POV: Seraphina
She woke before the light.
The cot was warm. The cub was asleep across her knees, his weight on the blanket, his breathing slow against her thigh. One ear moved every few breaths. Her shoulder ached. Her right hand was stiff under the blanket.
The tent was quiet. Canvas shifted somewhere behind her. Outside, the camp had been moving for a while already. She could hear it without listening for it.
She did not open her eyes. For one breath, she let herself stay where she was.
Caelan had been in her head before she went to sleep.
She had not meant for it to happen. Her hands had been on the blanket, one over Suri's back, and her mind had gone where it usually went when she was too tired to keep it elsewhere. His hand at her face. Rough. Steady. The smell of steel and mint salve. His thumb against her cheekbone the night he had told her no more secrets between them.
She had tried to stop there. She could not.
His arm around her shoulders the night they had pushed too hard. The weight of him beside her. His voice low in her ear. His silence.
She thought she would dream of him.
She did not.
When she woke, Thalion was already in her head.
Caelan was still there. She did not need to check.
She opened her eyes.
Time to ride.
The horse stood at the picket where Liora had set it before first light. Saddled and bridled. Liora had checked the straps twice.
Seraphina pulled her gloves on at the second knot.
The pull at the base of her throat was still there. It had been there since the night before. She had not had to think about it once during the night, but it was with her now, in the cold and in the lacing of her gloves.
She did not look at his horse two animals down the line.
Yona moved past her with her ledger flat against her stomach, eyes on the column forming up. "Cub's slow today."
"He slept hard."
"He slept across your knees the whole night. Liora's bringing him."
"He's fine."
Yona nodded once and kept moving.
Seraphina set her hand on the saddle horn. The leather was cold under her palm. She put her foot in the stirrup and pulled herself up clean.
The seat held. She settled in.
Liora came around the picket with the cub in the crook of her arm. He was not fully awake. His head was tucked against her elbow, his ears down, his tail curled inward.
Liora stopped beside the horse.
"He bit Edrin getting him out of the tent. Corwin has the hand."
"How bad."
"Two punctures. He'll live." Liora shifted her grip on the cub. "I'll have to follow the column late, my lady. I need to pack up our tent."
"Take the time."
Liora did not look at her right away. She kept her mouth flat. Her eyes had gone to the saddle once and then to the road ahead.
"I should be beside you," she said.
"You will be. Just not for the first stretch."
Liora's mouth opened. Then she closed it again. The column was already forming. The captain was waiting on the call.
"Gavrel will be at my right," Seraphina said. "You will catch us at the next halt."
"Yes, my lady."
Liora said it without moving. The two of them had ridden enough columns together that Seraphina did not need to ask what the silence meant. Liora did not like the saddle. She did not like the column. She did not like that the captain answered to Gavrel, not to her.
Then she nodded. She turned her head toward Gavrel where he stood at the head of his line. "Protect her while I'm gone."
Gavrel was already looking at Seraphina. "It's a given."
"I'll be quick."
Liora turned back to the horse and held the cub up. He stirred against her arm, then reached. Seraphina took him. He pushed his head into the inside of her jacket and went still.
They moved out at the captain's call. Thalion rode at the head, two animals ahead of her. The dawn was grey to the east. The road went north through the low country toward the next holding.
She did not look back at the camp.
She knew Liora would already be packing. Edrin would be at Corwin's table with his hand in a basin. The men would strike the camp without her oversight.
An hour out. The road widened.
The pressure at her throat had gone quiet, but not away. She could feel it under her collar, low and steady.
Behind her, leather creaked as the column adjusted formation. One horse tossed its head. A rider clicked his tongue and settled it. A few paces later another horse stepped sideways before its rider pulled it back into line.
She had heard riders settle horses in every column she had ridden. She did not think about it. The horses were tired or restless. It was a cold morning. That was all.
