She watched with anxious eyes as they appeared out of the far line of
trees below, and as they burst out into the open, the pursuit spied her
almost immediately, and shouting wildly they swerved in unison,
whipping their mounts in merciless pursuit of her.
She turned and cantered the black stallion down a momentary dip in the
land, then urged him up the steeper ground to the next higher rise.
For a brief, fearful moment, she almost fell off her horse as he
lurched up the opposite slope, but she clutched his shaggy black mane
as she toppled suddenly forward against the back of his neck and hung
on with all of her failing strength, slowly righting herself.
Momentarily out of their line of sight, she could hear their distant
shouts. Triumphant shouts, urging each other on.
Si'Wren raised her eyes and looked beyond to the vista of the distant
lowlands, whence she had come so far with her Emperor. Then she dropped
her eyes, and noticed for the first time that her dark mantle of hair,
left unbraided, had been woven by the wind into a knotted mass of
tangles like a black flame.
Seeing that her stallion was also wounded, she doubted if he could
carry her for very much longer, and dreaded the prospect of falling
into the hands of such men.
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