Roark pulled his flint out of his saddlebagand his dagger out of his boot, holding them both out to Alina, whowas shaking her head even harder, her eyes wide and wild.
“Yes,” he told her, shoving the flint and thedagger into her hands.He took the bow and quiver from Artur’ssaddle and tied them to Etain’s.“The mare can’t carry us both,” hesaid.“You have to leave me or we’ll both die, and this will haveall been for nothing.”He could see her mind working, arguingagainst the truth of what he said.“What if you’re carrying mybairn?”
She blinked twice, and then she grabbed himby the tunic.“They will grow up knowing they were made of ourlove.None of this,” she said, her voice as fierce as her gaze,“was for nothing.I love you, Roark.”
He gave her a smacking kiss on the lips.“Ilove you too.”He took her by the arms and practically threw her uponto Etain’s back.“Now fly, my lady owl.Fly to Silver Water Keep,and the gods willing, I’ll join you there in a day or three.”
“Roark…”
“Go.”He slapped Etain on the rump andwatched Alina ride away from him, and then he walked Artur over toa log and untied the saddle blanket he’d been using as a bedrolland cut strips off it that he tied around Artur’s hoof.When he wassatisfied the hoof was sufficiently cushioned, he pulled out hislast two strips of rabbit meat and ate them, took a long drink ofwater from his skin, pulled his short sword, and sat down on thelog and waited.
He didn’t have to wait long.
He stood and stretched his back and touchedhis toes and swung his arms from side to side as the ridersapproached and circled him.
“Where’s the woman?”demanded a man ofindeterminate age with stringy brown hair and a long, scruffybeard.
“Woman?”Roark glanced around, taking in thefour other men.“What woman?”
“The one you was ridin’ with,” the man, whoappeared to be the leader of the motley band, said.
Roark was a laird’s son who’d been taughtsword fighting since he was eight years old, and by the raggedlooks of the men surrounding him, he was at least five yearsyounger than the youngest and outweighed every one of them by threestone of muscle.Still, there were five of them on horseback.Thebest he hoped to do was stall and give Alina more time to get away,and to take one or two of them down with him.
“You must mean the lad I was riding with,” hesaid.“A fey lad, to be sure.I ken see why you’re thinking he wasa woman.”
“He’s messing with ye, Ned,” another man, thebeefiest of the five, said.
“Shut up, Shaw,” the leader, Ned, said.“Iknow he’s messing with me.”He glared down at Roark.“An I know whoyou and the woman be.Now, where is she?”
Roark shrugged and shook his head.
“Rob,” Ned barked at the rider to the rightof Roark.“Look fer her tracks.She can’t’ve gotten far.”
“Aye, Ned.”
Roark turned and took two running strides forRob, leaping into the air and skewering the man through the back ofthe ribs with his short sword.He pulled the blade from Rob’s backas the man slumped forward, and landed on his feet.“Well,” hesnarled, swinging the short sword and slinging Rob’s blood.“Who’snext?”
The youngest and twitchiest of the gangcharged Roark with his horse, which was as twitchy as his rider.Roark stepped up and bellowed like a bull, waving his arms andshouting at the wall-eyed creature.The horse panicked and rearedand threw its rider, who landed on his back with a thud and crackedhis head open on a rock.The horse ran off, and the other three menstared at their dead companions for a breath or two, and then theyslowly tightened their circle around him.
“Yer a dead man,” the one called Shawspat.
“No, Shaw,” Ned snapped.“He ain’t worth spitto us dead.We take him alive.”
Roark grinned and swung his sword.“You cantry.”
***
Alina made the woods and picked a windingpath in a northwesterly direction over the driest ground she couldfind, backtracking where Etain’s hoofprints would be easiest totrack.She came upon a stream a half league into the woods and rodeEtain downstream, stopping to look back over her shoulders andlisten for the sounds of being followed every twenty paces orso.
The stream flowed in the general directionRoark told her ride, and she could have continued following it asdusk turned to night, putting more distance between herself and theriders who were sure to come after her at some point, yet thefarther she got from where she’d left Roark, the more she keptbeing drawn back.
Roark, who’d stayed to fight and distract thebrigands, to give her more time to get away, knowing he couldn’thope to beat five armed men, but would do what damage he could andthen let himself be captured to save her.
Roger’s orders were to take them alive, sothe men shouldn’t try to kill Roark.But he would be fighting tokill, not wound them, and men were known to go berserkers in afight, and fatal wounds were often taken even in practicefights.
Alina reined in Etain to a halt and stared upthe mountain.If she didn’t keep riding for Silver Water Keep andgot caught by the men, then everything Roark had done for her wouldbe for nothing.But what if she kept riding and he died for her?What if she could have saved him?
Alina turned Etain south and rode upstream.She couldn’t leave Roark to those men.She wouldn’t.She’d simplyhave to be careful and smart about it.
