Page 40 of The Stallion & The Tigress
The arrogant bastard had called her a spoilt,proud princess, and he was right, she was.It was her pride thathad kept her from admitting the real danger she had put herself andthem in.Her stubbornness had sent them headlong into the river.Because she was the spoilt princess, to be protected at all costs,they would pay the price with their lives.
But he had called her a tigress too.Histigress.
Throwing her head back with a guttural growl,she stood and wiped her muddy hands on her breeches and then shejumped up onto Lasair’s saddle, grabbed Zolotoy’s reins and swungboth horses to head downriver.She was a tigress, curse it, notsome mewling kitten.She was a woman strongly built and fullygrown, no longer the little girl who could do no more than watchhelplessly as someone she cared for was swept away to theirdeath.
Aleksi let the current take him downriver,keeping his gaze on Sahar until she made the shoreline, and then heturned and stroked hard for the floating object he hoped and prayedwas Munir bobbing near the outcropping of rocks downstream.
The object lifted its head and flailed anarm, and Aleksi stroked harder, ignoring the numbing chill of thewater.His arms and legs were as heavy as water-sodden logs, andhis chest was on fire, but he kept on.He had grown up swimming inthe ice-cold rivers of his homeland, and had swam the width of theMother River when he was ten and eight, a feat more men had drownedattempting than had succeeded.Aleksi was a strong swimmer, alwayshad been.He’d not drowned then, and he was not going to drown now,nor would he let Munir.
Another three strokes and he reached Munir,who was struggling to keep his head above water.Aleksi grabbed himby the leather straps of his sword’s harness, rolled him over ontohis back and swam them to the rocks rising up in the middle of thechurning river.He swallowed several mouthfuls of water before hemanaged to push Munir into the rocks, wedging him between the twolargest and shuffling his own booted feet onto a slippery semblanceof a ledge.
“Munir?”His face was ashen and his lips hada bluish tint to them.“Munir,” Aleksi yelled.“Munir, wake up.Wake up,” he yelled louder.Munir’s head slumped down, and Aleksistuffed his feet deeper into the rocks as he fought to keep Munir’smouth and nose above water.“Munir,” Aleksi yelled at the top ofhis straining lungs.“Halah needs you.Come back to Halah.”
“Halah?”It was no more than a whisper abovethe roar of the river, but to Aleksi it was a call to battle.
“Yes, Halah.Think of Halah.Open your eyesand help me get you to shore and you will see your Halahagain.”
Munir’s eyes fluttered opened and focused onAleksi as he fought to keep his grip on both Munir’s tunic and theslippery rocks beneath his feet.“Aleksi.”
“Welcome back, my friend,” Aleksi grunted.“Now let us get to shore.”
Munir’s eyes opened wider as he took in thewater surging around them, and then his face paled even more.“Kedar?”he whispered hoarsely.
Aleksi shook his head.“I haven’t seen him,”he said, shifting his hold and his stance.“Right now, you and Imust get off these rocks.”He glanced across the span of rushingcurrent they would have to navigate to make the river’s bank.“Canyou swim?”
Munir lifted his left arm and grimaced.Hetried to lift his right arm and cursed through grit teeth.“Icannot move my arm,” he said.“My shoulder, my ribs.”
“What about your legs?”
Munir flexed and shuffled his legs betweenAleksi’s and the rocks.
“I’m not certain,” he said.“I don’t feel anypain, but I don’t think there’s any strength left in them.”
Aleksi’s arms and legs were quickly losingstrength as well, but he could think of no other way to get Munirsafely on land than to swim with him hanging on to his back, whichwould be difficult enough with two good arms.
“I’m going to turn around so you can wrapyour arms and legs around me,” he told Munir.“We will have to swimfor it, probably drift downriver some before we make goodfooting.”
Munir shook his head.“No,” he said.“I can’tlet Sahar find both of us drowned.You swim to shore.I can hold onuntil you get help.”
Aleksi eyed Munir’s pale skin and blue-tingedlips.He wouldn’t last long before the chill made it impossible forhim to hold on.He didn’t have the strength to fight the current,and Aleksi had no idea if any of the other riders were close enoughto be of aid.
“I’m not leaving you here,” Aleksi told him.“If I did and you perished, Sahar would burn me alive.”
Munir laughed, and sputtered, and coughed upbloody spittle.
“Hold on,” Aleksi ordered.He turned,scraping his fingers on the rocks as he adjusted his grip whilecarefully rotating his booted feet on the precarious shelf in slow,excruciating increments.“Take hold of my sword harness,” he said,and felt Munir grab on.“Now wrap your legs around my waist.”Henodded as Munir’s legs wrapped around him.“On the count of three,we push off.”
“On three,” Munir echoed.
Aleksi took a deep breath and blew it out, ifhe pushed off too early, or if Munir could not hold on, they weredoomed.“One,” he said, “two—”
“Wait.”Munir pulled back on Aleksi’sshoulder.“Look to the shore.”
“Hang on,” Sahar yelled, as she pulled thehorses to a stop.
Aleksandr and Munir were wedged into the rockoutcropping, but were being buffeted by the water swirling andraging around them.
“Hurry,” Aleksandr yelled.“I can’t hold onmuch longer.”
