Daughter of Wolves

Chapter 3

Dawn the next morning found me at the gates of the caravanserai with Kiarash still in tow. Regrettably he had not run away, so I had to feed him breakfast. The man had the appetite of a hungry bear!

Afterwards I fitted a lead rope to the mare's bridle and told him to mount. A number of people came to watch us ride out, those who had attended the game the previous night recounting the events to the others. This sudden notoriety made me ill at ease. The last thing I needed was for my name to travel up and down the trade roads.

We were the first people out the gate, for I had every intention of leaving Behzad and his friends so far behind that they had no chance of catching up with me, even if they tried. Seeing as I now owned the only two decent horses around, that shouldn't be too difficult.

I had decided to take Kiarash with me a short distance, give him some money and set him free. It was the best I could do for him, and I told myself this would end my responsibility. I couldn't possibly look after every man, woman or child who crossed my path and needed rescue, I had enough troubles of my own.

The mountains that marked the border with Sikhand lay before us like crouching beasts, lit by the rising sun. They seemed deceptively near, but I knew it would take a day just to reach the beginning of the road up to the Zhubin Pass.

Kiarash managed to stay in the saddle more easily than I had expected, though he sat hunched over with his head lowered, so we alternately walked and trotted. After a while, I stopped to let the horses drink at a small rivulet, before leading them off the road to a clearing sheltered by some stunted trees.

"Get off," I told Kiarash.

He straightened up. "Why?"

Something in his behaviour flustered me. He seemed changed somehow. "I don't keep slaves," I said. "You're free."

"I've always been free."

All traces of submissiveness had gone, and he looked me straight in the eye. Now that he held himself upright, all of a sudden he seemed a lot taller.

"Whatever," I stuttered. "I'll take that thing off." I motioned to his slave collar. "And we can part ways."

"I can do that myself." He reached up, there was a click, and the collar came off. "I broke the lock the day they put it on," he said casually and tossed it away.

I was still staring at him in stupefaction when he bent forward and untied the lead rope from the mare's bridle. "Well, Khotai girl," he said, "this is where I'm off. Your people are a bunch of mindless killers, but you've been quite kind, so I'll give you a piece of free advice: go back and join a caravan. These hills are no place for dim-witted innocents like you."

The cheek of the man! "What are you doing?" I snapped.

He gathered up the mare's reins. Her ears flicked back when she felt the change in him. "You heard me, I'm off."

"Not with my horse!"

"She doesn't belong to you."

"Yes, she does, I won her fairly." I wasn't going to part with the mare after nearly paying such a high price for her. Besides, I needed her.

His face hardened. "One thief winning her from another."

"I'm no thief," I exclaimed angrily.

"You Khotai all are," he shot back. "Thieves and filthy murderers, troubling our borders. Delyth is mine."

Delyth? But I had no time to consider his words, because that moment he urged the mare forward, back towards the road. I nudged Shar to interpose himself and barred his way. "Hold!"