over and over.
What if you got tired? What if you got careless? What if you made a mistake?
How could anybody keep making the right choice, over and over and over again, when the choices kept getting harder and harder?
How could he?
'We should look for a place to stop and eat,' Jermayan said, breaking into Kellen's thoughts. 'Perhaps that grove up ahead.'
To call it a grove was a serious overstatement, but at least the few scrubby trees would provide some shelter from the wind.
But when they neared it, a Centaur came charging toward them from among the trees, shouting angrily.
He had a thick grey beard, and was wearing a long rough coat of goatskins that draped over his dark bay flanks, the goat hair blending with his own shaggy uncurried coat. He carried an iron-shod crook as well. They couldn't make out his words, but the intent was plain.
'Fool of a shepherd!' Jermayan said angrily, reining in. 'Does he think we're after his flock—wherever they are? Look here, fellow—'
Seeing them pause, the Centaur-shepherd stopped as well. He thrust two fingers into his mouth and whistled sharply.
'I don't think he likes your tone,' Shalkan commented dryly.
Instantly half a dozen shaggy grey forms appeared out of the grass, loping toward the party purposefully. For an instant, Kellen thought they were wolves, then realized they were instead the largest dogs he'd ever seen—dogs that could easily kill wolves, should they happen to meet any.
'Come on,' he said, urging Shalkan into a run. Jermayan followed— with some reluctance, Kellen thought.
Behind him Kellen heard the sound of the Centaur's laughter.
He'd thought that would be the end of it. That should have been the end of it: they'd intruded, they'd been driven off, the shepherd should have whistled his dogs back and that should have been that.
But it wasn't.
Shalkan turned and began to circle back, just in time for Kellen to see Jermayan slipping the mule's lead-rein free to give Valdien room to maneuver. She was running flat-out, but even her top speed wasn't as fast as Valdien's, and neither of them could match Shalkan's turn of speed. To Kellen's horror, he saw that the Centaur- shepherd's grey hounds were harrying her, snapping at Lily's flanks. One of them had already drawn blood.
'Hold on,' Shalkan said.
He charged directly at the running hounds, head lowered. His horn slid into the nearest hound's shoulder, skewering the beast neatly. He tossed his head, flinging the beast away. It landed with a thud and a yelp, getting painfully to its feet and limping quickly away.
Jermayan and Valdien were sweeping through the rest of the hounds, Jermayan beating them away from the mule with the flat of his sword, Valdien encouraging them to flee with hooves and teeth. Though the hounds had obviously been trained to take down prey, equally obviously they weren't prepared to face this much resistance, and a few more well-placed blows from Jermayan's blade encouraged them to flee back to their master. The one that Shalkan had wounded limped along behind, bloody-flanked.
The moment the hounds broke off their attack, Kellen and Shalkan took off after the mule. Though terrified, Lily was already starting to slow her panicked headlong flight—mules, even Elven mules, were built for endurance, not speed—and Kellen and Shalkan were able to catch up with her easily. Actually catching her was another matter, and Kellen finally had to dismount and have Shalkan drive her toward him until he could grab hold of the trailing lead-rope. They were just lucky she hadn't gotten tangled in it and broken her leg.
She pulled a little against the rope, shaking. 'Here now, girl. It's all right. It's all right, girl. You've had a rough day, haven't you, poor girl?' Kellen spoke soothingly, coiling the rope up in his gauntleted hand as he approached her, until she finally allowed him to lay a hand on her neck and stroke it comfortingly. She was trembling and covered in sweat, but she seemed to be all right. The bites on her haunches didn't go very deep— the hounds had been trying for the bite that hamstrings its prey and leaves it helpless, but fortunately hadn't been able to manage it. An application of allheal should see her right, but he wasn't sure that they dared stop for it now.
Jermayan rode up on Valdien, sheathing his sword.
'I should have shot the beast when I had the chance,' Jermayan snarled, and Kellen somehow knew
