Chapter seven
Princess Lilah of Hyrklana rides a fluttrellIn a babblement and confusion the slaves ran about looking for Nath the Guide. They shouted along the stream and broke through thickets, and looked behind clumps of rocks. I studied where the guide had slept. His gear still lay where he had left it — blanket, shoes, knife, a leaf with a few palines — and as he had slept a little apart from us, whatever had taken him in the night had rested content with the one meal.
Lilah shivered. “Poor Nath!”
“Leem, by Hanitcha the Harrower!” Naghan said fiercely.
“We are on our own now.” The squat-bodied Brokelsh rubbed his black body hairs as he spoke. “We had best move now!”
“We will eat first,” I said. “And then we will march.”
I did not anticipate an argument, and broke bread and gave s
