Hale

A Peren rider of the escort that carried the Valiant Few the day’s ride into Vigil, and the one of them given the road to watch.

Her orders were handed down in front of the party on the morning they set out. Rafi was to ride alongside the guests and answer whatever they asked, which meant the guests would be talking and gathering toward the back and paying attention to nothing else, so she would have to be doubly alert for the lot of them. She said only that she understood, and mounted.

She was. When Mikhail dropped back to ride with Aldo and the column lost pace, she called the halt inside twenty seconds and rode hard back down the line to see what was wrong, on the reckoning that a column slowing without word has a reason for it.

The one time the company tried to get something past her, she took it at face value and made it worse for them. Aldo claimed a bad stomach so that Koa could pull him aside for a word. Hale asked whether everything was fine, accepted the answer about too much drink and hard riding on no sleep, and turned in the saddle to tell Amomar it was time for rest, gesturing at Aldo until he understood and got down to unpack. Then she swung down, went into her own pack, and asked whether he needed medical attention. She had herbs that would settle a stomach; they could make a tea of it. What she held up was a ginger root. She was waved off, and nodded, and set the break at half an hour, saying she would look in on him then.