Valdemar 05 - [Vows & Honor 02] - Oathbreakers by Mercedes Lackey Page B

in truth. Hellsbane had been joined by a second gray mare so similar in appearance that only an expert could have told that one was a Shin‘a’in full-blood battlesteed and the other was not.
    That lack of sound was one clue—there was mountain-pony in Lightfoot’s background, somewhere. Jodi’s beast moved as silently as a wild goat on this shifting surface, so quietly that the scout and her mount raised the hackles on anyone who didn’t know them.
    Jodi wore her habitual garb of gray leather; with her pale hair and pale eyes and ghost-gray horse, she looked unnervingly like an apparition of Lady Death herself, or some mist-spirit conjured out of the patches of fog that shrouded these hills, as fragile and insubstantial as a thing of shadow and air; and once again Kethry had a twinge of misgiving.
    â€œAny sign of probing?” the scout asked in a neutral voice.
    Kethry shook her head. “None. I think we may have gotten away with it.”
    Jodi sighed. “Don’t count your coins before they’re in the coffer. There’s a reason why we are running tail, lady, and it’s not just to do with magery, though that’s a good share of it.”
    The scout cast a doubtful look at Kethry—and for the first time Kethry realized that the woman had serious qualms about her abilities to handle this mission, if it came to something other than a simple trek on treacherous ground.
    Kethry didn’t bother to hide an ironic grin.
    Jodi noted it, and cocked her head to one side, moving easily with her horse. Her saddle was hardly more than a light pad of leather; it didn’t even creak when she shifted, unconsciously echoing the movements of her mare. “Something funny, lady?”
    â€œVery. I think we’ve been thinking exactly the same things—about each other.”
    Jodi’s answering slow grin proved that Kethry hadn’t been wrong. “Ha. And we should know better, shouldn’t we? It’s a pity we didn’t know each other well enough to trust without thinking and worrying—especially since neither of us look like fighters. But we should have figured that Idra knows what she’s doing; neither of us are hothouse plants —or we wouldn’t be Hawks.”
    â€œExactly. So—give me the reasons this particular lot is riding tail; maybe I can do something about preventing a problem.”
    â€œRight enough—one—” The scout freed her right hand from the reins to hold up a solemn finger. “—is the trail. Shale shifts, cracks. We’re riding after all the rest, and we’ll be making the last few furlongs in early evening gloom. This path has been getting some hard usage, more than it usually gets. If the trail is likely to give, it’ll give under us. You’ll notice we’re all of us the best riders, and the ones with the best horses in the Hawks.”
    Kethry considered this, as Hellsbane topped the hill and picked her cautious way down the sloping trail. “Hmm-hmm. All right, can we halt at the next ridge? There’s a very tiny bit of magery I can work that might help us out with that.”
    Jodi pursed her lips. “Is that wise?”
    Kethry nodded, slowly. “It’s a very low-level piece of earth- witchery; something even a shepherd wisewoman might well know. I don’t think any of Kelcrag’s mages is likely to take note of it—assuming they can even see it, and I doubt they will. It’s witchery, not sorcery, and Kelcrag’s magickers are all courtly mages, greater and lesser. My school is more eclectic; we use whatever comes to hand, and that can be damned useful—somebody looking for High Magick probably won’t see Low, or think it’s worth investigating. After all, what does Kelcrag need to fear from a peasant granny?”
    Jodi considered that for a moment, her head held slightly to one side. “Tell me, why is it that Jiles and