she wouldn’t go. They had been going through this exercise all day—he kicked, Pixie ate. And that name! What were people going to think of him when they found out his horse’s name was Pixie? Sasha was heading over now. She looked calm and he knew she was patient, but he still knew this must be driving her nuts.
She got off Murray. “Here Keither, ride Murray the rest of the day. Pixie just needs to be trained, that’s all.”
He got off and remounted Murray, who seemed to be much larger. Once again, the horse didn’t seem to want to respond to him. Sasha got on Pixie and to his amazement, she turned Pixie and started toward the others, clucking just like he had done but this time the horse responded. He grabbed on hard to the saddle as Murray started after Sasha. Clearly, Pixie was not the one in need of training.
Chapter Eleven
Salkay
“It always amazes me that people believe only that which they want to, no matter how absurd. Of course, that being said, people tend to be easy to lead for the same reason, and provided their leader is just, even the truly wicked amongst us can be made into good people.”
-Memoirs of the Ruler of the First Dynasty
They made camp right outside of the town of Salkay. Kovos couldn’t see it, but it was there just over the hill. He could hear the sound of the Kayloose River, one of the largest rivers in the area and the basis for Salkay’s rapid growth. Most towns and villages were built near a body of water, be it a river, stream, or lake. This was the case for Salkay. From what he understood, there were mills in Salkay, and mills meant money.
It was cool this morning and he could see his breath when he got out of the tent. He appeared to be the only one up except for Arkin at the edge of camp, looking not toward the town but back up the road where they’d come, sitting on his heels and not moving a muscle. This must have been the Jeesie or Jezeer or whatever it was called. Kovos didn’t know and frankly he didn’t care. All that stuff was fine for Arkin but not for him.
He began to build a fire. He loved the mornings when he was camping, or at least he loved them when he was sitting at a fire eating. He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was small and soft. His heart skipped a beat. Emma? No, not Emma. Sasha.
“Good morning. How are you today?” she said, yawning.
He spoke more to the ground than to her. “I’m fine.”
“Just fine?”
“Yeah I’m fine, really, I am.” She was giving him a knowing look.
“You thought I was Emma, didn’t you?” she asked softly.
“I’m sorry Sasha. How did you sleep?” And moreover, how did she know what he was thinking?
She smiled at him. “Why are you sorry? I’m sure she misses you too.”
“Do you think so? I mean, she said that she loved me, but I don’t know. Now I’m gone and I bet she has her eye on others. I don’t know.” He chuckled a bit. “Listen to me, I sound like a moron. You don’t want to hear my sob story.”
She laughed, and this caught him off guard. “You don’t know anything about women, do you?”
Now it was his turn to laugh. “Well no, I guess not.”
“I don’t think you’re a moron, I’m happy for you. It’s cute the…”
“Oh no, don’t start that ‘cute’ stuff. Emma says that crap all the time when I get all soft,” he said pointing a finger at her in a playful way.
“It is cute, and I’m sure she misses you a lot. She even talked to me about you, so there’s a sign.”
That was definitely a sign. Emma didn’t talk to Sasha; none of the girls in town did. They talked about her for sure, but it wasn’t kind.
“She did? What did she say? What did you tell her?” She had his attention now; he didn’t want Sasha to think he was soft, but this was too good. She sat down opposite him and held her hands out over the growing fire. They didn’t even notice Arkin looking at them.
“Well, she came up to me in town and offered to buy me tea. I knew something was up because her parents don’t want her to talk to me. We went to the tavern and she started asking all