“My property.”
“You’ve captured me.”
“Say the words.”
Teray stared at him in silent hatred.
“I’ve wasted enough time with you, Teray. Say
the words or face me now.”
Say the words and give up any right to sanctuary in Forsyth, should Rayal’s decision leave him still in need of sanctuary. Say the words that could later be picked from his own memory and used to damn him. Or refuse to say them, and die.
“I am your outsider,” said Teray quietly. “Your
property.”
Chapter 7
Time seemed suspended. The thirteen riders rode two abreast with Coransee alone in the lead. Teray and Amber rode directly behind him, still linked, but resting, no longer watching for Clayarks. There were eleven others who could watch. Teray felt his own weariness shadowily echoed by Amber’s. They had not let themselves realize how draining the constant vigilance had been, especially during the past twenty-four hours. And to have that vigilance end in capture by the very person they had endured it to escape
…
Teray looked at Amber, and read not only weariness but bitterness in her face. He realized abruptly that the bargain that he and Coransee had made in no way included her. She had fled from Redhill because Coransee had denied her independence, tried to hold her against her will. And now she was his again. At least Teray had a chance for freedom, but she was caught?unless she wanted to try against Coransee her healer’s talent for swift murder. And she had already admitted that she was afraid of him.
Abruptly Teray urged his horse forward to pull alongside Coransee. He could not abandon the woman, could not let her be drawn back into captivity without even trying to help her. She had helped him. The shot rang out just as Teray moved.
Teray felt the bullet’s impact so strongly that he slumped to one side, almost falling from his horse. He held on somehow, aware of pain now, growing, but oddly dulled. It was then that he realized that it was not he who had been shot, but Amber.
The link, fulfilling its function too well, had given him so great a share of her experience that if they had been alone he could have been shot too while he was recovering. But he was not alone.
He realized from the alert, intense expressions of the outsiders and women that they were already seeking the Clayark sniper. The party had come to a stop. Teray left the hunt to them, dismounted, and went to help Amber.
She had not fallen. She sat hunched over, coughing blood, fighting desperately to keep herself alive. She had taken a bullet through the throat. As Teray lifted her down she seemed to pass out. He felt the limp, dead weight of her and only the link reassured him that she was still alive.
He carried her onto the soft sand of the beach, put her down, and knelt beside her for a moment, wondering whether it would be dangerous to disturb her with an offer of help. Did she need help? A wound like that probably would have killed a nonhealer before anyone could do anything about it. She was not only alive but working to heal herself. Teray felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up, startled, as Coransee knelt beside him.
“You looked as though you were just about to reach out to her,” the Housemaster said.
“To help her. She might need it.”
“No. I’ve seen her badly hurt before. She manages better if she’s left alone.”
Teray looked at him doubtfully, wondering whether he knew what he was talking about. But the link was no longer transmitting distress. Amber had gotten rid of her pain and she was no longer bleeding either from her neck wound or from her mouth. She seemed in control. Teray decided to leave her alone unless she seemed in trouble again. He got up, went to his horse, and got a clean handkerchief. He wet it from his canteen and brought it back to wipe the blood from her face and neck. Coransee watched him silently for a moment, then said, “Were you speeding up a little just before she was shot?”
“Yes, to talk to you. To talk about her, in fact.”
“That’s interesting. From what Lias said?she was riding just behind Amber?if you hadn’t moved when you did, the bullet would have hit you.”
Teray thought about that, and nodded slowly.
“It was probably you they were aiming at. You were lucky.”
“Where was the Clayark?”
Coransee pointed inland toward the hills. “He was high and far back, but he waited until you and Amber were almost directly in front of him. I
hope they don’t have many rifles or riflemen who can make that kind of shot.”
“Well, at least now they have one less.”
“No. We lost him.”
Teray stared at him incredulously. “All of you? You couldn’t catch one Clayark?”
Coransee lifted an eyebrow. “That’s what I said, brother.”
Teray heard the warning in his voice and ignored it. “I don’t see how you could possibly have missed him. So many of you …” He thought of something suddenly. “Lord, are you linked with anyone?”
“I’m not, but the others are linked in pairs.”
And the range of a linked pair of them would be little better than Coransee’s range alone. What good did it do Coransee to have ten people with him if he didn’t use them sensibly? Teray found himself glaring at the Housemaster in open accusation.
