Page 37 of Hot Zone

She started. He said that as if it were a foregone conclusion there would be a great battle at the narrow pass, bounded by the sheer wall of Mount Oeta on one side and a cliff dropping into the sea on the other.

She had history to tell her what had happened, but how did he know? “You’re sure there will be a battle there, then?”

“Where else? The Greeks are vastly outnumbered. They dare not meet Xerxes on an open battlefield. But if they can reach a narrow gap first and plug it up, they might stop the Persian army. A tiny cork can stop an entire amphora of wine from pouring forth when it’s hammered into the bottleneck.”

She nodded. He was right, of course. “You can’t seriously be thinking of going through the pass ourselves, though. The battle will commence in just a few days. Won’t the Spar—Greeks already be there, setting up their defenses?”

That earned her a strange look. Dammit, she had to stop making comments like that! It was so hard to separate her foreknowledge of history from the moment she stood in now.

He said, “The two of us are well mounted. If we’re quiet and move fast, I think we can beat Xerxes to the pass and slip past the Greeks. It’ll be a close thing, but we’re up to it.”

“What about advance scouts from both armies? Surely each side will send out patrols to keep watch for their enemies.”

“We must avoid them. I did not say using the pass would be easy or free of danger, merely that it was possible.”

She grimaced, gazing out across the jagged landscape to the northwest. “I don’t suppose we have much choice if I insist on heading south, do we?”

“No,” he answered bluntly.

She sighed. “Thermopylae it is. Full speed ahead, then.”

He looked at her sharply. “You have experience aboard ships?”

She swore under her breath at her big mouth. “A little. You?”

If she wasn’t mistaken, that was a wistful look that crossed his mobile features. “Oh, yes,” he answered softly. “I have a great deal of experience with ships.”

A sailor? Yes, she could see him sailing the open seas. Pitting himself against the untamed elements…“You’d make a great explorer.”

He all but fell off Polaris. He whipped his head around fast to stare at her. “Why do you say that?” he demanded sharply.

She frowned. “You’re smart and strong and independent. You strike me as being brash enough to think that you could take on Mother Nature and win.”

He relaxed slowly in his saddle, but it looked as if he forced himself to do so, one rigid muscle at a time. He was silent for a long time after that.

They rode all through the night, Rustam and Polaris leading the way, she and Cygna following behind. It felt good to be moving, at any rate, to be taking positive action toward finding the medallion. Even if it was putting her smack-dab between two of the greatest armies of all time on the eve of their titanic clash.

Rustam and Tessa stopped periodically to rest the horses. A little before daybreak, they took a longer break, actually unsaddling their mounts in a small grove and letting the animals graze and drink at the tiny stream meandering through the sheltered spot. Rustam stretched out beneath a stunted olive tree that was little more than a bush.

“Aren’t you going to tie up the horses?” she asked in surprise.

“Polaris won’t leave me and Cygna won’t leave him.”

“But if you’re wrong, we’ll be in a world of hurt.”

“A world of hurt? An interesting turn of phrase. Where exactly do you come from, again?”

His eyes were closed, his big body relaxed beside her, his tone of voice casual. But something about his…aura, for lack of a better word, was on full alert, focused with predatory intensity on her answer to his question.

“I told you. Far away to the north and west of here, in what the Persians and Greeks consider untamed wilds.”

“Not so wild to have produced a female as intelligent and educated as you.”

“Ahh, but I attained much of my education on my journey to this place.” Which was also mostly true. Athena had planted in her mind much of the knowledge she was using to survive here during the time jump.

Rustam cracked one eye open. “Are you exceptional among your people?”

Sharply aware of his ability to sense when she was lying, she answered carefully. “I am not exceptional for my intelligence or education.”

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