I settled into the hot spring with a sigh of relief. The fighting in the north had really taken it out of me, and my cavalry. It was fortunate that we stumbled across this hot springs on the way. “Miss?” I pushed away damp locks of hair just enough to see Lieutenant Reid’s face peering curiously at me. “Yes, lieutenant?” “Th’ watch ‘as reported tha’ there’re a group of people, some on foot, some on th’ legs, so ‘e says, comin’,” Reid told me, her grey eyes bored, one hand idly resting on the saberthat she kept by her side at all times. She stood with all of her weight supported on one leg and as I watched, she shifted to her other foot and back and idly adjusted a strap. With a groan, I hauled myself out of the water. Water trickled down from my hair, do wn my skin and back into the pool. Shivering in the crisp winter air, I q uickly donned my clothes. Pursing my lips, I let loose a whistle that ripped throughou t the campsite. Immediately, the men and women of my command poured out from where they had been resting and stood at attention, their mounts ready beside them, reins in hand. Loping forward, I closed up the distance between me and my people, one hand busily tying my hair up to keep it out of my way. They didn’t shift an inch as I passed them. The boy on watch met me as I reached the end of the line. “Report,” I barked out. “Six horses, one wagon, three men on foot. Five women in the wagon, men on the horses – armed,” he said shortly. “Traveling towards our direction. End report.” After he finished, he saluted me and found his place in the line. Faithfully, the boy’s stallion met him there. I thought hard about this. The road we were on was seldom used and not well known. Where we had made camp was out of sight of anyone on the road. If someone came up this road, it could only be that they were military, like us, or –“Mount up,” I ordered. As one, my team swung into the saddle as one. “Watch, keep me informed,” I instructed the boy and tossed h im a crystal. He caught it with a salute. “Surround them, two flanks first, loose circle – leave them no room to turn or escape, but don’t scare them off. Ride out.” The boy urged his horse into a trot, heels bouncing on the big stallion’s sides, and together, they disappeared silently into the thick foliage a round us. Lieutenant Reid tookthe second group automatically and we split to different sides and thundered down the road. The crystal in my hand grew warm and then hot and I put it to my ear. “They’re slowing down,” the boy’s voice said from the crystal. “That’s fine, keep watching. I need your eyes out there, Stevens,” I replied crisply.
