Not that she hated horses; she liked them fine. She didn’t believe they liked her back, which was the issue.
Before she could voice a concern over the way the horse stared at her, she yelped when large hands spanned her waist and hoisted her onto the saddle. Sonah made a grab for thereins, still in the stableman’s hands. The man chuckled, sharing a look with Fane that made her curse them under her breath.
Fane, of course, mounted his horse gracefully and led them out of the yard, trotting down the street in what she hoped was the direction the traveler in green had headed.
They caught sight of them every once in a while. When they did, Fane would slow, dropping back so that they would remain undetected. Hours later, after crossing into Ibros, Sonah began to despair. They’d lost their quarry. She was about to admit defeat when she spotted the trio of men fifty feet in front of them, coming into view at the bottom of a hill.
Fane must have spotted them as well, for he reached back and made a clicking sound. Sonah’s horse stepped close to his side and he grabbed her reins as he turned back to where the travelers were.
“We’ll stay well behind them to remain unnoticed,” Fane muttered.
Sonah sat for a moment in silence before Fane made another clicking noise and their horses set off. She hastily tightened her grip on the reins and the horse let out what seemed to Sonah an affronted snort.
“Do you not need to be somewhere?” Sonah asked after a few minutes of riding in silence. “Doing… soldier things?”
“Leventis, the soldier I was with, knows to tell our captain I was called away. He’ll cover for me until I can send word again.”
“Huh,” Sonah narrowed her gaze at his back. As if he felt her eyes on him, he glanced over his shoulder. “Seems like a very lax team, or whatever.”
“My squad is not Liodari, but we’re not lax, either,” he grumbled, shooting Sonah a scowl before turning forward.
“Do you still talk to any of the others?” Sonah fished, trying to inject some boredom into her tone. “Michael? Or… Jason?”
Fane winked at her.
“What?”
“I know.”
Shouts sounded ahead, and Fane whipped his head around a moment before he and his horse took off. Sonah barely held on as her horse bolted after him, holding her breath as panic washed over her.
Fane had his sword out of its scabbard as they neared the travelers, two of them on the ground with arrows sticking out of their chests and the green-robed man crawling, an arrow jutting out of his calf.
Sonah’s mount reared as an arrow whistled past her ear. She tumbled from her horse and onto her back. The breath knocked out of her—she couldn’t move, she couldn’t breathe, and her ribcage was suddenly too tight. Grabbing at her tunic, Sonah’s eyes shot around, but all she could see were legs rushing to and fro.
Finally able to pull in air, Sonah turned over. Scrambling to her knees, she grunted as a muscular arm banded around her waist and yanked her up into the air. Sonah screeched, her hands clawing at her captor’s arm. Pitching forward, her legs flailed as she fought to get on the ground. Barely finding her footing, Sonah went still at the press of a cold blade at her throat.
“Halt, Spartan!”
Sonah winced as the shout rang through her ears. Her wild eyes found Fane off to her left, bloodied but fighting off a soldier wearing Heylisian colors. Her heart dropped when she realized who had attacked them.
Rivermen.
When he heard the command, Fane did a double take upon seeing Sonah. The soldier he’d been fighting caught him with a punch to his jaw and Fane stumbled. His eyes filled with rage and fear as his gaze darted between Sonah and her captor.
Finally raising his hands in surrender, Fane stood still as another soldier grabbed his sword out of his hand and threw it near Sonah.
“What is a Spartan doing this far north, I wonder?” The man holding her chuckled, his nose nuzzling her throat. She jerked away, hissing. He laughed some more, the throaty sound rumbling through her body as the man held her tight to his chest. “And with such a lovely companion.”
“Let her go,” Fane snapped, earning him a shove from one of the Rivermen.
“I don’t think I will,” the man at her back said. He tightened his arm at her waist. Sonah chanced a look behind Fane and almost vomited when she saw the green-robed traveler lying on his stomach, blood soaking the bulk of his cloak over his back.
“You’d like to stay with us, wouldn’t you, love?” the man whispered, his voice low and rough and seductive. Bile rose in Sonah’s throat.
“I cannot allow that,” a new voice said, the deep baritone making Sonah cry out in relief.
Every head whipped around toward the voice. Melanos stepped forward, his oversized frame domineering. The god wore the same long tunic and sandals he’d worn in the cave a few months ago when she and Terena had helped break the curse keeping Melanos confined inside.
