As I finished the letter my hands crumbled the paper into a ball in my fist. I was so mad I could hardly see straight. How could she just leave like that? She was mine!
How did she hope to protect herself from all the dangers of being an escaped slave and a beautiful one at that, all by herself? I threw my saddle onto Flin and within minutes we were riding out of the camp in hot pursuit of the tracks of Krista's horse leading away from the sea.
I reached the top of a knoll and stopped Flin abruptly. I thought we had lost all possibility of any pursuers on our trail, but I had been wrong. Less than half a mile away a party of forty or more Zoarinian cavalry men were steadily moving in our direction. I knew the bitterness of defeat in that moment like I had never known it before.
The girl of my dreams had just been here with me and now she was gone probably for forever. I had to get the information Sebastian had acquired to where it would do the most good and there was Zarsha's welfare to consider as well. I vented my anger at the cruel turn of my life in an angered roar of frustrated fury at my helplessness to get what I had wanted so deeply.
The enemy cavalry had spotted us and were charging across the sand dunes toward us. I turned Flin towards the sea and let him run all out. As we neared the beach I could see a sail out in the small enclosure of the natural harbor that formed along this stretch of the sea coast.
There was no time to wait for a boat to come pick us up. I ran Flin through the pounding surf into the deeper waters of the breakers. It was a new experience for both me and Flin. He took to it gamely enough and I had no choice but to. As he started to swim powerfully against the onrushing current of the waves I slipped from the saddle to lighten the load on him, but it was unnerving to know the vast depths of water that were opening up beneath us.
Swimming was something I had never mastered and I had never regretted that more than right now. Zarsha clung to the saddle horn in sheer terror as the sea water lapped against her legs and splashed her in the face. I tried to not let her terror consume me too. Drowning was a horrible fate to consider and it seemed altogether a real possibility at the moment.