Free The Towers of Samarcand by James Heneage

and there was desperation in her eyes. ‘They’re looking for someone … someone not from our tribe.’
    She straightened. ‘They were looking for
you
, Lug.’
    Tsaurig began to cry. Big tears ran down his cheeks and pooled in the folds of his deel. He grabbed his sister’s hand again.
    ‘Where are your parents?’ Luke asked softly.
    The girl didn’t answer.
    ‘Arkal, are your parents alive?’ he asked, taking her free hand.
    Arkal shrugged. She pushed hair from her eyes. There was blood on her forehead. ‘Lug, why do they want you?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘But I will find out. Where have they gone?’
    ‘They have taken our horses and gone back to where they came from.’
    Luke looked beyond her to the remains of the camp. The flames were dying now. There were no horses. He let go of her hand. ‘Arkal, take Tsaurig into the wood and stay there until it’s safe to go back. If the camp has lost its horses then I must go after them myself.’
    Arkal began to protest, then slowly nodded her head. ‘Be careful, Lug.’ She turned and began to walk towards the trees, Tsaurig behind her. She stopped. Looking back, she asked: ‘You’ll come back, won’t you?’
    Luke smiled. ‘Of course.’
    Then he mounted and pulled the horse’s head towards the slope. He kicked and rode up the valley’s side, pausing once to see Arkal reach the wood. At the top, he reined in and looked out at the vast connected shadow of land and sky. The starsblinked and shimmered and fell like snow over the steppe. Luke patted the neck of his pony and leant down.
    Which way did they go?
    There was wind here, a soft, soothing thing that came from far, far away and had begun in the east. Luke lifted his head and breathed deeply. The smell of horse was faint but unmistakable.
    They have gone east
.
    He looked again at the stars and turned his pony into the wind and pressed his heels to its sides. The land was flat and the grass new and the going easy. He rode with his head low on the animal’s neck and he talked all the while as it covered the ground in its short, uneven strides.
    *
     
    It was halfway through the night when the raiders stopped to rest. The Germiyan horses were spread out across the plain and being herded together. Luke could see them quite clearly in the light of the moon that had risen above the mountains to the west. He dismounted and slapped his horse away and lay down on the dark side of a low hill to watch. The riders were erecting a makeshift pen around the horses, their bows slung across their shoulders. They were many miles from the camp by now, too far for anyone to reach them without horses, and they spoke in loud, excited voices.
    Some of them had made a fire and food was being taken from saddlebags to cook. Luke heard song and saw the silhouette of an airag sack being passed around. He looked over to the pen where there were men posted at each corner. One of them shouted to his friends and the airag was brought over. Laughter rose into the night, the smell of spiced mutton rising with it, and drink was passed between men who laughed louder as it did its work.
    Luke was cold and hungry. The ride had been fast and hard and his horse had stumbled in marmot holes towards the end. The animal was sick. He’d looked into those white-rimmed eyes and seen fever. He glanced behind him.
    Stay with me, friend. We have work to do
.
    Much later, when the fire had died down and men were sleeping around its embers, he moved. Three of the men guarding the horses were asleep, the other mumbling to himself. He could see that all of the horses had been penned together.
    That’s good
.
    Cursing the moon, Luke began to crawl towards the horses, the tall grass covering him. The sleeping guards were snoring and the one that wasn’t was sitting with his back against a post. Then his head nodded and fell forward. Luke could see a dagger glinting at his waist. The moon was still undimmed by cloud and if the man woke, Luke