warrior 245.

didn't even come close to landing on one of our pursuers, but fell to the snowy ground with a hiss. Gerald was optimistic, however, and kept egging me on.

"Keep trying, Tisana!" he urged. "They'll get scared and stop pretty soon."

"You promise?"

"Well...sure!"

"You don't seem very sure," I said darkly. "I think what we need now is an army of really fierce squirrels!"

"Sorry, I didn't think to do any recruiting along the way," Gerald apologized. "You should have said some- thing before."

We were crossing a small clearing, and I was pretty sure they would catch us soon. "Guys!" I yelled out loud. "We're gonna have to turn and fight! We can't keep up this pace forever!"

"That's what you think!" Sinjar neighed. "I can go a lot farther!"

"I thought you didn't want to fight!" Rafe shouted back.

"I don't!" I said. "But we have no choice! You and the boys keep going! Leo and I will try to hold them off!"

If I'd expected Rafe to protest, he would have disappointed me, for he took me at my word and rode on without so much as a backward glance. I looked over at Leo, who was thundering along beside me on Calla. Our eyes met, and on an unspoken signal, we both pulled up our horses and wheeled around to go on the offensive.

"I love you, Tisana," he said.

I smiled back at him with a nod. "And you already know how much I love you, you big, sexy tomcat!"

*245 *45*.

246.

Cheryl Brooks Taking a deep breath for courage, I said grimly, "Okay, then. Let's do it."

We drew our swords and charged, but we weren't alone, for Max came with us, as did an unmounted Darley. My last round of fireballs had slowed them down, but they were coming up on us fast now. As they broke through the last of the underbrush and came charging across the clearing, I fired volley after volley into their ranks, taking out several of them, but they kept right on coming. One of them reached me, but Leo fought him off, killing him with one swift stroke of his blade. I heated up swords, caught cloaks on fire, but they were a determined lot, which made me wonder what Brandon had promised them in return for all of this valor, because whatever it was, it wasn't enough. Then I realized that they might have been promised a share of Rafe's lands, which would account for their fervor in the face of all the fire I was bombing them with. Of course, in order to get Rafe's lands, they also had to get Rafe...

I'd never kept up the fireballs for so long before- had never needed to-and I had no idea if there was an upper limit to how many I could produce. We'd bought Rafe and the boys some time, but it was still a long ride to safety. We had traveled for three days to get to Lord Brandon's keep, and while weather and traveling conditions were certainly improving, we were no longer the predators, but were now the prey.

A group of riders ventured closer to me, obviously thinking that if they killed or incapacitated me, they could continue their pursuit unhindered. Now that the boys were unlikely to be hit by stray arrows, several archers took up positions and began firing at us as well.

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Leo's sword was flashing and spinning as he fought, and Darley, may the gods bless him, took up a position near Morgana and was kicking every horse that came near us.

Max went for a few throats before finally being kicked himself. I heard him yelp, but, in all the commotion, couldn't see how badly he'd been hurt.

And we still had Craynolt. I'll have to say, these guys we were up against must have been pretty tough, because I believe I'd have turned tail and run if Craynolt had come after me. His inch-long talons drew blood wherever they struck, and his batlike wings caught the occasional soldier right in the face. He managed to unhorse many of them in that manner. One man got past Leo and me to continue chasing Rafe and the boys, but Darley lit out after him, heading him off before finally running him into a tree.

I was getting tired, and even Gerald's exhortations were beginning to lose their effect. I was no soldier trained to arms, and the best I could do was to get the other men to drop their overheated weapons when they got too close. Leo had three of them engaged at once and was bleeding from a couple of cuts on his shield arm while he tried desperately to keep them from reaching me. I tried to help him as best I could by heating up their weapons, but my initial estimate of twenty seemed to have been low. There were simply too many of them.

We were losing.

One man finally got through to me while Leo and Darley were occupied, and I actually had to use my sword against him. He was a fierce fighter, and I was therefore surprised to see him suddenly back off with a look of fear in his eyes. Thinking that Rafe must have *247 *46*.

248.

Cheryl Brooks returned to the battle, or that Craynolt was coming to my aid, I took heart and somehow managed to hit the man's sword arm with my blade, sending his own spinning off into the melting snow.

I took a quick look behind me and saw what he had seen, and it scared me, too, for a large, fluttering, purple mass was now flying toward me at a frightening speed.

Then Royillis and what must have been his entire clan swept past me and attacked the troops.

I never had the chance to count them, but there must have been at least a hundred huge, purple birds that came flying in to fight along with us. With the numbers now in our favor, we fought on as the birds dove right at our opponent's faces, unhorsing several and sending the rest of them fleeing into the woods.

