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He realized he truly didn’t care what it was she found so hard to tell him, except that it obviously weighed on her.

As she rolled him under her and straddled him, eyes slumberous and heavy, he groaned.

They had to be up early, but there was surely time for this.

* * *

They had ridden hard,leaving the columns far behind them, and reached the first spot Dak had chosen as a possible ambush site in the early afternoon.

Ava was lagging at the back.

She was a lot better in the saddle than she had been two months ago when she escaped, but the Cervantes, the Venyatux, and the Funabi were all accomplished riders. More accomplished than she was, anyway.

As she rounded the bend, with only Catja in sight, Ava thought she glimpsed the hindquarters of a horse, just disappearing around the side of one of the small hills Dak had flagged as a good hiding spot for the Kassian army.

She considered giving a whoop to alert Catja, but instead gritted her teeth and urged her horse into a gallop.

Catja heard the hoofbeats and slowed, then turned in her saddle.

Ava fisted her left hand, lifted it to her right shoulder and gave a tap. The sign for danger.

Catja’s eyes widened and she slowed even more, until Ava was abreast of her.

“There’s someone in the hills to the right.” Ava spoke softly. “Don’t look that way. It’s best right now we pretend I didn’t see whoever it was.”

“Agreed.” Catja pretended to stretch out her back, lifting her hands over her head and twisting left and then right.

“I don’t hear anything. And I don’t know how many are there. I only saw one horse.” Ava reached for a water pouch and drank.

“What should we do?” Catja patted her horse’s neck. “Maybe if we keep walking, the Commander will stop and wait for us, or come back and see what’s wrong.”

“If they have chosen this spot as a place to ambush the Rising Wave, we need them to continue to believe we have no idea of their plan. We don’t want them to find somewhere else.” Ava reached back into her saddle bag and took out some flat bread. They had stopped for a quick meal two hours before, and it wasn’t time for another break, but Catja took the bread and chewed with gusto, talking of inconsequential things.

It took less than ten minutes for Luc to come thundering back.

Deni rode behind him.

Luc was quick. So very, very quick.

Something in the way she and Catja were talking together told him everything she needed him to know.

He turned his head to say something to Deni, but the direction the wind was blowing made it impossible to hear.

She saw Deni freeze, but just for a moment, and then relax in his saddle.

“My horse has given up for the day,” Ava called out when they got within earshot.

“Varik’s has done the same, just up ahead. We thought you might be having the same problem.” When Luc turned his horse back around, he put himself between Ava and the hills. “What did you see?” He leaned close to her.

“Someone on horseback ducking behind the hill just over my right shoulder.”

Luc looked grim. “We shouldn’t have let you get so far behind.”

“I’m just not as at home in a saddle as the rest of you.” She flashed him a smile. “And it had the benefit of making them think we’d all gone past, and they made a mistake.”

“It won’t happen again.” He turned as Deni reached them. “We’re going to walk slowly to join the others, as if Ava’s horse is unable to go faster than a walk, and then we’re going to find a place that’s out of sight of anyone on this side of the hills, and set up camp for the night.”

“What about those of us who’re going to the river?” Deni asked.