She sounded so weary I couldn’t argue with her.
I opened my rucksack and gave her a pair of pants and one of my shirts. Both were dull in color, and she was as dwarfed in the overlong pants and shirt as I had expected.
But she wrapped the drawstring twice around her waist, rolled up the legs and sleeves; and to my surprise, she seemed at home in these garments.
Then she went back to the river to put her boots on, and braided her hair in a long plait to her waist. Looking around, the stranger girl finally tore off an unsoiled piece of her dress to tie her braid before she threw the bloodstained gown in the river.
The current was strong that time of year.
For an instant, the shimmering fabric blew open and revealed the bloodstained bodice, and the beads on the dress glimmered in the light of the moon before the water sucked the gown under and dragged it downstream.
“What the devil are you doing?”
“I don’t know,” she answered. “If I’m lucky, somebody will find the gown, and everybody will assume I threw myself into the river. But it’s more likely the river will carry it far away before anybody even wakes up.”
“Why were you crying? I doubt you mourned for the Sorcerer.”
The stranger girl smirked and looked sideways at me. Her composure was restored, and the expression in her cold, blue eyes detached once again.
“Rough night,” she said curtly. “The sun will be up before I can tell you all about it.”
She gathered her petticoats and camisole, and wrapped them up in a bundle. Then she looked around the Abandoned Valley and Ancient Grove where my sheep had scattered again.
But she wasn’t looking for my flock. She peered in the trees intently for a long time, and clicked her tongue a few times.
The stomping of a massive beast was heard long before the largest stallion I had ever seen appeared. I couldn’t see him until he was almost upon us because his coat was such a dark gray, night made him invisible.
I gasped when I saw the giant animal. Even as tall as I was, that horse towered over me, his back higher than I stood, and his long neck carried his head far above mine.
His stature alone was intimidating. But the wildness I sensed in this stallion made him terrifying, and the noble crest branded into his flanks was inconceivable.
This animal had never been meant to be in service to a patron. He was feral, born to run free wherever he chose.
But this mighty beast came to the stranger girl and knelt on his front legs before her, so she could leap on his back and grip his silvery mane.
I was stunned when the stranger girl sat astride the stallion like a man. I had never seen a girl ride any way other than with both legs along one flank.
“Get on,” she said. “We have about an hour before the sun comes up, two at the most.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I have to go with you.”
I shook my head.
“There’s no way I can let you come with me.”
“It would only be for a little while. I need time to figure something out, then I’ll go my own way. I promise.”
“I’m sorry. I wish I could help you. I scarcely have enough for myself. I often go days without eating anything other than leaves and berries.”
“Don’t you know how to hunt or fish?”
I shook my head.
“I can help with that, Shepherd. Because I can, as well as build a tent and start a fire.”
“But you’re highborn. How do you know how to do all that?”
“A vagabond taught me years ago.”
The expression on my face must have been incredulous, because she rolled her eyes.
“It’s a long story. But he worked for my father and I spent a lot of time with him.”
I hesitated.
“I don’t know about this.”
“Please, Shepherd. I swear I won’t be a burden.”
She stroked her stallion’s neck.
“He can help with gathering your sheep. He does whatever I want him to.”
Before I could say anything, she clicked her tongue again, and the giant horse set off at a canter around the valley and trees until this stranger girl ran the sheep together and gathered my flock.
She and her stallion managed to do in minutes what would have taken me at least half an hour to do on foot. When she stopped before me, the stranger girl peered down and waited.
I glanced between her, my flock, and the moon hitting the western horizon. The night was black, at the darkest moment before coming day.
But the sun would lighten the sky soon, and the farmers and peasants would be getting up. We had less time to get away than I had thought.
“I can show you the way out of here through the trees so nobody sees us,” she continued.
“But…” I stammered. “I don’t know you…and I don’t think it would be…proper.”
The girl pressed the lips of her wide mouth, and her shoulders started to shake.
At first I thought she was crying again, but the muffled snorts broke into the shrieking laughter of hysteria. The high-pitched giggles grated on my ears until the laughter stopped as suddenly as it started.
“Shepherd, propriety is the last concern on my mind right now.”
“But-”
“You saw what happened tonight. I can’t stay here.”
I looked away, embarrassed. The thought of roaming with my flock and this stranger girl who was also a murderess was more than I could take in.
“Please,” she whispered. “I’ve never left this village in my life and I don’t know the country. I have nowhere to go.”
I nodded, only to have the sigh of her relief weigh on me.
The girl clicked her tongue and the massive stallion knelt again so I could mount. I drew back, for I did not want to ride that beast.
“Get on,” she urged. “You have nothing to fear.”
I did, and avoided looking down when the giant horse stood up.
“What direction were you heading, Shepherd?”
“Southeast until I reached the middle of the country.”
“Perfect. We can stay hidden in the trees until we are outside the village.”
