Bastion

talkin’ to him, Mags surmised. The guess was confirmed when Jakyr’s eyes focused again, and he looked straight at Mags—this time without hostility.
    “Jermayan and Dallen have been assessing our foes, and it seems we have . . . quite a lot,” he said, quietly. “About a dozen, and all with those rather nasty talismans, rather than the one your . . . cousin . . . wore.”
    Mags didn’t ask about Bey. But he rather thought that if Bey had joined the rest, or had brought them there, Jakyr would have used that as further ammunition, so he just kept quiet.
    “I don’t think this is a good idea, Jak,” Lita said, harshly. Her face looked as if she were struggling between rage and tears. Her hands were clenched at her sides, and Mags wondered if she was actually thinking of trying to knock Jakyr cold to keep him from riding out. “I don’t think this is any kind of a good idea. A dozen, with spears that we know of, probably bows and arrows too, and you floundering through chest-high snow—you’ll just be an easy target. We should let Jermayan and Dallen see if they can reach another Companion that can get his Herald to the Guardpost. We can wait it out.”
    “And if we wait it out, they start killing villagers!” Jakyr snapped. “Do you want to be responsible for that? I don’t!” Mags finished lacing the last of the padding onto Jermayan, and the Companion trotted over to the Herald, waiting for him to mount. “If I can get as far as the cleft, we’ll be fine. It’s not that far. They’re up on the tops of the hills.” He turned and put one foot in the stirrup.
    “So they have clean shots at you, brilliant!” she snarled right back. “I—oh damn you!” She grabbed his head and kissed him, hard. “If you get killed I’ll—I’ll kill you all over again!”
    He said nothing, just mounted without looking at her, and backed Jermayan all the way to the back of the cave so they could get a running start. They paused for just a moment, then with a clatter of hoofs on stone, they were off.
    Mags had a sickening feeling as soon as they reached the cave entrance; Dallen responded to it by galloping toward him, and he grabbed mane and hauled himself on bareback as they had practiced so many times at the Collegium. Dallen skidded around and launched himself in Jakyr’s wake, just as the Herald and Jermayan went down in a hail of arrows right where the deep snow began.
    Mags saw it all from Dallen’s back, and somehow Dallen put on some more speed. They burst out into the light.
    Jermayan and Jakyr were within easy reach of the cave, and already Jakyr’s makeshift armor was reddening in a dozen places. From the way Jakyr was bleeding, he wasn’t going to last long. Those arrows had all been aimed at his back and they had gone through the cobbled-together armor as if it had been paper. Only one of them had hit Jermayan, but it had been the shoulder, causing him to fall before he even cleared the snow parapet.
    Mags and Dallen leaped into the snow beside the downed Companion and interposed themselves between Jakyr and the archers. Mags stared up at the Sleepgivers, daring them to hit him, forcing them to concentrate on him, and not Jakyr.
    He could see their faces clearly—dark hair, dark eyes, deeply suntanned skin, features not unlike his own. He wasn’t wearing his cloak, and they could see him clearly. They had to know who he was.
    And they knew he wasn’t to be killed. It was a standoff. No matter how accurate they were with those bows, there was always the chance they’d hit Mags instead of Jakyr. They wouldn’t take that chance.
    He had been afraid he’d see Bey’s face up there, but his cousin wasn’t anywhere in sight. If Bey was with ’em, he wouldn’t hide. So Bey wasn’t part of this. It was a small crumb of comfort in the middle of disaster.
    So he and the Sleepgivers stared back at each other as Lita and Lena and Bear and Amily ran behind him to get to Jakyr and pull him into the cave, and as Jermayan struggled to his feet and limped inside himself, leaving red splotches in the churned-up snow. He didn’t dare look behind himself even to see how terribly wounded Jakyr was. He had to keep the attention of the Sleepgivers riveted on him. If he lost their concentration for even a moment, they could easily decide to start taking shots at everyone but Mags.
    Mags said nothing, did nothing; he and Dallen were as still as a statue. This wasn’t the time to escalate