Chapter 13
THE EAGLE THAT Zaina had used to escape the Aranian camp did not know the way home. Either that or it wasn’t interested, or it wanted to stay close to its mistress, Rider Jeito, who was still captured in the Aranian camp.
It went up to a cave high in steep the side of the mountain peak where it was cold and draughty, and from where, when the weather was clear, Zaina could see the camp.
She was dependent on the bird’s stubborn resolve. It would sometimes let her ride its back and soar over the valley, but would always return to this dratted cave. Zaina didn’t know how to control the bird and it, and the two other birds who had come with the expedition, were probably secretly laughing at her.
She could not climb down the mountainside. Oh, she had tried, but the rock face was j
