The King's Horse (Shioni of Sheba Book 2) (11 page)

“I wonder what a hippo steak would taste
like?”

Tariku grinned at the giant. “You’re starting to look like a hippo steak, my friend. Very well, let’s pause for a bite and to stretch our legs.
Shioni, see if you can find the horse’s spoor.”

Talaku tied the goat to a small bush. “Eat up, my friend. Get nice and tender for dinner.”

They ate and rested a short while before pressing on downriver. The clouds were gathering once more. But the horse’s trail was becoming fresh. They were only a few hours behind now.

Listen up, girl,” Tariku ordered, and began to lecture her on the herbs and edible plants she would find near the river–a welcome distraction from the pain of her ankle.

S
hioni shucked her tunic
and waded into the river. The cool water was wonderful on her hot, throbbing ankle. A golden line of sunshine was slowly sliding down the escarpment, turning it into a fairyland of dagger-like spires of rock, dark, yawning cave entrances like a ragged line of hungry mouths, and highlighting the long-fronded ferns that hung from every conceivable crevice right up the side of that near-vertical cliff face. The riverine birdsong had reached a deafening pitch. Just a stone’s throw downriver, she could see a goliath heron fishing in the shallows. The huge bird was her own height–one of many new varieties Tariku had taught her to identify the previous evening on their way downriver. As she watched, it snapped up a small tilapia and tossed the silvery scrap down its gullet.

Shioni decided she was rather grateful a bird that size was minding its own business.

Dawn was her favourite time of day. She could hardly believe she did not miss the ruddy walls of Castle Asmat at all. Perhaps Annakiya, and Mama… oh, yes, but this place was so beautiful! She could just drink it in…

To her relief, at the base of the cliff top trail she and Tariku had identified the giant hyena’s spoor heading north–in the opposite direction. But the warrior still kept his hand loose on his spear. His eyes roamed constantly, like an eagle’s gazing over its territory, and his mouth was set in a grim line.
A small squall the previous evening, which caught them at the river crossing, had not improved his mood.

Shioni had been keen to examine the tall stone stele, seen dimly through the rain, but Tariku was having none of it. ‘You’ll listen to orders, slave-girl!’ she muttered. Ha! A steaming heap of elephant droppings to him, pompous old warthog! But Tariku was a strange one.
Moody. She was beginning to wonder what the Elite warrior was hiding behind his affable façade.

Tariku had been intent on continuing the chase the previous evening, but after twisting back to the north, upriver, the trail had turned treacherous
–hidden pits and drop-offs lurked in the most unexpected places. And Talaku was hungry. Was he ever hungry! He’d roasted the goat on a spit over a small blaze, sliced off plenty of the best cuts for his companions, and then finished the rest himself. ‘That goat could’ve fed twenty,’ Tariku had muttered, casting the giant a suspicious glance. Talaku just kept gnawing the bones happily until they were picked clean. Not even the hyenas would get much of a meal from him.

Shioni bent
over, washing her tunic. Trust her to walk beneath a marabou stork’s roost and receive the revolting results of its digestion all over her shoulder. Yuck!

Her fingers scrubbed away busily.
She should hurry. The men were already packing up camp, ready to move on with the wings of the dawn. Tariku was convinced they would catch the King’s horse during the course of the day. Thankfully, the wolves had balked at crossing the wide river, so they were no longer a concern.

A splash nearby did not bother her.
Just a tilapia fish. They liked to feed on bugs on the surface of the water.

“Good morning!”

Shioni jumped and whirled, covering her upper body with her sodden tunic. Thank heavens she had kept her leggings on… she gasped! It was the angry young man who had held a knife to her throat! Selam’s brother; the one trying to organise the villagers against Sheba. He must have sneaked up on her whilst she was washing her clothes, and was standing no more than an arm’s length from her in the river.

“
Desta? What are you–”

“I promised my sister,” he said, regretfully.
“I hope you’ll understand.”

Shioni saw him draw a cudgel from behind his back.
“What–?” was all she had time to blurt out before he sent the weapon whistling through the air to crash into her left temple. She slumped forward into a blinding light.

S
hioni rolled over heavily.
There was a scratching rush as two hopeful rats vanished into the bushes near her feet. They had been examining her toes for something to nibble on.

“O
h, my head!”

Oh
–Desta! A bigger rat than those two… Tariku! Talaku! Shioni scrambled to her feet. A blanket, which someone must have tossed over her body, fell to the ground.

“Oh!” she staggered, and had to put her head down for a
moment to stop it spinning. She eyed the blanket woozily. “Saved my blushes from the hippos, did you, Desta?”

A glance at the bla
zing sun told her it was near midday. No wonder her head felt like a vegetable baked in Mama’s oven! She had been lying on a sandy bank. Desta must have dragged her out of the water and dumped her here.

“
How very kind and considerate! Peeping pervert!” She explored the lump on her temple and muttered, “Idiot! I’m so stupid! Oh, and
thanks
for leaving my weapons too.”

Her thoughts scrambled about, frantically trying to arrange
themselves to make sense. So he had promised Selam–what? Not to harm her? How long had he been watching? Or was this a chance encounter? Sweet of Selam to make him promise. She must have known her brother was out to make trouble! Desta could not be allowed to continue working at the castle… oh no. She could guess what must have happened to the men. There was no way the rebels would have left her behind willingly, unless Desta had been working on his own. Or had he? Why else would he beat her brains in and then leave for her the hyenas?

Sighing,
Shioni donned her now dry and scratchy tunic. She picked up her recurve bow and slung it together with the quiver over her right shoulder. She belted her leggings, sheathed her long dagger at her side, and picked up the blanket. Best not to leave anything that could be useful. With rapid, angry movements of her hands she braided her dishevelled hair and tied off the end firmly with a strip of leather. It would just have to wait for a better time.

