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

and killed everyone in her tent. Her good master, his wife—“
    “You mean Gorik?” Kalie cried. “And Goat-Dung?”
    The women turned on her, horrified, but Kalie could only laugh, though tears leaked from her eyes. “That’s what she called his wife. And I’m surprised any of you know her name, since no one in that tent bothered to learn it.”
    “She killed their son as well!” cried Tilka. “Their only surviving child! He was to be married this summer to Salia’s niece.” She nodded toward the first speaker. “Traea was to go with him as his concubine, and slave to his new wife! To show such kindness to a worthless barbarian and be repaid with death—“
    “Kindness?” Kalie cried. “If such treatment as she received is called kindness, I’d say she repaid it very well indeed. But then, she had excellent teachers.” She met Tilka’s gaze with a look of hate that equaled that of the horsewoman.
    “We must not speak of such things!” said Salia, stepping between them just as Tilka seemed ready to strike. “We dare not invite something so evil back by speaking its name. There have been ill omens enough already.”
    Tilka turned away from Kalie and nodded slowly. “A two headed goat born among Boraak’s flocks, and ravens circling healthy animals. And who’s to say that the madness that seized that horrible slave isn’t still loose.”
    “The priests cut up her body and scattered the pieces to the four winds,” said the third woman in a soothing voice. “Whatever spirit claimed her is long gone.”
    “Perhaps not,” Kalie taunted. “Perhaps she was simply bitten by a rabid animal, and he still lives to attack again.”
    “You mean a dog?” asked Salia.
    “No, I mean one of your men!” Kalie turned on her heel and walked away to begin her mourning.
    She never again spoke to those three women, but she spoke with others from Zavan’s clan. She learned that Alessa had been sold to a warrior from another tribe, and knew she would probably never see her again. Kestra was expecting a child they told her. The women claimed she rarely spoke and that she was sullen and withdrawn. She made no attempt to make friends, but was at least trying to be a good wife, utterly devoted to her fine husband.
    Kalie shuddered, grateful that she could put off seeing Kestra. Her clan had traveled briefly with Zavan’s clan, until grazing became poor and they decided to make their separate ways to the summer pastures.
    She learned nothing else about her friends, but heard other, important news. The most interesting was a confirmation of a rumor Kalie had heard a few moonspans ago on the night of the winter solstice: the disappearance of one of the Twenty Clans of Aahk. Chief Yuraak had indeed, taken his clan west in search of the riches that Haraak had spoken of when he brought Kalie and the other women to the grasslands.
    Some warriors whispered fierce denials that Yuraak was capable of such treachery—others denied that he was capable of that much independent thought or planning. Kalie thought of those she had left behind in Riverford: farmers who had seen firsthand what the warriors of Aahk were capable of, and had learned the hard way the need to slay a beast who threatened flocks—or their own children. Craftsmen who were designing defenses for villages when she had left the previous year. If Yuraak and his band of twenty or so warriors survived the winter and reached the Goddess- lands at all, they would receive a very different welcome than Haraak and his men had. Kalie hid her smile as she continued walking. “One gone, nineteen to go,” she thought.  
    “We will arrive at the summer campsite in just a few more days,” Cassia’s words broke into Kalie’s musings as they walked together behind Altia. The dust was becoming a problem, and Cassia had warned Kalie it would get worse. That justified the women’s veils, she thought, but not the heavy layers of felt clothing.
    “How are you feeling?”