The Dragon Star (Realms of Shadow and Grace: Episodes 1-3 of 7)

THE FUGITIVES - SHA-KUTAN

"Why would the dogs not follow you?" Lee-Nin stalked after Sha-Kutan, Sao-Tauna's hand in hers, the girl's tiny legs rushing to keep pace.

Sha-Kutan sought for an answer that would not lead to more questions.

"They will not like the way I smell."

"Something the dogs and I agree on." Lee-Nin picked up Sao-Tauna as they trudged through the trees.

They walked in the night-veiled forest, trading sips from a water skin Sha-Kutan wore over his shoulder. Mercifully, to Sha-Kutan's mind, Lee-Nin did not question their direction or intentions. After an hour, they reached the moonlit edge of a narrow road and stopped to eat a quick meal of dried meat and nuts, supplies Sha-Kutan had purchased in the town before Lee-Nin spotted the wardens pursuing her.

"Should we find another pilgrim band?" Lee-Nin broke a chunk of meat from the dried strip in her hand and gave it to Sao-Tauna. The child gnawed on it eagerly. "It might be safer to travel alone and stay out of sight."

"We will be seen when we stop in towns for supplies or trade with farmers for food." Sha-Kutan took a swig of water to wash down the dried beef clinging to the back of his throat. "We will be less noticed in a crowd."

"We could enter towns only at night and steal the food we need." Lee-Nin looked at the stick of dried meat in her hand as she spoke.

An odd suggestion for a woman of supposedly high birth.

Not for one who lies about who she is.

Sha-Kutan had queried Lee-Nin on several occasions over the past weeks about the true reasons the men hunted her and the girl, but she evaded his queries as he avoided hers. Sha-Kutan knew the men hunted the girl foremost among the two. He could not sense what made her unique, but her difference struck him plain as a fist to the face. The girl posed a danger to someone, and that person sent men to kill her. The more interesting question centered on why Lee-Nin would risk her life to save another woman's child.

"More important than how we travel is where." Sha-Kutan looked along the road as the moons rose toward their zenith in the sky. "Do we still head west to the coast as the pilgrims do?"

"Star people." Sao-Tauna pointed to the west.

The child spoke little and infrequently, but had no trouble making her desires known.

Do we continue to follow the whims of a child?

Are they merely whims?

Sha-Kutan exchanged a look of mutual resignation with Lee-Nin. They would proceed west, toward the coast.

The child's plan is still the best idea.

To follow a child's plan does not seem like a good idea.

They finished their meal and continued along the road for a few more hours. As the moons rose to their apex in the night sky and cast a hazy ivory hue over the fields and the nearby woods, they searched for a good place to bed down for the night. As they walked, Sha-Kutan's senses revealed someone ahead. Several men.

Coming around a slight bend, they saw a narrow stone bridge fording a wide stream, the light of the twin moons sparkling like liquid silver along its gently flowing surface. Three men sat on the stone walls of the bridge, drinking from clay jugs, watching them approach. A small fire burned in a pit to the side of the bridge.

"Pilgrims?" Lee-Nin sounded skeptical. "Bandits?"

"Stay here." Sha-Kutan dropped his sack from his shoulder and walked toward the bridge. As he neared the men, they hopped from the stone of the wall and stood across the entrance to the bridge. The largest of the three men, nearly as tall as Sha-Kutan himself, stood between the other two. They had short swords and long knives at their belts. The armaments looked well used, but the men wore them poorly.