“I guard you because I do not trust theWolf,” he said, which was true enough.“Also, I know it rubs hisoily fur the wrong way.”
“That is the only reason, to anger Yago?”
“No.I also keep close to you because you andLasair are the horse and rider to beat,” he said, which was also aversion of the truth.
She gave a small smile and sat a littletaller.
“Your father and brother have both won andplaced in this race.I figure they have shared their wisdom andstrategy with you.”
Her smile flattened.“How practical ofyou.”
“I came here to win.I’ve never pretendedotherwise.”
“To win enough coin to return home with astring of broodmares and an easy-tempered wife.Yes, Iremember.”
“And you, what do you race for?”
Her smile was slow and purposeful and did notreach her eyes.“I ride to prove that not all of us princesses aresoft, spoilt, and useless, and that women are more than broodmaresto be bought and used by men.That we have our own worth in thisworld.”
Aleksi felt the sting of his own words thrownback at him, words that had pricked her pride he’d once thoughtnothing more than royal vanity like he’d seen in his father’s wifeand half-sisters.With Sahar, he had learned pride could be anhonorably inherent trait.
“Still angry at me then?”he asked by way ofapology.
“No.”She shook her head and shrugged.“Whywould I be angry with you, we are—”
“Don’t say we’re nothing to each other.”
“Why not?You did.”
Aleksi had already apologized to her for hiscruel words.What more could he say?
“You were right,” she added.
“What?”
“You were right,” she said.“At the end ofall this, we will both go back to our lives.Me, to being PrincessSahar, safe, spoilt, and secure in the folds of my royal family,and you”—her voice cracked, and she took a deep breath and blew itout—“you will return to your homeland half a moon’s journey away,where you will show your royal kin that a bastard son is a man ofhis own making whose stables will rival any king’s, and whosesturdy, easy-tempered wife will give him many sons.”She smiled,and the tips of her luscious lips quivered.“Whatever it is we arenow will be nothing but a fleeting memory.”
Sahar unfolded the saddle blanket, laid itover Lasair’s back, and tied it snugly under her belly to stave offthe autumn chill.
“You kept a good pace today, girl,” she said,patting the mare’s neck.“Second day of the race and you made thoseboys keep up with you.”She mixed a handful of oats from her bagwith a glob of goat fat and coaxed the mare into eating it.“I knowit is not your favorite meal,” she sympathized, “but it will giveyou energy when we head up into the foothills tomorrow.”
The course had been set to ensure plenty ofgrazing and water for the horses, but any rider worth their saltknew how important it was to supplement their horse’s feed on sucha long and arduous trek.Sahar glanced over at Aleksandr, who wasfeeding his stallion a similar concoction, and then quickly lookedaway when he caught her watching him.
Unfurling her bedroll onto the cold, hardground, she added her soft, plush bed to the list of comforts shewould never take for granted again.That list included the sight ofAleksandr’s broad bare chest as he returned from the stream to layhis bedroll next to hers, his damp hair slicked back and his wettorso glistening in the fire’s light.
She flopped down onto her bedroll.It was badenough Aleksandr had invaded her thoughts day and night.Now hisvoice was embedded in her head as well.Purposely turning herattention away from Aleksandr’s hard chest and tight nipplespuckering in the cold night air, she rummaged through her sack offood and decided on a piece of cheese and flatbread with a handfulof dates for her supper.While she ate in silence, Munir set hisbedroll up alongside hers so that he and Aleksandr flanked her, thetwo of them eating and talking companionably about the leagues theyhad covered that day, and what they might expect tomorrow as theyrode up into the foothills of mountains whose peaks would be dustedwith their first snowfall within a moon’s time.
Sahar remained quiet, content to listen tothem talk as she sipped out a measured cup of wine, her tightmuscles relaxing as the drink’s warmth spread from her belly to herlimbs.Aleksandr and Munir also took long pulls on their wineskinsbefore capping them and setting them aside.Her cup empty, shestood and stretched and began to make her way to a hedge of bushes.The sound of boot fall followed behind her, and she turned andglared at Munir.
“I am perfectly capable of passing water onmy own,” she told him, to which he shrugged and remained rooted towhere he stood.“Fine,” she muttered loudly as she rounded thehedge and pulled down her breeches and squatted.“Sure you don’twant to hold my hand, so that I, frail woman that I am, do not fallinto my own piss?”
Munir did not look in the least chagrined asshe strode back past him a few moments later, nor did she wait forhim as he disappeared behind the bushes.She glared at Aleksandrfor good measure, and was rewarded with a cocked eyebrow as shereturned to her bedroll.
“Rider in,” someone called out, and all eyesturned to the latecomer, who would be disqualified for riding pastnight fall.
It was Feroz, the merchant’s son, and hishorse was limping.Aleksandr and Munir went straight to him andhelped lead the poor animal over to where their horses were stakedout alongside Lasair.Munir removed the horse’s saddle as thegelding drank from the stream while Feroz finished off his waterskin and refilled it.When both horse and rider had their fill,Feroz rubbed the beast down while Aleksandr checked the injuredleg, running his big hands down the length of it from shoulder tohoof.Lifting the horse’s hoof, he squinted in the darkening light,and Sahar held out the small branch she had pulled from the fire,its tip burning hot enough to provide some illumination.
Aleksandr whistled low and touched a darkspot on the sole of the gelding’s hoof, cursing softly as the horsetried to jerk it away.
