Warrior by Zoe Archer Read Free Book Online Page B

kick Huntley straight in the rocks.
    After finally breaking away from her father’s embrace, Thalia put the object her father had given her into her pocket. She then moved without hesitation toward one of the saddled horses, taking back the reins. She put her booted foot into the stirrup and swung herself up into the saddle with a fluid ease that would make any cavalryman proud. The male servant also mounted up. Burgess raised his hand in a farewell as his daughter and servant wheeled their horses about and kicked them into a canter. They disappeared into the remaining night.
    Huntley waited until Burgess and the female servant went back inside before mounting up on his own horse. The mare responded eagerly to the press of his heels into her flanks, leaping into her gallop and ready to run. Mongol horses needed movement, needed freedom. For Huntley, the feeling was mutual. He wasn’t familiar with this city, and knew nothing of this country; however, despite all this and the darkness, he could find Thalia Burgess’s trail.
    She may have been one of the more confounding women he’d ever known, but, whether she wanted his help or not, he was sticking with her. No matter where the journey took them.
    “We’re being followed.”
    Batu turned in his saddle and looked around, but aside from the rolling hills full of gently browning grass and the huge expanse of blue sky, they seemed to be alone as they rode west from Urga. The sun had risen several hours ago, and they had slowed their horses to a brisk trot to conserve the animals’ energy.
    “I see no one, Thalia guai,” Batu said.
    “He’s too skilled to let us see him,” Thalia answered. She kept her eyes moving across the landscape, touching the undulating hills, the scattered rocky outcroppings, the shadows of clouds slipping over the steppe, blown on dry winds from the northwest. She breathed in deeply, felt the crisp autumn air fill her and cleanse away the dirt of Urga. God, it was good to be out of the city!
    “Who?”
    “Captain Huntley.”
    “The man with the golden hair and golden eyes? He seemed fierce.”
    Thalia gave a clipped nod, remembering darkly not only the captain’s extraordinary appearance and manner, but his immediate effect on her, as well. “He’s been following us since we left Urga,” she explained. She tried to tell herself that what she was feeling was irritation. She had not the time nor energy to worry about an annoyingly persistent soldier. And she had even less room for her own unwanted reaction to him. “It seems he did not take my father’s refusal of help to heart. The captain is determined to sneak after us and force his assistance on us.”
    She briefly entertained the idea that perhaps her father had sent Captain Huntley after them to ensure that she and Batu were protected on their mission, but just as quickly rejected the idea. As much as Franklin Burgess didn’t like it, the safety and secrecy of the Blades came first.
    “Are you sure?” Batu looked around again. “We seem quite alone.”
    “I am sure.” Thalia patted the neck of her horse in encouragement. They had only just begun their voyage, and the animals would need their spirits bolstered to make it the whole distance. She pointed to a rise, and she knew that a small, clear stream flowed at the base on the other side, sheltered in a small valley. “We’ll stop and water the horses once we reach there, maybe have a little something to eat, ourselves. Once we do, we’ll wait for the captain to catch up and politely but firmly tell him to leave us alone.”
    Batu still looked dubious that anyone was on the steppe besides themselves and the occasional herd of gazelle, but Thalia’s instincts for such things were seldom wrong, so he did not pursue the matter any further.
    She had become aware of someone’s presence behind them shortly after they had ridden past the outskirts of Urga, when the gers had begun to thin into more and more remote ails, or