To the High Redoubt Read Online Free PDF

meant.”
    There were beggars along the road, a few with criminal brands on their arms and faces. Most of them held out their bowls with pitiful cries, but some were silent, either from apathy or the loss of tongues. Arkady had never gotten used to beggars, not even those who waited around the church in Sól, and these seemed worse to him because they were more miserable and more vicious than those he had seen in Poland. He thought, as he walked, that perhaps the reason he had bought the slave was that he could not permit her to end this way, another discarded and sightless derelict with a bowl and nothing else.
    Finally the huts and beggars became more infrequent, and there were fewer travellers jostling toward the market village. Arkady halted the horse and brought the reins over the head. “I’m going to mount, and then I’ll pull you up behind me. You’ll have to sit on the blanket roll.” He took one of her hands and wrapped it around the stirrup. “Hang on for a bit.” With that, he vaulted into the saddle, keeping his boot out of the stirrup until he leaned down and took her hand. “Come up, then,” he said sharply, as he would have to another soldier.
    The slave did not respond quite as he had expected, and he had to haul her onto his mount, trying to settle her while he struggled with his horse. The bay gelding snorted and shook his head at this treatment, sidling and scampering while Arkady attempted to balance his slave on the bedroll behind the saddle. Finally, flushed and breathing deeply, he satisfied himself that the girl would not slip off. “You’ve…you’ve got to put your arms around my waist and hang on. We’re not going to go much faster than a trot, but for the most part, we’ll be walking. The horse has too much of a load with both of us for me to run him very far.”
    â€œCherut, immai,” she said, the hitch in her voice betraying her nervousness more than her expression.
    â€œFine. That’s fine,” he said a bit inanely. “Here we go, girl.” He loosened his hold on the reins and nudged his mount with his heels. Relieved, the bay gelding broke into a trot, jarring both riders with his abrupt movement. “Hold on!” Arkady barked, turning slightly in order to be sure his slave heard him. “You’ve got to hold on.”
    The slave said nothing; she put her arms around Arkady’s waist and clung to him while she bounced on the bay’s rump, only partly protected by the bedroll.
    The horse soon slowed to a walk, but in the time it took the bay to calm down, Arkady thought he would be deprived of breath by the grip of his slave. He tried to pry her fingers loose but found that he could not. Once he started to shout at her but realized that was a foolish thing to do. She could not understand him no matter how loudly he spoke. He resigned himself to her strangling embrace until the gelding dropped back to a walk. When that finally happened, he felt her arms relax a bit, and he took advantage of this.
    â€œIf you don’t hang on that way, it’s easier for me,” he said very slowly and precisely. “Remember that, will you?”
    Behind him, she said something he could not make out, then sank her fingers into his belt, which permitted him to breathe more freely.
    â€œRight. That’s better.” He decided that she was a sensible girl, for all her foreignness and her blindness. “You probably don’t know what’s going on. I wish I could explain it to you.” He would have to find a way to talk with her soon or their travels would be impossibly difficult. He tried to think of a way to start as they made their way across the flat valley toward the first rising hills in the distance.
    By evening they had begun to climb, and Arkady was secretly pleased that they had made such good progress. He decided not to press on too far that day and began to search for a place