Suri stirred against her chest. She put her hand against him through the jacket. He was warm. His ear flicked under her thumb. He was awake now but he had not asked to come out.
The horse was moving easily. Her knees were settled into the leather. The column behind her rode three abreast in the wide places and tight behind the prince's line in the narrow ones. She could hear Gavrel's horse at her right. He had been riding there for weeks.
Her shoulder ached. The cold had gone out of the morning.
She did not look at Thalion two animals ahead of her. Her body knew where he was without her having to look.
Suri stirred again. This time he did not just shift for warmth. He pushed his head out of the jacket and looked at the road ahead, his ears lifting from where they had been folded against his head.
Seraphina lowered her hand to steady him.
At first, she thought he was looking for Liora. He had been strange all morning, slow and clingy, and Liora was one of the few people he tolerated without his teeth.
Then his body changed.
He was not looking for Liora.
His body went solid against her sternum. His fur lifted along the spine.
A low sound came out of him. It was below a growl.
Her hand closed around him on instinct.
The horse felt it before she did. Its ears moved. The weight shifted across its front hooves.
She knew it before it came.
It was not a snap. It was a give.
The girth opened under her thigh. The saddle went sideways with her weight still on it.
Her foot stayed in the stirrup.
She was going off.
Suri was at her chest. Her hand closed on him through the jacket. She pulled him free of the sling and threw him sideways into the grass, away from the horses behind her.
He went clear.
Then she had nothing in her arms.
Her shoulder hit first. Then her temple and hip.
The breath went out of her. Dirt filled her mouth. For one second, the edges of her sight disappeared.
The horse did not stop. Her foot was caught in the stirrup, and the next pull took her across the road before she could tell which way was up. Cloth tore at her hip. Gravel was rough through her sleeve. The saddle hardware struck her at the back of her shoulder, then at the ribs.
She felt the road through her clothes. The bruise was at her ribs, her hip, the side of her head.
She tried to reach the stirrup. Her left arm did not move. She tried with her right and could not reach far enough.
Someone was shouting her name.
The horse went sideways into the column. The stirrup tore loose. Her foot came free.
She stopped moving.
Voices.
Thalion was above her, close. Corwin beside him. She heard them but not the words.
Hands at her neck and her temple. Her blood was cooling in her hair on the left side.
Her eyes were open but the light was wrong. The faces above her were too close to see whole.
She tried to ask about Suri.
Her mouth would not work. Her tongue was thick. She could not tell if she had said the word or only thought it.
Suri.
Someone answered her. She could not understand the answer.
She was being lifted. Carried.
Canvas above her, then a tent post going up beside her. Hammer blows somewhere close. Someone cursed when a peg struck stone. Outside, men called for the perimeter, for water, for Corwin.
A shadow crossed the canvas. Then another.
Blood was in the air. Trampled grass. Leather. She could not tell how much of it was hers.
A man's voice asked if anyone had touched the saddle. Someone cut him off. Yona was outside then, low and fast, giving an order. Two sets of boots moved past the tent.
She had been put down on a cot or the ground. She could not tell.
Her head hurt. It would hurt more soon.
The light through the canvas changed. It got lighter, then darker. She could not tell how long it had been.
She heard her own name. She could not hear who said it.
She thought of Suri. She did not know if he had reached the grass. The throw had been late. She had felt the saddle going before she got him out.
A hand at her temple. Cool fingers, then warm. Cloth pressed where the blood was. The hand was steady.
She tried to keep her eyes open.
The face above her was Thalion's. His mouth was moving but she could not hear the words. His expression was wrong. He was too close. His jaw was set. He looked angry. Or afraid. She could not tell.
His hand stayed at her temple while someone tried to take the cloth from him. He did not move aside.
She had not seen him this close to her face in months, not since the bond was cut.
She thought he was telling her to hold on.
She did not know if she had opened her eyes or only thought she had.
The hand at her temple stayed where it was. He was still there.
Then the light went out.