Because it was an order, she obeyed.
"Thank the gods, Myshla and Khani are holding up so well," said Yuri, taking the empty cup from her. He rubbed Myshla's nose affectionately. "Ilya says he's never seen horses with the stamina of these khuhaylans. The khepellis must be the finest breeders of horses in all the lands. Come, Tess. We need your help." He left.
Tess went to relieve Mikhal, who was watching the horses, so he could go help with the slaughter. The horses stood, heads drooping, exhausted. Tasha dozed on the ground. Yuri's words bothered her: the Chapalii-and the Arabians they had given to Bakhtiian-who should have been doing the worst on this journey, were doing the best. Chapalii efficiency. The horses had to have been altered somehow. Yuri brought more blood, and she lifted Tasha up and helped him drink. After an interminable time, the men finished their work. They went on, leaving the chestnut's carcass to rot on the path behind. Yuri and Konstans stank of blood.
The moon rose, bright, throwing hallucinatory shadows on the rock walls that surrounded them. Tess held onto
Myshla's reins and stumbled along in Yuri's wake. This went on forever.
Eventually the path narrowed. Directly ahead rose a blind wall of stone blocking their trail. Somewhere in the rocks an animal called, mocking them. A shout carried back from Konstans, who rode at the fore. She could not see him. The sheer cliff loomed before her, impassable, huge, and she began to rein Myshla aside, for surely they must halt here, having no farther to go. But the path twisted sharply to the right between two hulking black boulders, angled back to the left, and she heard a laugh above her and looked up.
"Kirill!" At that moment she could have seen nothing more pleasing.
He stood on a small ledge, looking more then usually self-satisfied. "Tess. I could have spitted your four companions as they rode past, but I thought that if I did, I'd block the path with bodies and then you couldn't get through."
Tess laughed, spirits already lighter. "You're too good to me, Kirill. Where can I find a space large enough to sleep?"
"At my breast," said Kirill cheerfully, aware that Bakh-tiian had come up behind her and was listening.
"Wanton," said Tess.
"If you go on," he added, not a bit contrite, "it opens up and we've made a little camp."
She walked on. The path remained an arm's span wide for about one hundred paces. Shadowy forms, concealed at strategic intervals, greeted her. Where the path widened, Niko was waiting. He took Myshla's reins.
"Yuri says you're tired, child. Let me take the horse."
She merely stood after he left, her eyelids fluttering, her head sinking. A low humming filled her ears.
"Tess.'' Yuri took hold of her hand and led her to a small space away from the path. ' 'Sleep.'' He dumped her blanket and cloak on the ground and left. She slept.
The sun woke her. Its warmth on her face felt like the stroke of a hand, soft and comforting. Until it occurred to her that in this ravine the sun had to be very high to shine down on her; that they should still be here at this late hour of the morning was impossible. She sat up.
"I thought you'd never wake up."
Looking up, she saw Yuri smiling at her from where he perched on top of the boulder against which she slept.
"Why are we still here?" She got hastily to her feet and blinked in the brightness. Ahead, she saw the camp-the four Chapalii tents and one fire crowded in between the high walls. One scrubby, yellow-barked tree shaded the fire, and a few bushes clung to the slopes. "It must be midday."
"Ah, Tess," he said in Rhuian, "your perspicacity amazes me."
"Why, Yuri, your vocabulary is finally improving."
He grinned, then lifted his head and looked around, so remarkably like a lizard that Tess laughed. He slid down the rock to stand beside her, lowering his voice. "Ilya and Niko had a terrible argument last night. You were already asleep. Ilya was furious with himself for not sending everyone ahead up the trail to begin with, but Niko told Ilya that only a damn fool sent horsemen ahead on a trail that hadn't been scouted and that other circumstances had forced his hand. Well, it was a good thing the arenabekh came along when they did."
Tess nodded.
"But now we can rest and take an easy pace to our next camp. You looked just awful last night though you look fine this morning."
"How you flatter me."
"It comes naturally from having four sisters. One learns how to keep on their good side."
"Where is our next camp?"
"The first good site with forage we come to. We have to wait for Ilya."
"Where did he go?"
"Back to the temple."
A cloud shaded the sun. She shivered. "You can't mean it."
"What do you mean, I can't mean it? He took fresh horses and left as soon as he saw that Niko had everything in order. After they had argued, of course. Niko thought Josef should go back."
"Last night? But we'd been riding for two and a half days."
"Don't you think I know that? If Khani wasn't so damned stubborn she'd have gone dead lame from that stone, and we'd have killed her. Pavel say she'll be fine. But the chestnut-" He shook his head. "Still, I could hardly keep my eyes open. Surely you know that Bakhtiian has nothing in common with such weak stuff as you or me. So off he went, fresh as a spring breeze, singing-" Tess giggled. "Very well. He wasn't singing. You must want something to eat."
"I'm starving."
Yuri laid a hand on her shoulder before she could leave the shelter of the rock. "Niko is going to give you a red shirt. I wasn't supposed to tell you, but I thought you'd rather be warned."
Her face suddenly felt hot and it was not just due to the sun emerging from the clouds.
"I don't remember any woman being given a red shirt. It makes you-this story will be told everywhere, even after you-"
"After I what?"
He hung his head. "After you leave us," he said softly, but, being Yuri, he brightened immediately. "That's so much later I can't even think of it."
"Good. I don't know what you're talking about." She took a step and paused, not quite willing yet to be fussed over-for knowing these riders, fussing it would be. The conical white tents caught her eye. Ishii sat outside one, alone. Rakii and Garii reclined on the rocks above, gambling to pass the time. Meanwhile all eight stewards were busy saddling horses and taking down the first two of the tents.
Had she really feared them so much? Like the khaja priest's terror at the possibility of sacrilege in the temple, the Chapalii's adherence to custom and hierarchy had protected her all along. She could spy on them because of her rank. Ishii would keep secrets from her because his mysterious liege outranked her. But Garii's allegiance puzzled her. Clearly he must be pledged to Ishii's house to have come on this expedition. As clearly, he had pledged himself personally to her in direct violation of his previous pledge, a breach of Chapalii custom that ought to brand him as something lower than a serial killer in her eyes. And yet, as a human, she wondered if perhaps he was just trying to better himself, hoping to attach himself to the household of a lord who outranked Ishii.
"Tess? Are you coming?"
She sighed and transferred her gaze from the Chapalii to the riders, who gathered in anticipation of her arrival. After staring death in the face, she could not imagine why she had ever really feared the Chapalii. Truly, they posed no greater threat than the threat this little presentation posed to her composure: it was her own resources being challenged. Death-real, stark, painful death, that Fedya had faced without flinching-was something else again.
"Tess." Niko came forward to lead her over to the fire. "We have something to present to you, which you have fairly earned." Somehow Kirill had got hold of the shirt so that he got to give it to her along with a kiss on the cheek. Despite all this, she still found that she could receive it without blushing. Until Yuri said, "But, Tess, that's exactly your color!" and everyone laughed. The sound echoed round the little vale, and she blushed and smiled and knew suddenly that she had gained a whole family of cousins and uncles-that gifted one tent and one mirror and one shirt, she now had a tribe, a place where she belonged simply for herself.