He brought both horses to a halt. He regarded her with a somber stare. “Honestly, Disa, I don’t know. I wish I could tell you otherwise, but the only way to reach Luda without a month’s journey to Kefinor and Cimejen riding our heels the entire way—and that’s if we aren’t captured by him—is to try another lim portal.” His expression softened. “I don’t like any of the options available to us, but I will do whatever you choose. I want to save your sister as much as you do.”
She’d already risked a great deal to reach Luda. What was one more peril? She only regretted dragging Bron into this mess with her. Still, she was glad he was by her side. “The stone it is,” she said.
As with the previous night, they rode through darkness, guided by Bron’s night-seeing spell. Instead of a sward of bluestem grass, they stopped to rest among a stand of alders growing alongside a small spring. Once more, Bron laid out his cloak and advised her to sleep. She hesitated this time, worried by the look of him as he set their saddles down nearby andreclined against one of them. His eyes were even more bloodshot and encircled by dark rings that enhanced the pallor of his skin.
“Let me take watch,” she said. “You haven’t slept since before we left the first encampment.” If she calculated correctly, he hadn’t slept since she woke up beside him in his tent.
He shook his head. “I’m used to long watches and little sleep. I need you alert while we ride.”
While his reasoning was logical, she was still reluctant to leave another watch to him. Her fears for him were realized on the last day of their journey. Bron no longer sat straight in the saddle. The whites of his eyes were practically crimson, and his temper short. Disaris herself was exhausted, as were their horses, but at least the three of them had rested and slept.
Bron’s fatigue finally overcame him as they followed a riverbank toward the first village not far from the Hayman Stone. A majestic willow tree stood guard near the water, and it was there he simply slid off his gelding and landed partially in the shallows with a splash.
“Bron!” Disaris leaped off her mare and ran to where he lay, lifting his face from the water before he inhaled it and choked. She pulled him into her arms, uncaring that they were both getting soaked. She tapped him gently on the cheek with her palm. “Wake up, Bron. I need you to wake up.”
He groaned and opened one fiery red eye. “We’re not there yet,” he said, slurring the words.
She hugged him, pressing her cheek to his wet head. “We will be, but for now you have to stand. You’re too heavy for me to carry. You can sleep under the willow tree.”
Somehow she managed to coax him to stand, and they staggered to the tree, passing through its draping branches to a patch of turf near its base. Bron collapsed the moment they stopped, asleep before his head touched the ground. She checked him for any injuries. At finding none, she stroked backa lock of wet hair stuck to his forehead and kissed him there. “Stubborn fool,” she whispered.
“Reckless woman,” he muttered before slipping into a soft snore.
She left him to unsaddle the horses, stake their lead lines so they could graze, and haul the saddles into their temporary shelter. She unpacked what remained of their provisions and refilled the waterskins. Bron’s snoring paused when she draped his cloak over him, only to resume after a faint snuffle. Disaris found the sound reassuring. He wasn’t sick or injured, just bone-tired and in desperate need of sleep.
The song of the river as it tumbled over rocks and danced in the shallows lulled her into a somnolence. She shook her head and slapped her cheeks to stay awake but to no avail. Bron was a big, warm presence beside her, and soon she lay snuggled against him, falling deep under the spell of both man and river.
It was full night when she woke up, and she peered into the darkness, listening for anything that might signal danger among these unfamiliar surroundings. The soft snort of one of the horses eased her worries. While he hadn’t allowed the use of a firestick as they crossed the plains, she dug one out of their provisions bag and snapped the cap open to blow on the top. A flame burst to life with a hiss, and she used its meager light to check on the horses and survey the surrounding landscape.
Bron was still asleep when she returned, though he no longer snored. Trying not to disturb him, she lay down beside him once more. He’d likely blister her ears for not waking him or, as was more his way, turn his darkest scowl on her and quietly reprimand her. She’d accept any admonishment. He’d half killed himself getting them this far, and they were still a long way from reaching Luda. The most dangerous part of the trip awaited them on the other side of the Hayman Stone, and if the bed maiden Uzmina was right about Cimejen, a relentless hunterwas already on the path to finding them. Bron needed to rest so he could later fight.
She turned on her side to face him. He was a blacker shape in the darkness, and she wished she hadn’t recapped the firestick so she could watch his handsome face while he slept. For now she’d have to be content with lying next to him and listening to him breathe. Sleep slowly crept over her once more, and she succumbed to its embrace.
When she woke a second time, she was in Bron’s arms, wrapped in his cloak. Slivers of sunlight cut through the gaps between the willow’s pendulous branches, turning the sanctuary into a soft green canopy stretched over the arching framework of the larger, gnarled limbs.
Disaris tried to move, only to find herself trapped by the weight of Bron’s arm across her hip and his face pressed to her neck. Where their circumstances not so dire, she’d stay where she was forever, savoring these moments of him beside her, vulnerable in sleep—as he’d once been, long ago, when they were lovers.
She managed to wiggle an arm free and stroked his tangled hair with one hand. “Bron,” she whispered, gently kissing his forehead where skin met hairline. “You have to wake up.” She kissed him again, all the while stroking his shoulder.
He sighed and slowly stretched, his legs sliding along hers. He mumbled something and pulled her closer. She knew the moment he came fully awake. His body went rigid, and his breathing halted.
She lay still as he rose on one elbow and stared down at her, squinting against the verdigris light surrounding them. “Where are we?”
“Under a willow,” she said, already missing the closeness of his unguarded affection while he slept. “You were so tired, you fell off your horse. I helped you here so you could rest.”
Alarm tightened his features. “How long have I been asleep?”
“Since yesterday, near twilight.”
“Gods damn it!” He threw off the cloak and leaped to his feet, grabbing her hand as he did so that she staggered up with him. “Cimejen will be on top of us in no time.” He glanced around, spotting their saddles and gear. “Where are the horses?”
“Between here and the river. I made sure to stake their lines close by and checked them through the night.”
She barely got the words out before he hefted the saddles onto his shoulders and left the willow’s shelter. She grabbed his cloak and the provisions bag and hurried after him. For a man who’d just awakened from a long, hard sleep, he moved fast. In no time he’d saddled the horses, nearly tossed Disa completely over her mare and coaxed his tired gelding into a canter.
They rode to a spot in the river where the water ran calmer and the middle wasn’t so deep, crossing to the other side. There, the woodland was thick and overgrown. They halted just inside the perimeter, Bron swinging down from his perch and motioning Disaris to do the same.
“The undergrowth is thick and will be hard for the horses to navigate. We’ll move faster if we lead them on foot.”