Her ankle
was still hopeless–stiff and swollen. She limped around to their campsite, and found it deserted. There were no signs of a struggle.

“Obviously.”

Well–how would one subdue Talaku? How would
ten
men subdue him?

Shioni
hopped and hobbled about, scanning the ground. As best she could tell, the rebels’ plan must have been to surround the campsite and perhaps threaten the men from a safe distance. With archers? It made sense. Or poisoned arrows, although she understood they were uncommon in the mountains. Whatever had happened, she could pick out the deeply-imprinted spoor of Talaku’s leather sandals heading to the north, amongst the prints of at least six or seven other men.

She placed her foot in Talaku’s sandal-print. She shook her head, feeling unnerved at the size difference. “No point scaring
yourself, is there?”

She was right. Desta’s promise to his sister was all that had
saved her from whatever fate had engulfed Tariku and Talaku. She pursed her lips and whistled softly. And here too were tracks made by the King’s horse, mixed in with all the rest! Had the rebels captured him too?

“So, if I were
a rebel, why would I be heading north?” She clicked her fingers. “Sell the men to Kalcha to gain favour? Seal an alliance, perhaps? Or were these men Wasabi warriors? Is Desta already one of them? Possibly…”

That was all water down a
decidedly muddy river. How could she abandon her companions to Kalcha’s tender mercies? Anyone who would happily drive their chariot over helpless men, would without a doubt do much worse to captured Sheban warriors. Kalcha needed blood to build up her evil powers. She would probably torture them for information too.

Casting one more look about the
empty clearing, Shioni set off along the trail without delay.

While the previous day
’s travel en route to the river crossing had been overcast, this day was its opposite in every respect. Shioni smiled wryly. Her comparison to Mama’s bread oven had been well chosen. Rich scents of fruits and flowers and loamy soils filled her nostrils, while the heat literally steamed off the thick vegetation, so unlike anything she had encountered in the Simiens so far. The trail wound between the massive trunks of giant fig and juniper trees, which soared to heights that made her feel puny, like a dwarf beetle scuttling about the forest floor. Thick vines dangled from the trees, while bushes bustled busily in every possible sunny spot. She found tracks of large antelope, warthogs, elephant, monkeys, and several other animals she could not name.

Shioni reminded herself, on the way back,
to make a proper examination of the stele they had spotted by the river. Annakiya would be fascinated by that tall stone column! If she was to return… she would have to ensure that first! With her companions, of course. And the mad biter.

She happened upon a handy straight stick–which looked like it had dropped from someone’s bundle of firewood–and used her dagger to trim it to size for use as a crutch. This made travel much easier. Hop, plant stick, hop, plant stick…

A colobus monkey, clutching a tiny, wide-eyed baby to her chest, was chattering at her from the safety of a branch ten feet above her head. The black-and-white monkey was the size of a two-year-old child, with a magnificent, plumy white tail and the funniest frame of white hair around its black face, which made it look very old and wise.

Shioni waved.
“Good afternoon! Would you like some fruit?”

“Silly silly
two-legs think I will come down to be eaten silly two-legs see I hold baby other two-legs not nice silly silly creature,” said the monkey.

She blinked
. Something simpler? “Other two-legs come along path?”

“Go silly silly
two-legs go away silly.” Shioni laughed, so the monkey laughed back at her. “Silly silly dilly frilly silly silly.”

“Okay, so I’m silly. Fine, I’ll admit it even to you, you brainless creature.”

How on earth to talk to such a foolish creature? Sheep were too brainless for conversation, and goats not much better. But she had never experienced this type of chatter before. Shioni formed a picture carefully in her mind and sent it. “Giant man?”

Better… s
everal pictures whizzed back at her, along with more ‘sillies’: Talaku trudging along with his arms lashed behind his back, and a small wooden stockade with a hut inside. This place had a bad feeling associated with it. Shioni understood that the men who lived there were ‘bad’ in the monkey’s opinion. And everything was very silly.

She had better hurry.
“Bye, silly monkey!”

“Silly silly two-legs,” parroted the colobus.
“Silly, silly…”

Shaking her head, Shioni swung along the
path on her improvised crutch. “Cheeky monkey!” she laughed. Now she had a chorus of ‘silly, silly’ going round and round in her head.

After a while, with her armpit
growing ever more tender, she tried to pad the top of the stick with her blanket. That worked well, but she was aching all over from the strange motion of stumping along using a crutch. How far behind would she be? Four or five hours? She’d lost the better part of the morning lying unconscious on the sandbank, being sunburned to a crisp. And her sprained ankle was slowing her down.

Shioni
remembered her excitement at heading up into the mountains, and wanted to slap that daft girl with her romantic thoughts of adventure. Real adventure
hurt!
It had bumps, bruises, and–she slapped her neck for the hundredth time–pestiferous mosquitoes determined to suck her body dry. Maybe ferengi blood was extra sweet? The mosquitoes definitely loved her, rising in clouds from the shady vegetation to feast insistently on her flesh. It was better in the sun–but then her sunburn stung. Oh, yes, another hurt!

“
Thanks, Desta! I’m going to tell General Getu all about your little game!”

She should rather keep her eyes open and her mouth shut. Otherwise, she might just deliver herself into the enemy’s hands too. And what use would that be? But she’d have to decide about the rebels soon–what would she tell Talaku and Tariku otherwise?

‘How’s about saving them first, banana-brain?’ she asked herself. ‘Got any clever plans, Hakim Shioni?’ She smacked her neck again and imagined herself telling the Princess about her adventure in the mountains, ‘Anni, the mosquitoes were the size of bats…’

But a
s she moved on through the forest that afternoon, Shioni’s heart was awash with worries.