Kestrel Thawbrook's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

By the second day the stallion was finished. Kestrel felt it in the way his shoulders shook on the flat ground, in the foam that would not clear from his mouth. She had ridden him too hard and she knew it. North of her the country opened into low grass and bare stone, no cover for a mile in any direction. If he went down out there, she went down with him. She kept one hand on his neck and the other near the ruby-hilted saber at her hip. She would not leave the saber. Her father had carried it. She would carry it into the citadel or she would die with it. She saw the standing stone before she saw the rider. It rose from the grass alone, moss on its north face, old marks cut deep into the granite. She used it for cover and swung down. The stallion's legs shook. She pressed her forehead to his and made herself breathe. Then she heard hooves behind her, steady, unhurried, one horse. Gareth Blackwood came around the stone with his sword already sheathed. He had followed her from the stable. She had known he would. He had served her for six years and she had never once ordered him to stop. He slid down from a fresh bay gelding and looked at the stallion, then at her. "Take mine," he said. "I'll walk yours until he can rest." He handed her the reins. Then he pulled a broken shaft from his saddlebag and dropped it in the grass at her feet. A wooden spear, notched grip, a feather tied near the point. "Found three of these on the road behind us. Stuck upright. His hunters mark their patrols this way. They know you rode north." He drew a folded paper from inside his jerkin. "And this was in the stable rafters after you left. A courier's order. They mean to kill you before you reach the citadel. Not take you. Kill you." She read it twice. The seal was the usurper's. The route was hers. She looked up at Gareth. His face was the same face she had known for years, and something in it had changed, or she was only now willing to see it. "Why did you come after me," she said. "Because I love you," he said. "I have for a long time. I would put myself between you and any blade they send. That is all. You don't have to answer." He picked up the stallion's reins and started walking. Kestrel mounted the bay. The horse was fresh under her. The road north was clear for now, and she had a name for what was hunting her, and a man walking beside her who had told her the truth. She turned the bay toward the citadel and rode.