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Thadred
“In the meantime, what are we supposed to do? Wait here?”
“Probably best,” she said, glancing down to the river below. “We’re safe here.”
“Can we move closer to the Haven? Make it easier for them to find us?”
“Distance means nothing in this place. How many times do I have to tell you?”
Thadred scowled at her.
Sair let off a long breath. “We can stay here or go back the way we came or keep moving ahead, but it won’t make it any easier or harder for them to find us. We—” Sair frowned and turned her head. “What’s that?” She looked upriver, glancing down the riverbed.
Thadred followed her gaze and didn’t see anything for a moment. Then two horses careened into sight, galloping along the narrow strip of gravel between the cliff face and the water’s edge.
A small bay mare was in the lead, her rider’s red braid trailing behind her like a tail. Directly behind them was a sorrel mare with a man carrying a sword, swinging it at the black stallion galloping after them.
Thadred blinked twice, hardly able to believe it. “Dain! Amira!”
The assassin was the first to look up. “Thadred?”
“It’s them!” Thadred could hardly believe what he was seeing. He stumbled to his knees at the edge of the cliff. He and Sair’s ledge was perhaps twenty feet over their heads, well out of reach of the kelpie on their trail, but also too high for their horses. “Up here!” Thadred yelled, waving wildly.
He did the first thing he thought of and grabbed the rope he’d taken from Sair’s hands.
Dropping onto his stomach, he lowered it as far as he could, but that only closed the gap a few extra feet. Damn it, what was he thinking? What was he even supposed to do here?
The kelpie caught the sorrel mare in the back leg, snaking past Dain’s defenses. He ripped and the mare went down, squealing as she fell.
Dain stumbled and leapt off the mare. As boys, they’d practiced for safety in the event something just like this happened.
“Daindreth!” Amira dragged on the reins and brought her mare back around.
The little bay mare was having none of it. Squealing, the mare bucked, thrashing and fighting to run.
Thadred saw Amira make a decision an instant before she flipped off the animal’s back. She drew a blade as her mare fled downriver, but the assassin was at least fifty paces away from the kelpie.
The sorrel mare raced after the bay, and the kelpie was on Dain already. The black stallion stomped with hooves and snapped with teeth. Dain shouted and swung with his sword.
He nicked the kelpie and the stallion skirted back, but lunged again. He reared up and stomped, Dain twisting out of the way as fast as he could.
“What are you doing?” Sair screamed. She tried to stop Thadred, but her mangled hands couldn’t catch hold.
Thadred scrambled down the edge of the cliff, not even sure how he made it from the twenty feet between the ledge and the riverbank.
He dropped down and Amira almost collided with his back. She’d crossed the distance and was running for Dain.
“Out of my way!” she screamed, blade in hand.
Thadred wasn’t listening. The kelpie dove for Dain again and Thadred grabbed it around its neck.
The kelpie was a small horse and Thadred’s arms wrapped around it easily. He locked the thing’s neck against his chest and jerked it away from his cousin.
The kelpie had to weigh ten times what Thadred did, but the moment one of its hooves left the ground, he yanked, jerking it off balance. Thadred yanked the kelpie sideways and away from Dain.
He didn’t realize that he was falling until he caught sight of Dain’s look of horror and heard Amira shout his name.
Then he and the kelpie were crashing backward into the river. They fell with a massive splash and the last thing Thadred saw was the black water slamming over his head.
