Son of the Hero

When I dismounted, I could scarcely stand. My knees were jelly. The rest of me felt as if I'd been repeatedly bashed with baseball bats-the kind that players tamper with to give them more action. I tried to take a few steps to work out the kinks, but I could hardly move. My back and ribs almost escaped notice in the general achiness. I took a sip of the painkiller anyway. A

"I'm going to soak off some of the sweat and dirt," A

Despite the way I felt about A

"Aren't you coming in?"

"I'm coming," I stuttered, and I almost made a bad pun of it. I took off everything but my jockey shorts and turned away from A

The water was cool, but not cool enough to deflate me. I went under and swam a few strokes downstream, then back. We swam and washed for twenty minutes, maybe half an hour, letting the water clean and relax us. As much as possible, I avoided looking at A

"I never expected you to be bashful," A

"We don't have time for anything but bashful," I said, trying to concentrate on getting rid of water. "Aren't you afraid you'll burn?" She sprawled on her back in a su

"I never burn," she said. I shook my head. With skin that pale, a candle ought to pop freckles out on her, but she didn't have a single freckle visible. More of her elvish heritage, I assumed.

I didn't have to worry about the misery of riding with wet shorts, though. I had a change of socks and underwear left in my pack. I changed, keeping my horse between A

I stayed with the horses while they drank and grazed a little more. They had every right to expect a long holiday from work, but the work wouldn't be done until we got to that orchard and cottage, set up the doors, and pulled the army through from Arrowroot and Coriander. If then. When I finally led the horses away from the stream, A

A

By midafternoon, it was obvious that we weren't going to reach the cottage before dark. Even with the rest, our horses couldn't maintain anything like their full speed. We had to pace them as best we could, just to keep them moving at all. A little before sunset, we turned off the road and started moving cross-country, the way Parthet, Lesh, Timon, and I had the first time out. I wasn't completely certain about this part of the route, but it seemed safer than parading right past Castle Thyme. I described what I remembered of the route to A

We were close to the orchard-near the end of the low hills-when we stumbled across the army that Baron Kardeen had sent on ahead by road. Army-a few hundred men who were waiting for the promised reinforcements. They were glad to see us, but they would have been happier to see a lot more.

"There are Dorthini patrols everywhere between here and the border," the commander, Sir Hambert, said.

"Any sign of the main Dorthini force yet?" I asked.

"The last scouts who made it back said that they couldn't reach Castle Thyme before noon tomorrow-probably a lot later."

I closed my eyes in relief for a moment. We had made it in time. If it mattered. After the long ride I couldn't help but think that it might still come down to simply bringing more people through to be mowed down by the Etevar's army. I didn't share my gloomy misgivings, though.

"Be ready to move up right after dawn," I told Sir Hambert. "I'll open the passages then and we'll bring the rest of the army through." I asked about the orchard and cottage, if Dorthinis were using the place.

"Not that I know of," Hambert said. "None of my scouts has reported any activity around there."

"How many Dorthinis in the main force?" I asked.

Hambert hesitated. "I don't trust the numbers my scouts give me," he said. "They've reported as many as five thousand. I hope that's an exaggeration. My own guess would be half that." I tried to tot up the rough numbers I had. Even if the Etevar had only twenty-five hundred men, he would still outnumber us nearly two to one. And he had Castle Thyme. That might be worth another thousand soldiers if he used the advantage wisely. I didn't count on him to be stupid.

"A

"Two miles, that way." Hambert pointed just north of east.

A

"We'll have to wait for dawn," I told A

"That's still plenty of time, isn't it?"

"If those scouts were right about how far off the Dorthinis are."

Riding at a slow walk gave my aches a chance to make themselves felt again, and when I took a nip of painkiller-the flask was getting low-exhaustion flowed over me. Off and on, I had dozed a little in the saddle coming east, but you can't get much rest that way. I looked forward to some real sleep, but at the same time I was afraid that A

"I wake at the first hint of dawn, no matter what," she said, waving her hand in a dismissing gesture. "It never fails."