Then, suddenly, the battle was over, but whether or not it had truly been won remained to be seen, for there was still a good chance that the men would regroup and launch another attack upon us. I sat there on Morgana, her sides heaving from the run, and my own lungs aching like never before. The air was filled with the sound of sizzling as the last of my fire was extinguished in the melting snow. At least I hadn't burned down the forest. My sword arm felt like it was about to fall off, and I had a stitch in my side-only, as it turned out, it wasn't a stitch, but an arrow. I was bleeding and so was Leo. Max was nowhere to be seen, but Gerald was still in the front of my cloak, a little shaken up, but otherwise unhurt.

Royillis flew in to report that the men were being chased all the way back to the village by his cohorts, which, unfortunately, wasn't very far-nothing at *248 *46*.

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all like the road we had ahead of us. What with tired horses, a variety of wounds and limited supplies, the going would be tough, to say the very least. Speed was something we needed, as well, but I wasn't sure we were up to it.

While the birds kept watch in case of another attack, Leo and I bound each other's cuts-none of which were terribly deep, fortunately. The ointments I'd brought along would help them heal, but, even so, they stung like fire.

Then Max came limping up. Some of his ribs were broken from having been kicked, and being able to run alongside us was clearly out of the question.

"You might have to leave me behind, Tisana," he said bravely. "I'd just slow you down. I'll follow as best I can."

"We won't leave you unless we have to, Max," I said bracingly. "We'll rig up something."

The trouble was, even a travois would have slowed down any horse we put it on, and in another skirmish, would have severely limited their maneuverability. The only choice, therefore, was Darley, and when I put the suggestion to him, he was optimistic.

"If we have another fight, which I doubt, no one is going to come after us, anyway," he said. "We'll stay out of the way."

Considering how much help Darley had been the last time, I hated to have those powerful hindquarters of his pulling a travois rather than kicking the enemy in the teeth, but I honestly couldn't see any way around it, unless we left Max behind, which was something I flatly refused to do.

*249 *46*.

250.

Cheryl Brooks I prepared a poultice of sage and comfrey for Max's broken ribs and bound it to his side, but time and rest would do more to heal them than anything I could do, and, unfortunately, we were not in a good position to provide either of those things. If we'd been at my cottage, he could have lain by the fire to recover the way Leo had, but here, we were forced to improvise.

Together, Leo and I cut some stout branches-which, according to him, was a shocking use of a sword-and managed to rig up a sling of sorts between them using the bedroll which had belonged to Darley's previous owner. After fastening the branches to the saddle, we laid Max in the sling. Considering that there was still a fair amount of snow blanketing the ground, I didn't think he would get bounced around too much, which might save him further injury. Hopefully, they would catch up with Rafe before we would, but if Rafe had any sense at all, he should have been a long way off by then.

It would have been considerate of him to drop off a tent along the way, but somehow, I doubted he would think of it, especially since he would need the shelter for the boys. The horses we'd taken all had bedrolls tied to their saddles, but, unfortunately, no tents.

We transferred what little food Darley had been carrying to Morgana and Calla's saddles, and I sent Darley on ahead with Max, following the trail through the snow that Rafe and the boys had left behind as they made their escape. Since they appeared to be taking the same route we'd taken to get there, it was pretty easy to see, and Darley promised to keep going for as long as he could. Before they set off, I fed him a nosebag full of grain, which wasn't much, but was all we had to spare.

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warrior 251.

I cupped some snow and melted it in my hands for them both to drink. Max didn't think he could eat anything, and wouldn't drink, either, which worried me. A dog that won't eat is a pretty sick puppy.

As I stroked his ears, he tried to wag his tail valiantly, but I wasn't fooled . "Sure you won't at least drink something? Alowa bark tea is good for every- thing, you know."

"I just don't feel like it, Tisana," Max said. "It even hurts to breathe."

"I know," I said gently. "Darley will take you home.

You just sit tight, and you'll be stretched out in front of a nice, warm fire before you know it. I'll come and see you as soon as we get back."

"If you don't get killed," he whined . "Without us to help, I'm afraid for you."

"Don't worry," I said. "Leo is the best swordsman I've ever seen-and we still have Gerald and the birds.

We'll make it. I promise."

Gerald hopped up on the travois and patted Max on the head. "Tell him he can chase me all he likes when we get home, will you, Tisana?" Gerald said anxiously.

Max thumped his tail again when I relayed the message. "I'll be waiting for you."

Wiping a tear from my eye, I gave Max a kiss and then left him to confer with the horse.

"Take good care of him, Darley," I said, stroking his neck fondly. "Godspeed to you both, but don't kill yourself doing it. Stop and rest when you need to, but your best bet for getting anything to eat is catching up with Rafe, because Goran should be with them, *251 *46*.

252.

