let it go and was past it. His saber winked in the sudden glare of sunlight, and Tess saw Ursula, her face frozen in a rictus grin, throw her lance like a javelin into the crowd of infantry facing them. The first rank of riders hit the khaja soldiers. Some of the jaran riders fell, some were thrown back, but most plowed on through, cutting to each side.
Tess parried a spear, batting it aside with reflexes she had forgotten she possessed, and cut with a sweeping stroke at the bare head of a man standing below her. He staggered back, but there was another man there, and another, and another. Aleksi reined his mare back and like a demon he cut Tess free.
"Stay with me!" he shouted. She whipped Zhashi forward, slicing, back-cutting, whipping one stocky man on her left-dark eyes, bulbous nose-across the cheek, raising a welt of blood, and then lost her whip and the next moment Zhashi raced unhindered out onto a little plateau of ground. Tess jerked the mare hard around, found Aleksi, and formed up beside him. Most of the first rank was gone. Aleksi waved riders forward to fill the gaps.
"Now!" he cried. "Before they have time to regroup!"
They poured back, hitting the khaja soldiers from behind. Men sprinted for the hills. Arrows sprayed down from the heights. Tess caught a glimpse of Ursula, still with that horrible grin; an arrow, fletches quivering, stuck out from her body armor. Zhashi jumped again, over a body, and came down in the center of a skirmish. Tess fought her way to the aid of two jaran riders-no, three: one was Valye, sobbing, saber held rigid and unmoving in front of her. Then she heard Aleksi calling to fall back. She slapped Valye's horse on the rump and she and the other two riders retreated in good order. One of them had snagged the reins of the girl's mount.