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centaur-like. Her bright blade slew and none of the wolves breached her guard.
She drew them from the stallion and Adoni broke for his new master.
Chimquar caught the saddle and swung up. Meadusea saw her and turned, racing
after their fleeing companions. The wolves regrouped to pursue when a high,
eerie wail rose behind them. They melted into the grass, returning to their
master.
Katalla rode rear guard to the youth and his sister a sign to Chimquar that
her prejudices did not usurp her ha'taren honor.
Chimquar fumbled with the saddlebags to free them, then dragged them across
her lap, feeling inside for cloth to bind her arm. Her hand closed upon a
horn, then the cloth.
"You're hurt." Meadusea dropped back to ride beside her.
"I've taken worse," Chimquar replied brusquely, working one-handed.
"Rein in. I'll help."
"No." Chimquar shrugged off her concern and finished. She reached into the
saddlebag, bringing out Tamlys' horn. The
Sharanis should have mounted guards on the outer
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224
perimeters of their encampment. She fingered the horn. Its call would carry a
good distance on the open plains.
"They will be back?" Katalla asked as Meadusea and
Chimquar reached her.
"Yes." Chimquar gazed at the northern horizon, her eyes hard and distant.
"Their master with them and Bakran." A
Euzadi curse rolled off her tongue. Hazier glanced back.
Makajia's color deepened. Neither offered to interpret for the
Sharanis.
"Bakran?" A curious expression crossed Meadusea's broad strong-boned face.
Chimquar started to answer when Katalla interrupted savagely. "You know them?"
"I know them." Chimquar's words emerged taut. Her knees pressed the stallion's
sides. She moved past Katalla and
Hazier. "Let the horses breathe."
"You know them?" Katalla came alongside Chimquar.
"Bakran is my enemy," she answered harshly. "That is a tale I do not wish to
tell." Bakran had burned too many villages slain too many people.... A
fair-skinned face came to mind. Chimquar fought remembering, her face
twisting.
"That isn't enough."
"Don't push me!" Dark, violent power blazed in Chimquar's eyes.
Katalla dropped her eyes, unable to meet that power, but she had recognized
its nature. "You're part Sharani! A half-
breed?"
"I said, I am not Euzadi born." Chimquar's voice softened strangely. "Now drop
back beside Makajia."
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225
Katalla frowned, but obeyed.
Chimquar felt tense and uneasy. If Katalla thought further she would realize
there were no Sharani or half-Sharani males
Chimquar's age. Only a flourishing slave trade had kept large numbers of males
in Shaurone during the time when the
Waejontori curse prevented the birth of sons to Sharani women. The numerous
males in the household of Chimquar's ma'arams had not been Sharani. Chimquar
hoped Katalla would not recall all aspects of the curse, which had ended
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several years before her birth.
* * * *
Chimquar counted on the hours it would take the Nakesht to recover his
precious collars. Night would come, bringing the full moon, Tala Who Loves
Earth: the full light of She Who
Holds Back Darkness would deter the Nakesht from battle as the distant,
disinterested sun did not.
She kept her companions moving all night, alternating the pace to spare the
horses. Chimquar held herself apart, avoiding Katalla's questions and
provocations. They diminished the distance to Anaria's camp enough to halt at
dawn.
"Makajia," Chimquar called, dismounting. She led her stallion farther from her
companions.
The girl came, leading her black filly. She held her head high, but her dark
eyes were dull with weariness.
Chimquar caressed Makajia's head. "You've not ridden so long and hard before."
Makajia smiled shyly. Chimquar still wondered how the girl could be so bold
and wild one moment,
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226
and so shy and quiet the next. Chimquar bent to look her in the eye. She had
tried not to make the girl an outsider among the Euzadi as she had Hazier.
Chimquar knew she had caused
Hazier's life to be more difficult than it should have been. He was her pride,
but Makajia was her jewel. The warrior straightened, swinging Makajia up. She
giggled, threw her arms around Chimquar's neck, and pressed a kiss on her
cheek. Chimquar held her briefly, fiercely as though to press all of the love
of many years into the embrace, then set her down and stood back. She took the
horn from the saddlebag and slipped the strap over Makajia's head. "I have
something for you to do, little one."
"I can do anything!" Makajia asserted proudly.
Chimquar pulled off the saddle and pack from the stallion.
"It's half a day's ride to the ruins, Makajia. We can hold of the
Nakesht and Bakran there." Chimquar took her crest ring from her pouch,
pressing it into the girl's hands. "You know where I have said Anaria's camp
is?" Makajia nodded. "Give that to her. Blow Sharani calls all the way,
Makajia. They will come to you." Chimquar lifted the girl onto the stallion's
bare back. Every ounce of extra weight gone, Adoni could probably outrun the
wind spirits. She put the reins in Makajia's hands.
"Adoni! Davan, Adoni! Volasyar!" Chimquar cried in Sharani.
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