Rannok did not ask the next morning, even though he wanted to, why Erean struggled to get on his horse. He didn't ask, either, why he cradled his arm close to his chest and let the animal pick whatever path it wanted through the narrow mountain pass. Some things he was just not supposed to know, though he didn't know why he knew that. The crow rode on the pommel of his saddle, preening at its feathers.

"You are perceptive. It's a poor power to have."

"Not as good as reading peoples' minds," Rannok muttered. He was certain the crow knew exactly what was the matter, but every time he thought about it in the hopes the creature might say something, nothing came. It ruffled its wings so the feathers laid smooth across its black and white back.

"It's not my business to say," the crow said after some hesitation. The featherlets on Rannok's wings bristled in annoyance. He only hoped the creature would keep to his word once they got to the nesting ground. That he would remove the wings on his back so he could go back to the home he longed for more with every day they were out here.

"I will do my best."

Rannok pretended the crow wasn't there and pulled back on his horse's reins a bit to let Sasha pass. Driver lunged ahead with all the enthusiasm of a gazelle. He still couldn't imagine what had been so terrible it made her think she had to run. What at home tormented her so badly that she came all the way out here with them with horses that clearly weren't hers.

They traveled on for a ways in silence. Occasionally Sasha would pull on Driver's face, and Erean would stop to let them catch up a bit once she'd slowed him. His stance didn't lose its awkward stiffness. 

Sasha moved ahead of them again. Something caught the sun as it crawled out from the underbrush. Rannok barely noticed it slithering across the dirt. He only saw it when Driver did, and by then his front legs had left the ground. He watched in slow motion as Sasha slipped like a sack of grain from his back and landed between his front legs. Rannok's heart leaped into his throat. Erean backed his horse up one step, then two. Rannok watched in horror as Driver struck the ground again and again. A sickening thud rang out between the trees and Sasha lay still.

"Get off her!"

Flashes of the reavers ran through Rannok's mind. Pounding hooves. Teeth as sharp as razors digging into a man's neck. A wiggling white armbone glimmering in the light as they stripped the flesh from it. For a split second he froze, unable to move, hands clenched over his eyes in terror. But it was only a second. A second that was uncomfortably close to too long.

He jumped from his horse, ran to her, and smacked Driver in the face with a closed fist. The animal let out a screech, eyes wild, the whites of them so bright they shone in the dappled light like lanterns. Driver let out a blow of air through his nose, then turned and ran off into the underbrush. Sasha groaned and struggled to sit. Rannok grabbed her forearm to help her.

The crow watched them from the treetops. Rannok could feel its eyes on him and wished it would tell him what to do. A thin stream of blood ran from her forehead. Erean ripped a strip of cloth from one of his spare shirts and pressed it to the wound.

"I'm fine, where's Driver?"

She looked around. Her pupils dilated and contracted as she struggled to see. Rannok helped her to her feet.

"Gone," he said. "Thank God."

Sasha's eyes widened and regained their clarity. She ripped the cloth out of Erean's grip so she could press it to her forehead herself, then clasped her hand to her mouth.

"We have to go find him!" 

Rannok's eyes narrowed. He glanced off into the path of broken branches from where Driver had traveled and hoped wherever the stupid animal had gone, it wouldn't be coming back. They'd come too close already.

"No," he said. 

Sasha opened her mouth, then glanced at Erean, who shook his head. Her eyes were fire. She ripped her arm out of Rannok's grip and brandished a finger at him.

"You have no idea what that animal means to me," she said. "Maybe if you hadn't tried to steal him, none of this would have happened!"

Rannok's heart settled down into its normal place in his chest and he batted her finger away. His fists clenched. He tried not to think of it. Not to think of the horrible pictures when the reavers attacked. The reavers who made the same noises and blew the same air out their nostrils and had the same bodies, apart from the teeth and the cloven hooves. He tried not to think of how it felt watching the animal bludgeon the ground while she lay still beneath its feet.

"We're not looking for the fucking horse, Sasha! He's run off with you every single day we've been out here. He's tried to throw you off, he's tried to get away at night, and you're lucky he didn't just kill you."

Her eyes shone with tears and she looked away from him.

"You don't understand," she said. She glanced at Erean, a pleading sort of glance, as if she hoped he'd say something else. For a moment, Rannok felt bad for her. Erean nodded his agreement and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Driver is not a pet."

She bit her lip and turned away from them, then raced off into the underbrush. Rannok stared after her and shook his head while staring at Erean, as if he expected to be told what to do. Erean pointed in the direction she'd gone, off into the underbrush in the direction of Driver's broken sticks and branches.

"We could just as easily leave her," he said, in a way that let Rannok know he was only half kidding. But Rannok couldn't do that. Wouldn't do that to someone.

"No," he said, with a heavy sigh. "I'll go find her."

He wasn't entirely surprised when Erean didn't argue. Rannok gave a brief glance back as he disappeared into the tree cover after her to find him slumped against a branch, eyes downcast, as if he were in immense pain. 

"Concentrate on the girl," the crow said. Rannok nodded. She couldn't have gotten far, anyway.