“We ride on,” Beko said. “Perhaps we can buy new horses at the border.”

“Perhaps,” Nomi said.

“Six people, all our equipment, five horses,” Ramin said. “Numbers not being my good point, I'd say we're pissed on already.”

“Nomi will ride with me,” Beko said. “Konrad and Ramin, you share a mount. The spare will be our packhorse.”

“One horse can't carry everything we have,” Noon said. “We'll kill it just as well as poison.”

“Then we lose what we don't need. Share tents. Compromise.”

Nomi nodded and looked around at the group. Fear was suddenly replaced with determination. Only until the sun goes down again, she thought, but she grabbed on to the positive and tried to drive the negative away. “We should ride through the day,” she said. “Try to buy horses at the border. I have money, and Ramus has nothing, so he's only inconvenienced us for now.”

“He could have ridden on ahead,” Rhiana said. “Could have gained thirty miles on us last night. But he chose to stay back and do this.”

“And Lulah with him,” Beko said.

The Serians fell silent, and Nomi wondered whether they saw this as betrayal by their friend. Or perhaps it was all just work, and they were admiring a job well done.

THEY BROKE CAMP and mounted up, leaving the spare saddles behind and loading the empty horse with a pack saddle. The creature did not seem happy with this imposition—it was obviously bred to be ridden, not loaded—but Noon whispered soothingly into its ear, and soon they were ready to leave.

Nomi sat behind Beko, and even before they left the campsite she felt the saddle cutting into her lower back. This would be an uncomfortable day.

“We've left it a mess,” she said. The Serians were usually very particular about how they left a campsite, burying waste, scattering the fire's ashes and giving the impression that no one had ever stayed there. This time things were different.

“We can stay and spend another hour clearing up if you like,” Beko said over his shoulder.

They wended their way between trees and emerged eventually onto the plains. Leaving the hills and woods behind felt good to Nomi, but the landscape before them had just as many places to hide. Clumps of trees grew here and there, the land rolled and dipped subtly toward the near horizon; there were signs of halfhearted attempts to work the land: hedge lines, tumbled walls. They urged the horses into a trot.