He nodded, amused. “And who will defend you?”
She began walking back to the shelter. “What is there to defend from? Mosquitoes?”
“Lions,” he said, following. “No!”
“I saw some spoor, a long way back.”
Tramping through knee-high grass, she said, “Don’t lions hunt at night? ”
“That depends on how hungry they are, and how appetizing the prey. Some people look very appetizing. Sunset is a favorite time. Besides, they might be tigers, and I trust those even less.”
“I would enjoy a nice slice of venison, or a plump bird.” She was not a witless city girl who panicked at a mention of lions. He shrugged. ”As you wish. It won’t take me long to find something.”
Obviously he did not rank the lions and tigers very high as a danger if he was willing to leave two women alone for even a short while. They had all been together too much for too long; a break would do them all good.
“Don’t mention lions to Kade.”
“I won’t, but you keep the other bow to hand while I am gone.”
Clearly Inos was still one of the boys, and his faith in her competence was both flattering and reassuring.
She sat and sipped a pan of scalding tea with Kade. By the time it was finished, Azak had saddled up the largest mule and ridden it off into the trees. The others snickered to it a few times and then lost interest. Kade was still strangely twitchy and nervous and obviously trying not to show it.
“He won’t be gone long, will he?”
“Azak? No.” How odd! Inos thought that Kade ought to be finding Azak’s absence restful—usually he made her jumpy. “Tell me what’s wrong, Aunt.”
Normally Kade’s rosy cheeks were lighted by internal sunshine. Today strange shadows seemed to dull them. “Nothing! Nothing at all! Just superstition, the Accursed Land.”
“Well, I have never met a name less suited. It’s idyllic. Azak’s quite sure there are no people here.”
Kade nodded, uncertain. Then the old blue eyes steadied on Inos. “You’re not changing your mind, dear, are you?”
“About what?” Inos had not seen Kade wear quite that expression since their first weeks together in Kinvale.
“Well, Azak. I know he’s being very persistent.” Kade blushed. ”He’s a very handsome man, in his way, and—”
“We’re planning the announcement as soon as we arrive at . . .” Inos laughed and shook her head. “No, I have not changed my mind! I feel easier in his company than I did, maybe, and I do find him fun at times. But you needn’t start polishing the state plate yet.”
“Well, I just wondered. I hope you don’t mind my asking?”
“Of course not! Now, do you want to sit here, or come and do laundry with me?”
Kade considered, and seemed to make an effort to overcome some daytime nightmare. “I’ll stay here and watch the fire. I’ll come and have a wash later.”
Odd! But the mountains had been very hard going. A good night’s rest was the least of what Kade needed, and had earned. Even an hour’s solitude might be good for her.
And she might credit her niece with just a little more selfcontrol. Handsome man indeed! There were lots of handsome men. And nice outside didn’t necessarily mean nice inside. Things like honesty and reliability didn’t always show in faces. Andor had been handsome, and who could have been plainerlooking than Rap?
Leaving her aunt sitting in her shift, Inos bundled up their two robes and all the spare linen, and stalked off toward the sand and the river. About a third of the way there she remembered Azak’s warning to keep weapons handy. She stopped and considered. The idea of her bringing down a charging lion or a brace of tigers was not a very convincing one. On the other hand, he had been serious and he had trusted her. Azak had a very harsh tongue for those who disobeyed his orders. How would she feel if something dangerous did come and she had ignored so obvious a precaution? Feeling rather foolish, she marched determinedly back to the shelter, added a bow and three arrows to her load, and set off again for the water.
She untied her robe, and was amused to find herself pausing and glancing around before continuing to undress, even though she knew there had been no snoopers in these parts for a thousand years. She left her shift on. Adding her outer clothes to the others, she knelt down in cool water and set to work as well as she could with only a scrap of crude goat-tallow soap and with no rocks to beat them. Then she spread them on the long, warm grass to dry.
By that time, the air was chill on her skin, for the sun had ducked below the high treetops. As the air had cooled, so the water had seemed to become warmer. If she did not take her dip soon, the crocodiles might sneak up on her in the dark.
She took a careful look at the river and could see no floating logs, with or without smiles. A mule brayed in the distance, so Azak must be returning already, and she was surprised to discover how comforting that knowledge was—solitude had become an unfamiliar sensation.
Trying to remember when she had last been completely alone, she stripped to the skin and waded out into the river. Soon the current was unpleasantly strong, tugging at her legs and prizing the sand out from under her toes. By the time she was knee deep, she dared go no farther. She knelt and soaped, splashed and rubbed.
Two mules whinnied.
She ducked her head for one last rinse, then started back to the shore, squeezing water from her hair. She rubbed wetness off her skin with her hands, wishing she had some of those seductively soft towels from the palace in Arakkaran. She reluctantly concluded that she would have to dress in damp clothes . . .
Mules did not whinny!
Then she heard Kade scream.
2
In the muddle of memories that Inos retained of the ensuing events, it always seemed as if the sun went down at that exact same instant—as if she left the water in daylight, leaped across the sand and up the bank with one jump, and landed on the turf in dusk. Deep shadows of the high forest crown filled the meadow as she raced across it, her bow in one hand, three arrows and a wet shift in the other, pursued by every terror her mind could conjure. Twigs and small pebbles dug at her bare feet, and thorny flower stems under the long grass scraped her shins. She stumbled over tussocks and hidden ridges. Her damp skin was cool, to match the icy horror inside her, and her hair was a wet rag flopping on her back.
Kade! Oh, Kade!
The mules had not screamed as they would have done for lions. The mules were still there, eating contentedly. Inos could see them, vague shapes in the gathering dusk. The whinnynoises had been ponies, or horses.
Why would Kade have screamed just once?
And a sudden flash of clarity—what did Inos think she was doing racing across the meadow in the nude? Why, oh, why, did she never stop to think? She should have taken the three seconds necessary to pull on a robe, instead of just grabbing up a sodden scrap of underwear that wasn’t going to do very much good if the danger was human. Specifically, man-type human. That insight struck her about halfway from the river to the little windbreak; she stumbled, recovered, decided she could not desert Kade, and kept on running, heart pounding now from fear and exertion both.
Smoke still drifted from the tangled screen of branches Azak had woven between the saplings. Nothing looked disturbed. Kade was in there, or behind there. With what? With whom?
A mule brayed, and they all raised their heads.
Eight of them! Four mules and four horses. Saddled horses. Full-size horses, dim in the twilight. Well-trained horses, with their reins left dangling, cropping grass. Maybe a minute had passed since Kade screamed, and then a man stepped out of the shelter.
Inos dug in her toes, windmilled her arms once, and stopped dead, gasping for breath and simultaneously tucking the arrows under her arm and trying to arrange her skimpy covering like a curtain in front of herself with her freehand. It wasn’t very satisfactory.
He had seen her. He held out his hands in welcome and called something. She made out not a single word, but his meaning was clear enough: Here she comes. Three other men emerged at his side, indistinct in the gloom. She could see few details, but they were men, young men, and she had no clothes on.
For a moment Inos just gaped in horror and disbelief—Azak had been so certain there were no traces of people. And the four strangers likewise stood and gazed at her. These were no primitive savages; they were decked out in long pants and some sort of neat shirts or tunics, all of the same dark-green shade. Each man wore a jaunty forester’s cap with a feather in it and they carried longbows, the longest bows she had ever seen.