Cheryl Brooks and he's the one carrying most of the horse feed.

Good luck!"

"Good luck to you, too!" Darley said and set off at a steady trot.

"Bye, Max!" I called after them.

Max's reply was faint, but encouraging.

"I sure hope he's okay," I muttered. Turning to Leo, I said, "Well, I guess it's just you and me with Gerald and the birds now. Some wedding journey this is," I remarked ruefully. "I really hope they don't come after us again, but I'll bet they do."

"Yes," Leo replied. "We should ride now as fast as we can."

Craynolt said he'd fly on ahead to find Rafe and the boys-at least, I think that's what he meant, because the word "seeking" was in there somewhere-and Royillis promised to stick around with a good number of his clan in case we were attacked again. When I asked him why he'd come back, he said he'd had a feeling we would need more help than Craynolt could provide alone.

"You were in need," he said. "I could not leave you undefended, though I cannot explain why."

"Well, I'm very glad you did, because we couldn't have done it without you!" I said warmly. "And your timing was excellent! Thank you very much!"

Royillis only made a soft, whirring sound in his throat in reply, but I could tell he was pleased. Leo gave me a leg up on Morgana, mounted his own horse, and we set off.

"Well," I said, trying to look on the bright side, "at least we know where we're going this time. Now that Rafe isn't here, I can admit I felt like chirping 'Are we there yet?' about a hundred times along the way."

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"It is good to see a clear road ahead of us," Leo agreed. "As well as the melting snow."

I thought so too, but I would have been even more pleased to see the smoke curling from the chimney of my cottage and hear Desdemona fussing at me for being gone for so long. I'd even be glad to see the mice.

*253 *47*.

Chapter 12.

Despite our injuries and fatigue, we were able to move along at a fairly good pace. Royillis reported that most of his clan had now returned from Brandon's village and said that Brandon appeared to be having a great deal of difficulty convincing his men to go after us. This was excellent news, for, with any luck, by the time they caught up with us, we'd be on our own turf with Rafe's men at our backs. I was pretty sure we could trust them, too, because I had a sneaking suspicion that Brandon hadn't told us everything and that Carnita was somehow involved with the kidnapping scheme. Too bad there'd been no reason to suspect her sooner, because it might have made Rafe a little more trusting of his own troops- which he should have brought with him in the first place, instead of Leo and me. Sure, we'd managed to track down the boys and they were now on their way home, but when you're seriously outnumbered, it's a wonderful thing to see the cavalry coming to your rescue.

Precisely what part Carnita might have played in this scheme still had me puzzled, though. If Brandon was telling the truth-and I couldn't be completely sure of that-then she was, at the very least, guilty of infidelity and had also told a good many lies. How much more she had done I could only speculate on, though I had a very hard time believing that she would have killed the boy's nurse and allowed her children to be taken. No one had *254 *47*.

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actually suggested that she had done such a thing, but someone must have let those men inside the keep, and she had been unfaithful to Rafe in the past...

But even if this hadn't been planned with her knowledge or assistance, Carnita must have realized who was responsible afterward-in fact, looking back, I was pretty sure she did-but she hadn't said a word about who she might have suspected, though it's possible that she only remained silent out of fear. It was perfectly obvious now that Brandon had always been the only logical culprit- and Carnita and Rafe both knew him-but Brandon had given no hint that Carnita was involved, and Rafe hadn't seemed to suspect her, either. Brandon had said he didn't want her now, so if they'd truly been lovers in the past, they didn't seem to be too friendly anymore- sort of like Rafe and me.

But if Carnita wasn't involved, then that left some other traitor who lived inside the keep. I certainly hoped Rafe had some ideas, because I didn't know any of his men well at all, or anyone else who worked in his household. I know I'd treated some of them in the past, but I hadn't spent much time at Rafe's house lately, and there could have been any number of new people there.

I could talk to more of the animals to see if any of them had any suggestions, but beyond that, I didn't think I'd be much help.

Fortunately, Rafe wouldn't be expecting me to "see"

the answer in the fire, and if he wanted any magical insight into the situation, he would have to consult Leo, who seemed to be much better than I was at that sort of thing.

The trouble was, Leo wasn't clairvoyant on demand, so we'd just have to wait for it to come on its own.

*255 *47*.

256.

Cheryl Brooks We rode on until darkness fell, still with no sign of Rafe or his sons. Nor did we catch up with Darley and Max. Craynolt didn't come back, either, which didn't bode well. The horses were getting extremely tired, but we decided to press on even after dark, relying on our horse's (and Leo's) excellent night vision-though with the snow on the ground to reflect the moonlight, I could see remarkably well myself. Leo and I agreed that Rafe and the boys would probably stop for the night, and, if we were lucky, we might come upon their campsite.