“There are some three dozen folk coming with us from my household, and horses must be provided for them,” the Prince said. “With animals needed to carry the extra food and water, that leaves us few spare mounts, and a very small margin of safety. We must get through the desert before the food and water run out, yet we dare not push too hard and risk losing horses.”
“Is there no water in the desert at all?” Aurian asked.
“There are twelve oases, and we will need them all,” Harihn replied. “It is a journey of many days, even if we keep to the shortest route. We could not hope to carry enough water to last us right to the other side.”
Anvar approached them, shadowed by Bohan. His iron collar had been cut away and he walked taller now that it had gone, though its weight had been nothing compared with the heaviness that lay on his heart. The Prince turned to him. “And how does it feel to be free?” he asked.
Anvar heard the gibe in his voice, and knew that Harihn was deliberately taunting him with the reminder of his previous, lowly station. He looked at him coldly. “I find the change very welcome,” he said shortly, deliberately omitting Harihn’s title.
“Indeed, many things have changed in a short time,” Harihn replied smoothly, but Anvar was gratified to see his mocking smile replaced by a scowl. “In one day, you have ceased to be a slave, and I have ceased to be a prince. She is a great leveler of men, your Lady.”
“At least she won’t be forced to be your concubine now,”
Anvar snapped.
Harihn rounded on him, his face dark with rage. “How dare you speak to me like that! Guards! Take this churl and have him flogged!”
“No!” Aurian intervened quickly. “He meant no disrespect, Your Highness. I’m sure he’ll apologize.” She glared warningly at Anvar. Their eyes locked in a clash of wills, but Anvar discovered a new, unexpected stubbornness within himself. His mouth tightened in unconscious refusal. Aurian turned her head slightly, out of the Prince’s line of vision, and mouthed “Please?” She looked tired and upset, and he was suddenly ashamed, knowing that the last thing she needed today was more trouble. Anvar sighed. “I’m sorry, Your Highness,” he muttered.
“There, that’s settled,” Aurian said hurriedly. By the look on Harihn’s face, it was anything but settled, but luckily they were interrupted by Yazour, who was escorting two people. The Mage’s face lit up with joy, as she ran to hug them. “Eliizar! Nereni!”
“Your Highness, these people have asked to see the sor— the Lady Aurian,” the captain reported.
“Don’t I know you from somewhere?” the Prince asked Eliizar, who bowed low.
“I am—was—Swordmaster of the Arena, Your Highness,” Eliizar said. “Now the Khisu has ordered the Arena closed, and the city is filled with rumor and unrest. We heard that Aur— that the Lady Aurian is traveling north with you. Once she offered to take us with her, so we have come to pledge ourselves to her, if she still wants us.”
“Of course I do! My dear friends, I’m so pleased to see you again! We can manage two more, surely, Harihn?” Aurian pleaded.
The Prince scowled. “You seem to be gathering a loyal entourage of your own, Lady. First my eunuch and that dangerous animal, then your mannerless husband, and now the Swordmaster of the Arena. If you remain here much longer, you may end up as Khisihn yourself!”
“I’m not remaining here, and neither are you,” Aurian retorted sharply, “and you should be glad of an extra sword, Harihn. We’re glad to have you, Eliizar, Nereni. I have not forgotten your kindness.”
“I have something for you,” Eliizar said. He handed over her precious staff, which had been left behind at the Arena, and forgotten during her illness and her subsequent worry over Anvar.
“By all the Gods!” Aurian exclaimed. “I really am grateful to have this back, Eliizar^
The Swordmaster looked at Anvar. “I see you got your husband back, too,” he said.
Nereni’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “He’s far too precious to her to be a mere husband!” She turned to Anvar. “You are a fortunate man. Do you know, she fretted herself sick about you all the time she was at the Arena? How glad I am that she found you again.”
Anvar was dumbstruck. Aurian had told these people that he was her husband, too? She had actually been that worried about him? He realized what it must have cost her, with Forral so recently dead. “I’m glad she found me, too,” Anvar said firmly, trying, without success, to catch the Mage’s eye. “And I agree with you—I am a very fortunate man.”
“It is time we were leaving,” Harihn said tightly. As he walked stiffly away, Anvar took hold of Aurian’s resisting elbow and drew her into an embrasure in the courtyard wall that overlooked the stunning view of the river, the city, and the dramatic cliffs opposite,
Aurian, scarlet with embarrassment, looked as though she wished the ground would swallow her up. “Anvar, I’m sorry,” she said hastily, looking anywhere but at him.
“No need. Lady, I’m grateful—and very honored.” She looked at him sharply. “Then you understand?” “Lady Aurian, the Khisal says that we must leave now. He seems rather annoyed.” Eliizar bowed his head in apology for interrupting them.
“All right,” Aurian sighed. “Bohan has horses for us Anvar wished he could have had a little more time alone with her, but there was no help for it, not now.
The Prince’s party were the last to be ferried across the river to join the soldiers and other members of his household. It looked like—as indeed it was—a small army, with Harihn s soldiers formed up around his retainers and the baggage-train of mules, whose burden consisted mostly of water. Of necessity, they would eat light during the desert crossing. Yazour, a veteran of desert travel, rode forward, acknowledging Aurian with a smile as he addressed his Prince. “Your Highness, we must go L now, while daylight remains. The cliff road is perilous in the 1 dark.”
They rode up from the river crossing, past the scattering of white houses that edged the city of Taibeth. There was no one else in sight. All the inhabitants, hearing the incredible rumors that were spreading like wildfire, had gone into the city itself to find out what was happening. The land swelled in a gentle rise up from the river. At the top the road divided, the right-hand fork leading to the capital, the left climbing gradually upward toward the looming cliffs. Soon the houses thinned; the deserted fields between them were tinged with red as the sun sank. Yazour looked worried. Time was pressing.
When Aurian got her first glimpse of the cliff road, she gasped with dismay. Looking hardly wide enough even for one rider, it snaked perilously back and forth, literally carved into the soaring curtains of red stone. It was so steep that it had been cut in a series of shallow steps. In some places it actually seemed to hang out over the dizzying drop, while in others it vanished into the cliff, tunneling through the striated columns of rock and emerging from the other side. Yazour had sent up the first contingent of soldiers, and already they looked like crawling ants against the vastness of this giant work of nature. The captain rode up to Harihn. “If you will lead the way, Highness . . .” “No,”
Yazour frowned, “But you must go up now, Sire, while there is still some measure of daylight, If the Khisu should—” “Yazour, there are women and children here. Should I go ahead in safety, leaving them to pick’their way in darkness? These are my people. Get them up first, and this lady. The Khisu will not try anything, if he knows what’s good for him.” He glanced at Aurian.