Page 73 of Peregrine's Call
Tav said, “Then we should avoid meeting them altogether. Can you find a path around the group?”
Robin nodded. “It will take longer, but there’s always another path.”
She turned sharply to the right, leading her horse off the road and into the woods. Tav gestured for Pierce to go next and then he followed.
The land rose sharply on either side of the road, and they had to switch back twice to reach the high ground. Despite the better views once they were over the ridge, Robin went slowly, pausing several times before committing to a route. She must have been more concerned than she let on about the soldiers she’d seen.
After a while, the route began to lead downward again, toward a flatter stretch of land that was less heavily forested—a valley between their ridge and the next. Robin’s horse quickened pace, and the others followed. Tav breathed a little easier, not realizing until then how tense he’d grown thinking about an unknown force on the road.
Just as her horse reached the flat ground, Robin signaled a halt as she pulled hard on the reins, muttering a curse. Pierce imitated her, though his curse was louder.
“Hush,” she mouthed at them, her expression serious. She pointed to the little valley ahead, to the left.
Tav squinted, seeing the shapes of men on the other side of the sparse cover of trees. Some were mounted, some were not, but they were all armed. He counted eight. Perhaps a scouting party split off from the main group that they wanted to avoid? Or another group all together. Either way, Tav didn’t particularly want to fight eight men if he didn’t have to.
One of the men looked their way and smacked a neighbor in the arm to get his attention.
Then two men were looking in their direction, alert and wary.
Robin gripped the reins of her horse, her body held frozen. Pierce’s hand inched toward the sword he wore.
Tav put his hand to his own sword, even as he murmured a quick prayer for the men to ignore their presence.
“Do they see us?” he asked softly. Mounted, he felt like an entirely too obvious target, especially with the woods mostly bare of leaves. Thank God none of them were colorfully dressed. But the metal of their gear would glint in the light, and human shapes always jumped out of a scene when someone was looking for them.
After a moment of edgy silence, Robin said, “I don’t think so. See? They’re going now.”
The two men who’d been looking their way had been talking, but now the whole group was moving back toward the road, and the two men joined them.
Tav exhaled in relief, but kept an eye on the place where the group had been, half expecting someone to charge back out of the woods.
“We must have been farther away than it seemed,” Pierce said after a moment.
“I was certain they’d seen me!” said Robin. She looked worried rather than relieved.
“Let’s keep going,” Tav said. “The more distance we put between them and us, the better.” He didn’t know why, but he had a bad feeling about the men they’d just seen.
Robin nodded and led them onward, going farther to the right, putting even more distance between the main road and their new route.
They spent the next two hours picking their way through the forest. The going was slow, only getting easier when Robin ran across a deer trail that was fairly free of undergrowth.
Then, about an hour before sundown, the path intersected a little river, with a low hill rising nearby.
“We can stop here to rest.” Tav turned his horse in a circle to survey the whole clearing. “We won’t get much farther today anyway, and I don’t want to risk the horses. It’s too easy to stumble and get hurt.”
Robin looked around. “This is a good place to camp. Let’s stay as close as possible to that hill, though. If there’s weather from the west, it will provide a little shelter.”
“So no inn tonight,” Pierce said sadly.
Tav’s eyes met Robin’s, and he saw a secret flash of desire in her expression.
“We’re all sad about that,” she said, her gaze still on Tav. “But there will be other nights.”
Chapter 28
Robin bit back a smilewhen she saw Tav’s reaction to her words. She was just being honest. She’d much rather be in a bed with him than sleeping cold in the forest. She couldn’t wait to be done with this adventure.
“Misadventure,” she corrected, speaking to herself as she began to unpack the items needed to set up their modest camp.
