Free Hers to Choose by Patricia A. Knight Page B

journey across the wastelands stretched into stupefying days of riding and walking then riding again. Finally, when Eric had righted her on her horse for the second time within a span of minutes, he allowed them to stop, dismount and rest. A skeletal tree protected them from the blazing sun.
    “The ground sways like a horse, Eric, make it stop.” She lifted her head from where it rested against the tree trunk. He held her spyglass trained in the direction they had just covered. She didn’t like the look on his face.
    He turned to her and handed her the glass. “Follow our back trail.”
    Focusing the glass, she scanned the ground they had covered, intently peering through the glass . Movement. Two gray shapes, trotting along easily. “Goddess, Eric. Fell wolves.”
    “Yes. Now look behind them.”
    She tore herself away from watching certain death or capture approach. “Lizard men. Krakoll’s killers.” She collapsed the spyglass. “How far ahead are we?”
    “ We have about a four-hour head start. I’m sorry, Sophi, back on your horse.”
    Every joint in her body protested movement. Her normal easy vault to mount became a study in ludicrous, uncoordinated squirming. She finally swung her leg over the horse’s back and straightened. “How much further to the shield wall gate?”
    “Another five to six hours of hard riding. They will probably send the wolves ahead. If we can outrun the wolves, we might have a chance.” His eyes asked a question she dreaded answering.
    “I can do it, Eric.” I hope.
    He nodded and kicked his horse into a gallop. Fisting her hands into her mount’s mane, she followed.
    She could not remember a more tortuous ride. When they had to slow for the horses to catch their wind, Eric brought out the spyglass and tracked the figures following them. The forbidding set to his mouth told her everything she didn’t want to know about their pursuers.
    “How can they be gaining on us? How?” she asked.
    “They don’t have to stop. It is part of their genetic mutation. Each time we must rest the horses, the wolves gain on us. Ten minutes here, twenty minutes there. It adds up.”
    Finally she voiced aloud the question shadowing both of them. “Will we make it before they catch us?”
    “It’s going to be a near thing, Sophi. If they reach us, you must ride hard for the gate. No slowing down for any reason.” He held her eyes steadily.
    “What? What do you mean? Oh, no. No!” She shook her head vigorously. “No. I won’t do it. I won’t be separated from you. You aren’t staying behind to die so I can ride to safety. We are going through that gate together .”
    “Only if there is no other choice, Sophi. I don’t like my chances against two Fell wolves. But it may be the only way to get you to safety.”
    “No, it won’t come to that.” She whipped her flagging mount into a canter and rode eastward.
    “There, Sophi! Do you see the break in the diamond haze?” Eric shouted to her as their horses labored on, though themselves exhausted, now spurred by the banshee howls of the Fell wolves now within sight.
    “Yes! I see it!” She reined her animal toward it and prayed. Not native to Verdantia, the wolves couldn’t cross the energy field. The gate meant safety.
    She kept glancing back as th ey approached the gate. The Fell wolves gained ground inexorably. It seemed the distance to the gate grew while the distance to the death that chased them shrank. Her fight to contain her panic matched her struggle to stay on her floundering horse. The poor creature was at its limit. So was she.
    “Sophi, ride harder. Go!”
    As she whipped her horse uselessly, she glanced back. “No!” she shrieked. “No, Eric! No!”
    While her animal pounded toward the shimmering gate and safety, Eric had drawn up, turned his undersized desert mount and waited, resolute, for the snarling predators.
    She sawed on the reins, but the Fell wolves managed what her whip could not. Her horse bolted in