to death.
“You’re very brave,” he told her, “and I’ll need you to keep your courage up a little longer. We have to run before the tribesmen come after us again.”
She nodded, her face drained of color. “I won’t...disappoint you.”
“I know you won’t,” he said. Overwhelmed by a feeling of gratitude and tenderness, he kissed her dirt-smudged forehead. “I’ll get the other horse.”
But the tribesman’s horse had gone lame sometime during the chase, and the best Timon could do was leave him for his previous owners to reclaim. He loaded the saddlebags on Lazarus’s back and returned to Jamie.
“Hold on,” he said.
He lifted her in his arms and placed her in the saddle, then hopped up behind her. She collapsed against him. He wrapped one arm around her waist, gathered up the reins in his other hand and turned Lazarus toward the valley.
As Timon had predicted, the raiders began to follow again when he and Jamie were halfway across the valley. But Lazarus had all the heart and courage of the Riders’ specially bred horses, and he didn’t slow until they reached the hills on the opposite side. The tribesmen never had a chance.
By the time the chase ended, Jamie was deadweight in his arms. Timon found a place in the hills just south of the pass through which the delegates and their escorts would have gone only a short while before. He laid the half-conscious Jamie down under a tree and reexamined the bandages around her thigh.
The wound wasn’t bleeding heavily, but the pain would be excruciating, and he doubted she’d ever have experienced anything like it before. He was driving her body to move instead of rest when it had two injuries to heal.
He propped her head on his thighs and urged her to drink from his canteen. Most of the water dribbled down her chin, but a little got into her mouth, and she opened her eyes.
“Where are we?” she whispered.
“Away from the tribesmen,” he said. “They won’t find us now.”
“Thank...God,” she said. Her lips twitched. “And thank you.”
Timon felt deeply uncomfortable with her gratitude. Protecting the Enclave delegates was, after all, his job. If he’d observed well enough in the first place, this never would have happened.
He didn’t like owing anything to anyone, nor did he like others owing him. If she felt there was a debt to be repaid...
Then she’ll trust you, he thought. Isn’t that what you want?
“Lie still,” he said. “Your body has suffered multiple shocks, and you need rest.”
She moved as if she was trying to sit up, then fell back with a gasp. “We have to get back to my people,” she said. “My godfather—”
“They know I came after you,” he said. “We’ll meet up with them when we can. But driving yourself now will only increase the risk of your becoming worse.”
Jamie swallowed several times. “I understand,” she said. “It’s just... I wasn’t prepared for anything like this.”
“I know.”
“The...man who took me told me what he was going to do to me, and what would happen to me afterward.” Her words came out in a rush. “If I’d done enough research...if I’d paid enough attention, maybe I would have been ready to deal with it. I—”
“No. If I’d explained things more clearly—”
“It wouldn’t have made a difference.” Tears rolled from the sides of her eyes. “Even after the first attack... I couldn’t have imagined such cruelty by humans against their own kind.”
Timon didn’t know how to answer her. He wet a scrap of cloth with the water and dabbed at the dirt on her forehead. Her skin felt cool, but that could change.
“You shouldn’t talk anymore,” he said. “If you’ll sleep a little, I’ll give you something to eat when you wake.”
“Sleep?” She coughed out a laugh. “I’m sorry, but... I’m afraid I’m a coward. It hurts too much.”
“There’s nothing cowardly about you,” he said, looking through his med kit for a packet of pills.
“How many of the humans living out here are like that?” she asked.
“Most aren’t,” he said, trying to ease the sting of her chagrin. “Most only want to survive peacefully, as you do.” He picked out one of the pills. “This might help with the pain, but I won’t lie to you. You’re going to be uncomfortable.”
“I’ll take...whatever I can get.”
He offered the pain pill with a sip of water, and then gave her an antibiotic. His supply was limited, and he had to be careful about the dosage.
“Thank you,” she said. She looked into his eyes. “You could have been killed, fighting those men.”
“I was lucky. I was able to pose as one of them.”
Her nose wrinkled. “I don’t think they...bathe very often.”
For the first time since her capture, Timon felt like laughing. “I’ll change,” he said. “I have an extra shirt and pants you can wear, when you’re able to put them on.”
“You’re twice my size,” she said. “I can repair my own clothes, if you have a needle and thread.”
“Later. Nothing matters now but that you’re safe.”
“Is it that important?” she asked, closing her eyes.
It seemed to Timon that she was asking herself as much as she was asking him. “You’re important, Jamie. I know you have a contribution to make to the Conclave, maybe something no one else can.”
Her eyes fluttered open, and Timon saw them spark with surprise. “How did you...” She clamped her lips together. “You couldn’t.”
“Couldn’t what, Jamie?”
She fell silent. The sun had grown warm, but suddenly Jamie was shivering. Timon fetched a blanket and tucked her under it.
“No more talk,” he said. “While you sleep, I’ll keep watch.”
“I’m sorry,” she sighed.
“No,” he said, taking her hand. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
She began to shake her head, exhaled slowly and drifted into sleep.
Timon held her hand a little longer, amazed by its delicacy and softness. It wouldn’t be so soft at the end of their journey. Inevitably, she would lose whatever innocence she
