By midafternoon, Aisha was pushing her way up the trail to Sasha's side. “Daish can barely stay on his horse,” she said. “Sasha, if we keep going like this, we'll kill him.”
Sasha signalled a halt, and wheeled her sweaty horse around. Yasmyn was next behind, then Rhillian and Kiel. “We can defend this ridge,” she said, gesturing around them. “It has shade, steep sides, only one approach. If we stop, we stop here and fight. But there's no water, and if we go down into a valley, the Kazeri will gain the high ground, then surround and kill us.”
“Can there really be any discussion?” Kiel wondered. “I know it always falls to me to say the cruel and heartless thing, but is there truly anything to be discussed?”
Sasha looked at Aisha. Aisha looked desperately at Rhillian. “Sasha,” Rhillian said quietly, “if it falls to me to decide, you know there's only one decision to make.”
Sasha swore, and dismounted fast from her horse. She jogged to Daish, who slumped over his saddle, pale and sweaty, without even the strength to swat away the flies that landed on his face. Seeing him like that, Sasha recalled Yulia of Petrodor, another young student of the Nasi-Keth, who had died by the risk Sasha had subjected her to, by her own orders.
“Daish,” she said quietly, grasping his arm, “can you hold on just down the next hill? I have an idea.”
Daish nodded weakly. “Don't stop for me,” he said hoarsely. “Get to Ilduur.”
“We will,” Sasha assured him. “All of us will. Just hold on until we reach the next valley.”
It took longer than she'd hoped. The ridge they were on continued to climb, then wove along an adjoining ridge before finally descending. But that downward slope bore the full face of the lowering afternoon sun, and the heat rising off surrounding rocks was as great as anything Sasha had ever felt.
The valley was totally exposed. The stream here gathered into a pool, wide but shallow. Sasha and Aisha half carried Daish from his saddle and sat him in the water. Sasha pulled off his shirt and began unwinding his bandages while Aisha rummaged through her medicinal bag for those magical concoctions that serrin used to such amazing affect.
“You go on,” Sasha told Rhillian. “We'll catch up. He just needs a rest.”
“Sasha,” Rhillian warned as her horse drank thirstily from the stream, “this is not a defensible position….”
“I know that. I don't intend to stay that long, I'm a better rider in these hills than anyone else, and if it gets dark, I'll have Aisha's eyes to guide me.”
She peeled the last bandage off Daish's wound-it looked okay, inflamed red but healthily so. Serrin medicines prevented infections, but infections were not all that could kill, and if his lung had indeed been punctured, even slightly…
“Aisha is valuable to the mission,” said Kiel. “She knows Ilduur, and is a fine linguist. Sasha's sword and demonstration of Lenayin's new alliance are likewise invaluable. This is not a wise risk.”
“Aye, well, you find me a ‘wise risk,’ Kiel,” Sasha said sarcastically, “and I'll find you a pig that shits silver.”
“I'll stay,” said Yasmyn. She wore a serrin blade at her shoulder now, which a retired talmaad in a passing village had granted to her. Yasmyn was skilled with her one-handed darak, and could surely improvise some use for this. Sasha wasn't certain she didn't prefer Yasmyn bare-handed than heavily armed and overconfident.
“I'd rather Arendelle. An archer would be useful-Aisha's a better shot than me but not to his standard.”
Arendelle nodded and dismounted midstream to water his horse. Yasmyn sulked. Kiel looked exasperated.
“We'll wait for you at the best defensible plateau at sundown,” Rhillian told them. “Don't be late.” She put heels to her horse, and the reluctant animal resumed the trail. Yasmyn, Kiel, and Bergen followed.
Daish lay back in the stream, soaking, his head on the bank. “Stupid,” he muttered. “You should go.”
“You should shut up,” Sasha told him, and placed his hat over his face to shield it from the sun.
Aisha applied more medicine on the wound and then gave him some to drink, but there wasn't much more she could do. Mostly, Sasha hoped that the cool soaking water and the moment of rest would allow Daish's weakened body to recover. He was young and fit; she had to give him every chance to get well on his own.
She and Arendelle washed down the horses as best they could, while Aisha tended to Daish. They could not risk removing the horses’ saddles, and the animals were reluctant to lie and roll in the water with them still on, but standing while flasks of water were emptied over them had similar effect. She was preoccupied with that task when Aisha called a warning.
Where the trail down the hillside broke from the trees, a pair of riders now sat. Both had long hair, and middle-sized horses of breeding unfamiliar to Sasha's eye. They stared at the scene before them.
Arendelle abandoned the horses and splashed to the bank, picking up his bow and shouldering the quiver of arrows. The horsemen conversed, and one turned back the way he'd come and vanished up the trail.
“Scouts,” said Sasha.
“Yes, and ahead of what advance party?” Arendelle wondered.
The Kazeri rider cantered sideways toward the stream, putting a little more distance between himself and them. Sasha had no doubt Arendelle could hit him from here, if he kept still. But the Kazeri seemed alert and unlikely to comply.
“I could ride him down,” Arendelle suggested.
“He'll run away, and you'll tire your horse to breaking,” Sasha replied. “He's only here to watch, he's not worth the effort.”
“We should go,” said Daish, trying weakly to rise.
Aisha pushed him back down. “The last time we saw them, they were a long way behind. We've some more time yet.”
They waited, Daish resting in the water as the sun sank toward the valley ridge. Finally, as the ridge shadow crept toward them, and the Kazeri scout sat astride his horse downstream, Sasha decided they could wait no longer.
Aisha rewrapped Daish's bandages and helped him into his shirt. He remounted with difficulty, and they rode toward the resumption of the trail up the far slope. The Kazeri scout followed.
“You idiot,” Sasha said loudly, in Lenay. “Not too bright, this one.”
She waited until they'd reached the top of the rise, horses labouring on the incline, then selected a large tree that grew at a twisted angle from the upside of the trail, angling overhead. She dismounted, indicating for Aisha to ride up and take her horse's bridle as Sasha took position behind the tree.
“Won't take but a moment,” she assured her companions. “Wait for me.”
They rode on. Sasha put her back to the leaning trunk, unclipped her scabbard from her bandoleer, and waited. Here on the trail edge, she was level with any Kazeri rider. This Kazeri, like most, wore no armour.
Soon enough, she heard approaching hooves. A quick glance past the trunk showed the Kazeri, plodding cautiously. He was an idiot, one rider alone, coming so close after a larger group. If she'd left Arendelle to deal with him, he'd be dead right here. Instead, she leaned back behind the tree, grasped her scabbard by the wrong end, and waited until he drew level.
Then she swung around the tree's far side and hit him in the face with the hilt, hard. He fell. Sasha unfastened the scabbard and took out her blade, standing over him. The Kazeri recovered enough to stare up at her, past a bleeding brow. A young face. No more than fourteen.
Sasha swore. She indicated the knife at his belt, and the sword. “Off!” she commanded. He unhitched the scabbard and the knife, and put them on the path, hands trembling with fear. “Up!” He climbed unsteadily to his feet, putting a hand to his head, and looking at the blood that smeared his palm. “Walk!”
Sasha gathered his weapons, then grabbed the horse's bridle, gesturing the boy on ahead with her blade. He walked around several more bends in the path, Sasha following with his horse.