I yanked a rope from my saddlebags and threw him an end, then tied the middle to me, then handed the end to Kiara. “Together or not at all. That’s how this works!”
The horses stopped, and we stared down the long loose slope that led to Hangman’s Gorge. The valley was normally empty, dry, and barren except for the occasional hawk hunting for a rodent.
Now the water raged, frothing and mud-filled, as it seemed to jump over itself in an effort to gather speed. Clumps of bush and sticks washed through the water, and I knew the debris could be as dangerous as the water itself. The river was at least a hundred feet across. More in places.
I looked back and in a flash of lightning saw the gorc horde. They were not even a mile back now and they saw me.
“Hang tight to your horse, Kiara. We all swim hard, we all swim together, and we can make it across.”
“You aren’t really sure, are you?” she asked.
I grabbed her by the arm and shook her. “I would not do this if I did not think we could survive. So, get your spine and straighten it the fuck out.”
She blinked away the rain, or maybe it was tears, I didn’t know and at that moment didn’t care. But she did give me a nod. I stepped back behind Balder and took hold of his tail. “Here we go.”
I gave him a soft kissing noise, and he started down the slope, his back feet sliding deeply into the loose and muddy soil all the way up to the top of his hocks. The angle was steep enough that the best we could do was a careful slide that sent rocks and sand rushing down the slope. A gallop in the dark in this footing would leave us with broken legs and necks.
I kept up a running set of instructions because I knew Kiara was scared, and I had no doubt Marcel wasn’t happy either. Satyrs were not known for their ability to swim.
“When we get to the bottom, let Balder lead. He’ll swim first and pull Lacey behind him. You and me will hang on to their tails. It’s easier for them. Marcel, you do what you can. Keep your head above water and try not to get snagged on anything.”
“Got it,” Marcel said. “But you’re earning yourself pretty much anything you want after this. I might even offer to marry you.”
“Ha!” I barked a laugh. “Been there, done that, got the ex to prove it.”
Kiara said something that was rather unladylike that might have been along the lines of “fucking witch.” Marcel made a fake gasp. I grinned at him like an idiot as the rain hammered around us. The thing was, with certain death behind us, and possible death ahead of us, letting off a bit of stupid steam was not a bad thing.
We were near the bottom of the slope when the first arrow slammed into the ground, the tip of the feathers blazing with a blue flame to mark where we were.
“Time to run,” I said and then hissed at Balder. He bolted forward, taking Kiara’s horse with him. I wrapped his tail around my wrist a split second before Balder plunged into the frothing waters. My horse trusted me above anyone else, and even though most horses would have hesitated at the deadly rush, he dove in, swimming hard as the current caught hold of us.
“Good boy!” I yelled at him as blue flaming arrows shot through the air around us, sizzling as they hit the water. I didn’t dare look back to see where Marcel was, I could feel his weight on the end of the rope. Worse, I could feel him drag me down, the rope tightening around my middle and making it difficult to breathe.
I fought to stay afloat, fought to keep enough air in my lungs as the water pounded around us. A stick swung at my face, the end of it catching me in the side of the head. For a split second, I saw stars and I thought that was it, I would die in the water, the gorcs would feast on my bones and that would be the end of my story.
A cat dying in the water seemed such an ironic way to end my life after everything I’d faced.
But as suddenly as we were in the river, struggling through it, there was solid ground under my feet and I realized that Balder and Lacey were literally dragging us down the bank of the river, away from the gorcs. At top speed, our bodies hitting hard.
I bounced along, smashing into rocks and dips in the ground and feeling the inevitable bruises bloom, unable to get my feet under me any more than Kiara or Marcel could. Or I assumed, anyway. With my free hand, I grabbed a kukri blade and cut the rope between me and Marcel first, then between Kiara and me.
“Balder, ease up,” I hollered, and he began to slow, dropping from a full-out gallop to a slow trot and then a walk. Even there, my legs didn’t want to cooperate. They wanted to buckle and leave me kneeling on the loose soil. I brushed water from my eyes and looked around. We’d taken a few corners in the valley and put distance between us and the gorcs. More than that, the river was wider where we stood now, which had to help. Thank the desert gods that gorcs weren’t the brightest stars in the sky. It would take them days to realize they could go around the gorge.
Kiara lay on her side. I stared at her. “Think shifting to lion form is tough on your body now?”
“I hate you,” she whispered.
I shrugged. “You wanted to come along for the fun. Remember that you could have stayed with Ish and trusted Steve to get the job done, but you didn’t. Deep down, you know he’s a fucking loser or you would have let your life ride on his abilities.”
She sat up, and for a second, I thought she’d launch herself at me. That would get ugly fast and my heart didn’t want to go there. Because a part of me still loved that little girl I’d saved from the gorcs all those years ago.
“You didn’t have to save that satyr. You could have left him and the gorcs would have never found us!” she screamed at me while the weather crashed around us. I stared at her.
“You’re a selfish, self-centered, little girl. Someone was in trouble. It’s our job to help them if we can,” I said, knowing she would hear me over the pounding rain. “My father was right to run your pride off.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
I shook my head, cursing myself for saying that. For letting it slip. “Get up, we need to move.”
“What did you say?” She grabbed my arm and twisted me around, the most aggression I’d ever seen from her. I sighed.
“Your pride was a blight. They were weak. They cared nothing for anyone besides themselves. My father ran them off before you were born.”
She stumbled back from me. “No.”
“You don’t have to be like them, Kiara. You can be better.” I turned my back on her. “I want you to be better.”
Marcel let out a low groan from the water’s edge. “We’re headed north east from here.”
Good enough for me. I didn’t wait for either of them. They would follow me, or they wouldn’t. Either way, I was done babying them. I was trying to get to Lila and then Bryce. These two fools had chosen to come along for the ride.
Three, I supposed, if I counted Kiara’s child. I gritted my teeth and stumbled along in front of Balder. My horse was in no better shape than me. How long had we been in the river? I couldn’t have said. It felt like hours and over in a split second at the same time.
Balder and I stumbled, leaning on one another down the valley until it widened enough that there was another path heading up and out. Again, I held onto his tail, letting him pull me up the steep slope. By the sounds of the hooves behind us, Kiara and Marcel were still following.
As we crested the top of the slope, I leaned against Balder, staring at the figure in front of us. A satyr, yes, but she was twice the size of Marcel with breasts that somehow fought gravity and won even though they were easily the size of watermelons. I stared at her through the rain, putting the pieces together.
“You must be Rev’s wife,” I said.
She drew close to me, and her face twisted with a fit of rage I’d not counted on. With the cold wet soaking through my muscles, I couldn’t dodge the large wooden weapon that came crashing down on my skull.
Chapter 8
Merlin let out a groan. “That’s putting her right in the path of the Jinn. Damn it, you said that thunderstorm would push them the other direction.”
Flora stomped a foot and brushed past him to look deep into the orb. “Well, if the girl had any sense, she would have let the river block their path and push them back the other direction.”