Page 26 of Swordheart
The hoofbeats were getting loud. Sarkis flattened down even further into the shadow of the thorns. Halla reached out and found Sarkis’s gloved hand, and was grateful when he gripped hers back.
Don’t let them find us. I don’t even know what they’d do, but please don’t let us find out.
The horse’s hooves rang like metal on the cold earth as they passed. Halla closed her eyes. Her breathing was so loud that itseemed like anyone should be able to hear her, like Aunt Malva could hear her back in the town.
The hoofbeats clattered by and were gone.
They lay in the ditch for some time, until finally Sarkis squeezed her hand and let go, then climbed out and looked over the edge.
“Clear,” he reported. “They may yet come back this way, though. Be ready to duck.”
They kept going. Twice more, they had to dive into the ditch. By the third time, Halla was no longer frightened so much as exasperated.Why are you still looking along this road? This is ridiculous. Go bother someone else.
After the second one passed, she glared at Sarkis and said, “You could just say, ‘Get in the ditch now.’ You’ll have my arm out of the socket if you keep this up.”
“Sorry,” he said. “I don’t mean to hurt you.”
“I am capable of following simple orders, you know.”
“Without having to have a lengthy discussion about them, you mean?”
Halla narrowed her eyes.
“… that’s what I thought.”
The moon began to sink.
It was cold. Their brief run had left her sweating, and now the sweat chilled her. She shivered violently whenever the wind blew past, despite the weight of her cloak. Her legs ached from walking.
“We’ve come a few miles,” said Sarkis. “We need shelter soon, I think.”
He must be colder than I am. He’s wearing less. Unless magic swords don’t get cold. I wonder if he’ll get mad if I ask. He seems rather short-tempered.
Halla realized that he was expecting her to have suggestions.Of course. He’s never been here before.She stopped, arms wrapped tightly around herself, stamping her feet to warm them.
“Left,” she said, and nodded in that direction. “Into the stones. The shepherds keep summer houses up there sometimes, for when the lambs are out. I don’t know that we’d want to light a fire, but it’ll keep the wind off if we can find one.”
Sarkis nodded.
The hills were worse going than the road had been. It reminded her of the churchyard, uneven with hidden stones that rolled and dropped away underfoot. When Halla finally stopped and looked behind her, the road wasright there,as if she had barely moved at all.
She had been frightened before, but the unmoving road felt like despair.
Sarkis took her arm without asking and helped her keep going.
“Only a little farther, lady,” he said.
“I’m not a lady,” she said wearily.
“Gentleman, then?”
“No, I mean…” She nearly stepped in a hole and had to grab his arm for support. “Ladies are noble. I’m not.”
He shrugged. “Nobility is handed out arbitrarily at best.”
Halla thought of the Squire that had owned her mother’s land, and grunted agreement.
After what seemed like hours, they had toiled around the edge of the hillside. She was willing to collapse anywhere, between two rocks if it meant they were out of the wind, but Sarkis pointed.
