55
Michaela rode the black stallion Telko toward their secret meadow. Tawny-coated Rune cantered at their side.
Michaela regretted what she had agreed to do. But at the time it seemed the only choice.
“Help me find my sister,” Rinaldo said. “Please. There’s no one else who can help me right now.”
Michaela could see that from where she stood waiting for Rinaldo to return from the corral with her clothes.
A line of soldiers and horses headed toward the long steep trail that would bring them down out of the pass.
“You’re the only one staying?” she asked Rinaldo.
“No. There are a lot of sick men still. But someone has to take care of them.” Rinaldo gestured toward the two tents behind them. “And there’s Astolpho. And Jara.”
That was what caused the pang.
Rinaldo had just handed Michae
