Free Fall of a Kingdom (The Farsala Trilogy) by Hilari Bell Page B

forgotten the girls’ presence.
    “How many years?”
    At the same time the youth, Jiaan, murmured urgently, “Commander, how can you trust this man? He’s a criminal to start with!”
    “Not many, cub.” The deghan answered the girl first. “Probably not even two. But this way, you’ll be able to get supplies, and I can get news of you from a source no one will suspect. It’s the only thing that was lacking.
    “And trust,” he said turning to Jiaan, “has nothing to do with it.”
    The deghan’s searching gaze returned to Kavi, who wished it hadn’t. “Tomorrow you’ll take an early departure, just like you probably planned. Jiaan, who you will never admit to having seen here tonight, will pick you up later somewhere on the road. After a few more days the two of you will meet with the lady”—he nodded toward the haughty girl—“and go to the place that you’ll make part of your route. You will never mention that place, or the lady Soraya’s existence, to anyone. You’ll stop there twice a year until I give you leave to quit.
    “If you do these things, I’ll pay you generously for all the goods you deliver there; and when your service ends, I’ll reward you handsomely. If you fail to obey any of these orders, in word or in deed, I will dedicate all my forces to hunting you down and then turn you over to Setesafon’s magisters. And a peddler your age with a crippled hand”—he nudged Kavi’s fingers with the toe of one boot—“won’t be very hard to find. So I advise you to keep a still tongue and make your stops, peddler.”
    “I never skip stops,” said Kavi grimly. “I won’t be starting with this one.”
    What choice did he have?

R OSTAM AND T AHMINA spoke seldom, and only under the eyes of her parents, but still it was enough. She came to love him, not only for the divine farr he possessed in such great measure, but also for his courage and his honor. And he came to love her, not only for her beauty, but also for her spirit, which was not meek, and for her merry heart.
    Thus came the night that Tahmina sent her maid to Rostam, to bring him in secret to her room, and they joined together and brought each other joy. As the dawn was breaking Rostam rose and dressed. Then he returned to the bed where Tahmina watched him, and knelt before her.
    “You are the most wonderful and precious of women,” he told her, “tender as the spring, bright as Azura’s sun. I will never love another woman as I love you. If our negotiations go well, if peace can be made between your father and my gahn, I will seek your father’s consent to our marriage. If that is your wish.”
    Tahmina sat up, more glorious wearing nothing but the beauty Azura gave her than in gold and jewels, and she took him in her arms.
    “I will never love another man as I love you,” she said. “And it will be a great honor to be your wife, though the greatest honor is to hold your heart.”
    So their troth was plighted, and Rostam gave Tahmina the gold amulet he wore about his neck, which had belonged to his father, in token of their pledge.

Chapter Seven
Soraya
    O NLY THREE DAYS LATER , despite all Soraya’s attempts to slow their journey, they reached the parting of the ways.
    It had rained the night before, long and cold, though it was early for that kind of rain. The oiled silk of the pavilions and the braziers had kept them dry and almost warm. But the morning was cool and cloudy, and the Trade Road was a sea of mud. Her father had finally lost patience with it, and the party had climbed the low cliffs at the first path they found. They’d ridden over the grasslands till they reached this small, muddy trail that meandered over the plains toward the mountains, just visible in the distance.
    Soraya sighed and pulled the warm, woolen robe tight around her. Her father had insisted on rough, practical clothes—almost as if she were truly going to be abandoned and he wished to give her the best chance of survival. In