Valdemar 05 - [Vows & Honor 02] - Oathbreakers by Mercedes Lackey Read Free Book Online Page A

heading Ironheart after the way Kyra had followed. “We’re going to see if this trail is a dead end or the answer to our prayers.”
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    Twice before sunset they lost the track on broad expanses of bare rock, and spent precious time trying to pick it up again, all of them combing the ground thumblength by thumblength.
    Sunset was fast approaching the second time they lost, then found the trail again. Tarma scanned the sky warily, trying to judge, with the handicap of lowering clouds, how much time they had before darkness fell. They obviously weren’t going to make trail’s end by sunset—so the choice was whether to camp here on this windswept slant of scoured stone, or to press on in the hope of coming up with something better and maybe instead find themselves spending the night on a ledge two handspans wide.
    She finally decided to press on, allowing just enough time in reserve that they could double back if they had to.
    The track led on through lichen and rubble: treacherous stuff, except where the wild ponies had pounded a thin line of solidity. Jodi was mapping as they went along, and marking their backtrail with carefully inconspicuous “cairns” composed of no more than three or four pebbles. The drizzle had stopped, at least, and the exertion that was warming them had driven most of the damp out of their clothing. The pony-track led down into a barren gulley—Tarma disliked that, and kept watching for water marks on the rocks they passed. If there was a cloudburst and this happened to be one of the local runoff sites, they could be hock-deep in tumbling rock and fast water in the time it took to blink.
    But the gulley stayed dry, the track eased a bit—and then, like a gift from the gods, just before Tarma would have signaled a turnaround point, they came upon a possible campsite.
    Sometime in the not-too-recent past, part of the hill above them had come sliding down, creating a horseshoe of boulders the size of a house. There would be shelter from the wind there, their fire would be out of sight of prying eyes—and it would be easy to defend from predators.
    Garth eyed the site with the same interest Tarma was feeling. “No place to get out of the rain, if it decided to come down again,” he observed, “and nothing much to burn but that scrub up there on the wall. We’d have us a pot of hot tea, but a cold camp.”
    â€œHuh. The choice is this or the flat back there,” Tarma told them. “Me, I’d take this. Kyra? This is your land.”
    â€œAye, I’d take this; we’ve slept wet afore,” Kyra agreed. “This ‘un isn’t a runoff, an’ don’t look like any more of the hill is gonna slip while we’re here. I’d say ’tis safe enough.”
    The others nodded.
    â€œLet’s get ourselves settled then, while there’s light.”
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    The rain began again before dawn and they were glad enough to be on the move and getting chilled muscles stretched and warmed. They lost the track once more, this time spending a frustrating hour searching for it—but that was the last of their hardships, for noon saw them emerging from the hills and onto the plains on the other side.
    Tarma allowed herself a broad grin, as the rest whooped and pounded each other’s backs.
    â€œSend up that damned bird, Beaker; we just earned ourselves one fat bonus from Lord Leamount.”
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    Returning was easier, though it was plain that nothing but a goat, a donkey, a mountain pony or a Shin‘a’in-bred beast was ever going to make it up or down that trail without breaking a leg. Tarma reckoned it would take the full Company about one day to traverse the trail; that, plus half a day to get to their end and half to get into striking distance of Kelcrag’s forces meant two days’ traveling time, in total. Not bad, really; they’d had a setup that had taken almost a week, once. Knowing