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They traveled another half hour at a canter along the road, the moons overhead semi-clouded in the muggy night. The mule balked a few times, but Edvard was in no mood for arguing and let Yuila take her switch to the animal.
When they rounded a bend in the road at a tree line, the terrain opened into a shaggy embankment that followed a brook. They could hear the water gurgling, and Edvard paused them. To either side of the tree line rose dense patches of fern-like clumps, thicker than the last campsite they'd chosen. He considered both sides carefully, his chest still sticky with drying blood, his arm wet. A draining feeling was taking its toll and he knew it.
He turned them to the north of the road, weaving them into the tighter foliage that closed protectively behind them in the night.
There were a few grunts of protest from Yuila, but she never complained. After a few minutes of walking, Edvard dismounted and led Neito, breaking through the brush and thickets.
"Let's stop here," Mina said from the gelding's saddle. She'd tried to dismount when he did, but he'd insisted she stay astride.
"A little farther. Closer to the water," he said.
Fifteen minutes later they found a suitable spot. The trees were a mixture of fern-leafed and hardwoods, thick, and near to the brook that stretched six feet wide.
Mina slid off Neito and took the reins from Edvard. "You need to get cleaned up. We'll do the horses."
"After I—"
"No, now." She didn't relinquish the reins. For a moment he considered arguing, and then he nodded.
"Okay." He let her have the reins and paused at the gelding's saddle to loosen the girth.
Mina's hands stilled his, her fingers determined. "You're bleeding, Edvard," she said lowly as Yuila dismounted. "You need attention."
"After we—"
"Yuila and I can do this." Her eyes dropped to his reddened shirt, which appeared only dark and clinging in the night. "Please, before you lose too much blood."
He nodded, looking to Yuila as the girl worked the cinch on the mule. "I'll be at the water's edge."
It took only a few minutes for Mina and Yuila to unpack the animals and arrange their supplies in the thick stand of trees. The moons lent enough light to work by, but Mina decided she'd need a fire.
She couldn't sew by the light of the moons alone.
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