Shadow of the Horsemen (Kalie's Journey) Read Online Free Page A

your people is somehow better than being beaten, raped and enslaved by his?” She gave the corpse a vicious kick. It felt wonderful.
    Riyik took a step back. “You were putting up an impressive fight. I thought you didn’t want to go with him.”
    “And since when does what any woman wants matter to one of you sick, Motherless bastards?” she demanded.
    The renewed sounds of battle drew their attention. Riyik mounted his horse in a graceful leap. “Others may be more needful of my help. It seems clear you can get back to camp safely by yourself—although I pity any enemy warriors you meet on the way.” He wheeled his horse and raced back to the battle.
    Kalie returned to camp just as the battle was winding down.
    The enemy—of her enemies, anyway—was apparently one of the outlaw bands who had decided to take a chance on a pair of small, diminished clans. As she wandered through the ruined camp, past bodies strewn on the ground with little ceremony, and the booty of very poor horses, weapons and women gathered and guarded in a more organized manner, Kalie could see what a prize the Aahken clans must have seemed to the outlaws.
    It was only later, as she noticed that there were more Aahken warriors rather than less, that Kalie discovered the cause of such a decisive victory: the arrival of a third clan. Zavan and his warriors had arrived in the midst of the battle, turning the tide, if not exactly saving the day. Kalie could almost hear the stories that would be told around the fires tonight: the savage attack; the heroic stand of the badly outnumbered Aahken clans against the ruthless enemy; the divinely timed arrival Zavan’s clan….Perhaps she should throw together a story herself, now that she knew what the men liked to hear.
    If she survived whatever retaliation Riyik was planning.
    She took in the devastated camp-site, the wailing women, the grinning and shouting men, the piles of bodies, the stench of smoke and blood and death, and for a moment, felt invisible. As if she could just disappear into the smoke and find her way to someplace else.
    The feeling was shattered as Varena came running through the trampled grass. Kalie barely had time to brace herself before the girl came barreling into her arms, laughing and sobbing. “Irisa said she saw you taken! I was afraid I’d never see you again! I…”
    “Shh, it’s all right.” Kalie murmured reassurances to the one person she realized did care what happened to her. It struck her then just what it would have meant for Varena to have lost Kalie today. Strange, how a simple act of kindness, hardly noticeable in her own world, could become so complicated in a place like this. She could pretend to Riyik that it made no difference to her which tribe made her a slave, but as she stood comforting Varena, and belatedly wondering at the fates of Cassia and Brenia—two women who had been kind to her against all need and custom—she knew it wasn’t true.
    And then Cassia was there, shouting her gratitude to the gods that Kalie had been rescued, but there was work to be done, and she’d better start rounding up their scattered flocks. Then Altia joined them, ordering Kalie to check their gear for damage, with no shouts of gratitude but quite a lot of cursing. Just when it seemed things couldn’t get any more chaotic, the women, children and flocks of Zavon’s clan—who had been left to make their own way here after their warriors had ridden a break-neck pace to reach their beleaguered brothers—arrived, ready to fight with the women who were already established for a good place to camp and access to fresh water.
    Suddenly Kalie began to laugh. She didn’t know why, and she didn’t care. It was just that everything—even her great mission to save her people—seemed…silly. Unreal. As invisible as she herself had felt earlier.
    The men, busy dividing up the spoils of battle, left the women to the job of rebuilding the camp. As evening fell, the three