Colonel Grimands agreed to lend us a fourth string of horses and sent three of his riders out with us. In an effort to catch the people Tyrchon had tracked, we rode these new horses hard for two hours, then turned them over to the riders from Imperial Plains, took to our own mounts, arid set off again Four hours out, riding more conservatively, we stopped and huddled around as Tyrchon knelt in the snow to examine the tracks. With a finger he traced the edge of a track. “See, it’s melted by the sun. 1 would say it was made five hours ago, which means we have gained little or nothing on them. Their strides are longer. If anything, they are getting faster.” I frowned. “But you said, pointing to earlier tracks, that the horses are nearly dead from exhaustion. How can it be? We’ve been on this track for four hours, and we have not seen them change mounts.” Nagrendra sat on his haunches and stared at the tracks. He passed a three-fingered hand over his eyes and I saw a blue-white flash from his palm reflected on his green skin.
