Fifth Quarter by Tanya Huff Page B

also wore heavy leather sandals, his were dyed the exact shade of his vest. A thick gold bracelet encircled his left wrist and the tiny gold hoops her brother had always worn in his ears had doubled in size.
     
    "When we get rid of the carrion eater," Bannon preened, "we're keeping the clothes. I look terrific!"
     
    As far as Vree was concerned, he looked rented and all he needed was a little rouge and some scented oil to take his place under Teemo's canopy. She buried the thought. And the one that came after it.
     
     
     
    "When we get down off of this thing, I'm going to slit its throat."
     
    Vree's fingers twitched around the reins. "We'd manage a lot better if you'd stop trying to take over!"
     
    "Maybe I'd be better at it!"
     
    "Not in my body!"
     
    "Fine! You can slaughtering well learn to do it yourself."
     
    He pulled back so quickly a muscle spasmed in her leg.
     
    Her horse danced to one side, shouldering up against its companion, away from the unexpected pressure of her heel.
     
    "Trouble?" Gyhard asked through clenched teeth as the sudden contact of their mounts slammed their inside knees together.
     
    Vree glared and fought the urge to yank the gelding's head around. Years of training had emphasized that a quiet touch could accomplish more than brute force—from blades to horses, the lesson remained valid. "I can handle it."
     
    "Good. I'm pleased to see that you're catching on so quickly."
     
    Her lip curled at the gentle sarcasm in his voice.
     
    "Your brother's body has a finely developed sense of balance and superb reflexes." As the horses moved apart, he added, "You'd do better if you'd relax."
     
    "Up here?" She regretted the words the moment they left her mouth.
     
    Gyhard stared at her in exaggerated astonishment. "It can't be the height. I'm sure you could walk naked along a ridgepole in a high wind on a moonless night with a dagger in your teeth and a garrote in each hand if you wanted to." She ignored him so completely, he couldn't help but smile. "So what are you afraid of?"
     
    "A crossbow bolt in the back."
     
    The skin between her shoulder blades crawled. Bannon's reaction or hers? "If I tell him that, he'll kill me—us—and leave the body for the hunt to find. You heard him; he's intrigued by us, but he doesn't really need us, and the last thing he does need is the hunt on his trail."
     
    "Maybe you can convince him that Emo won't talk."
     
    "Sod off, Bannon," she suggested wearily.
     
    "Vree?"
     
    The patronizing, son-of-a-sow was waiting for an answer. Let him. "How long will it take us to get to the Capital?"
     
    "At this rate?" Gyhard reached down to stroke the dapple-gray shoulder of his horse as it rose and fell in a gentle walk. He'd intended to ride a young stallion that he—as Aralt—had purchased specifically for the trip, not one of a pair of well-schooled geldings. "Thirteen days."
     
    "Thirteen days? You'll be out of my body in three, carrion eater!"
     
    A subtle tension in her hands and face made it, if not easy, possible for him to tell when Bannon spoke; "What did your brother say?"
     
    Vree tossed her head, eyes narrowed. "He just pointed out that it's going to be a long trip."
     
     
     
    "What do mean, that's where we're staying?"
     
    The inn looked like a smaller, dirtier version of Aralt's villa—without the surrounding orange groves. Tucked in a hollow just off the east side of the road, it stood in the center of either a very small village or a large cluster of outbuildings.
     
    Gyhard turned his horse off the road with the exaggerated care of a man close to the end of his resources. "Surely you didn't think we'd just toss a bedroll on the ground for the night?"
     
    "Why not?" Vree imitated his movement, although she strongly suspected the horse would follow its companion regardless.
     
    "Two reasons. The first, because the horses have to be fed. In case you hadn't noticed, we're not carrying fodder. The second reason is that we can