Sharon Shinn - Reader And Raelynx

Wheeling her horse around, Senneth reached out a wild hand and felt Ellynor’s fingers close around her wrist. She heard the cries of astonishment behind them, which meant she must have disappeared from view as completely as she’d hoped. Unseen, she and Ellynor swept up the hill and through the ranks of defenders. A line of enemy soldiers had crept up behind them while Halchon and Senneth engaged in insulting debate-just as Tayse had predicted.

“Leave them! Follow me!” Senneth cried, though, of course, none of the defenders could see her to follow. But they all managed one or two more devastating blows, then turned their horses and came thundering after Ellynor and Senneth. They had identified a low tumble of shrubbery as a meeting spot, and the two women reached it half a minute before the others. Ellynor released Senneth and muttered something that Senneth hoped meant an expansion of her magic. For a moment, they waited, strung with tension, holding their horses ready to gallop forward again. Their own soldiers plowed into the rendezvous point at a dead run, the attackers hard on their heels, and they all plunged forward again at a headlong pace. Only now their whole group was invisible.

Behind them, again, sounded more cries of confusion and fury. Senneth could hear Halchon’s voice. “You fools! It’s magic again! After them, after them!” There was the sound of tentative pursuit, but the hoofbeats were slower, the riders clearly mystified.

“Which way? Straight ahead?”

“What kind of magic is this? Fire and-and-vanishing? There’s no sorcery like that in Arberharst.”

“Quiet! Can you hear hoofbeats?”

“There-I think-something crashed through that line of bushes.”

The attackers charged after them, but too late, too disorganized, too uncertain. Senneth and her escort drew away as rapidly as they could, flinging themselves toward the larger band of soldiers waiting on the other side of Ghosenhall.

The enemies could not see them, but inside Ellynor’s protective circle, they could not see each other, either. They had not had much time to practice how they would ride close together at a very fast pace without treading all over each other. It was also difficult to see out of the dark haze Ellynor had summoned to hide them. Fortunately, the horses seemed less spooked than the humans. Maybe nothing was changed to them, Senneth thought. Maybe their eyes were so different that they were not blinded by magic.

She heard a big-boned animal edging ahead and, even before the rider spoke, guessed it was Tayse moving to the lead. “Answer quietly,” he called in a low voice, “but everyone sound off.”

“Justin” was the immediate first response.

“Senneth.”

“Ellynor.”

The other soldiers reeled off their names. Senneth spared a moment to wonder, almost hysterically, whether an enemy soldier had managed to infiltrate their ranks and was even now continuing along invisibly with them, clever enough to remain silent during this roll call. She could not imagine such a spy would long survive the dissipation of magic.

“Anyone injured?”

There was a chorus of no’s.

“I think that went superbly!” Senneth exclaimed, allowing herself a moment of exuberance even while she was fleeing for her life. “We surprised them, we destroyed a few of their men, we confused them, and we escaped!”

“And we learned something else,” Ellynor added. She sounded a little breathless. Senneth wondered how much energy she was expending to wrap twenty-five individuals in a cloak of darkness. And what kind of headache Ellynor might have when it was all done. Senneth’s own skull was echoing with each hoofbeat, but on the whole she didn’t feel as bad as she had at Danan Hall. She’d managed to keep her anger in check; that was always the key to enduring the most punishing spells. “Even Halchon Gisseltess cannot penetrate Lirren magic.”

“I don’t think I handled him very well, though,” Senneth added. She sighed and tightened her hand on the reins. “I never do.”

“I couldn’t decide which of his offers was more attractive,” Tayse said, his voice smooth but his anger palpable. “The one to marry Amalie or the one to marry you.”

Senneth sighed again. “If I cannot bring myself to marry him to avert a war, I cannot ask her to marry one of his surely repulsive sons for the same reason. I think, ‘Gods, the lives that could be saved!’ And yet-and yet-”

“And yet Gillengaria would die a slow death under his reign,” Tayse said firmly. “I absolutely believe it.”

“Well, he would have killed all of us just now if he could have, even though he had agreed to parley in peace,” Justin said practically. “That gives you some idea of the promises he would make and keep if he became king.”

“He is not going to be king,” Tayse said. “That is why we are going to war.”

ELLYNORhad lifted her magic by the time they met up with Coeval and the others. Justin, Senneth was interested to see, had somehow managed to locate Ellynor despite the inconvenience of not being able to see her and was now riding beside her. He caught Senneth’s eyes on him and grinned.

“All well here?” Tayse asked Coeval.

“Yes. You?”

“As planned. Let’s break for a meal and ride out.”

Senneth was glad she didn’t have to rely solely on Riders for her conversation.

They were on their way again in fifteen minutes, traveling at a steady but somewhat less brutal pace. As always, Tayse rode ahead of the column to scout for trouble, and Justin dropped behind to watch their back trail. What was new was that Ellynor stayed with Justin. Senneth smiled to watch them until they abruptly winked from view. An even more effective rear guard, she thought-an invisible one. No chance any enemy would catch them unaware.

They rode late, camped for only long enough to give the horses a rest, then were on their way again before dawn. Senneth felt bleary-eyed and dull-minded, and her headache hadn’t been helped much by the insufficient sleep. A few of the royal soldiers were yawning in their saddles, and Ellynor looked about as weary as Senneth felt. But none of the Riders appeared fatigued, and no one else dared complain.

Two more days of traveling, two more nights of uncomfortable and oh-so-brief repose. “Do Riders never sleep?” Senneth demanded of Tayse the next morning before he kicked his horse ahead of the rest.

He affected surprise. “Weren’t you just sleeping? For at least three hours?”

“I will be too tired to make a fire, and then you’ll regret your haste.”

He smiled. “An army moves slowly, but it will be moving all the same,” he said. “I want to join up with our own forces while there is time to prepare.”

“We’re a day ahead of Halchon by now, surely.”

He shook his head. “Maybe. We can’t count on more than twelve hours.”

“Then let’s ride.”

But she cheered considerably a little before noon when two spring hawks spiraled down out of the sky and landed gracefully alongside the road. Senneth pulled her horse aside and waited as Kirra and Donnal materialized.

“Tayse pauses for no one, so tell me your news quickly so I can catch up,” she greeted them. The rest of the soldiers had already moved past her, traveling at a steady clip.

Donnal grinned. “I don’t have anything to tell, but Kirra wants to visit.” In his breathtakingly rapid fashion, he transformed himself into a sleek black horse, complete with reins and saddle, and Kirra swung herself onto his back.

“ You look bedraggled and cranky,” she observed cheerfully as they jogged after the others. “Is that the result of hard travel or a failed mission?”

“Hard travel,” Senneth answered sourly. “Please tell me we’re close to Amalie, so I can lay down my head and die.”