Luck of the Wheels

by Megan Lindholm

  ‘Want me to go look for him?’ Goat offered hopefully.

  ‘No. Just stay where you are. As soon as Vandien’s back, we’re leaving. I don’t like the feel of this town; we’re too obviously strangers, and the Brurjans are too bored.’

  ‘They can’t be any more bored than I am,’ Goat grumbled. ‘Can’t I just get down and walk around a little? What’s the harm in that? There are so many people here, so different from people I’ve known before. I want to see everything.’

  ‘Look around. This is it.’ Ki tapped, then opened the side door of the wagon, and pushed the basket of laundry in before her. It was stifling inside the cuddy, but she shut the door behind her. The door of the potato bin swung open. Willow peeked out, then crawled out. Her red hair clung damply to her face and neck. ‘Are we leaving?’ she asked hopefully.

  ‘Talk softly. No. Vandien isn’t back yet. You must be patient. And try to be more still. Twice I heard the wagon creak behind me while I was doing the laundry. Luckily Goat was up on the bench fidgeting, or anyone could have guessed someone was inside. We have to be careful, Willow. This whole town feels like a storm cloud. The townfolk would like a chance to peck instead of being pecked; the Brurjans would love a new kind of prey. So. Be still, be silent, and as soon as Vandien gets back with the papers, we’ll be on our way. Do you understand?’

  Willow was poking through the laundry. ‘Did the tea stain come out of my red skirt?’ she asked anxiously. ‘It’s Kellich’s favorite.’

  Ki drew the skirt out of the basket and shook it out for Willow’s inspection. The girl studied it, then nodded and smiled. ‘I want to wear that, the day after tomorrow when he meets me. I want to walk into the Two Ducks with that skirt swirling around my legs and my hair loose on my shoulders.’

  There was something in the girl’s wistful voice that no woman could have denied. Ki found herself answering her smile. ‘The Two Ducks? Is that an inn?’

  Willow nodded happily. ‘It’s on the edge of Tekum, not far from the land and house of the man Kellich works for. He said he would meet me there.’

  ‘He did?’ Something seemed slightly odd to Ki, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Ki refolded the red skirt and set it atop the basket of laundry. ‘Be still and be silent, then, and we’ll get to the Two Ducks by the day after tomorrow. Are you hungry?’

  Willow shook her head. ‘Two hot to eat anything.’

  ‘Then sleep if you’re bored. No, in the cupboard, Willow, I’m afraid. Just in case anyone peeks in the window.’

  The girl gave Ki a martyred look, but obediently crawled into the cupboard and drew the door almost closed. With a sigh for the heat, Ki tugged the cuddy door open onto the seat.

  ‘Any sign of Vandien?’ she asked Goat.

  There was no reply. There was no Goat, not on the seat, nor in the shade of the wagon, nor anywhere in the plaza that Ki could see. She filled her lungs for a shout, then expelled it silently. No use calling. He’d known she didn’t want him to leave. Her calling wouldn’t bring him back. Damn boy! Didn’t he realize how serious the situation was, how important it was to get back on the road and out of this fortified town? No, he must have known. And either not cared or … well, she hoped he had gone to find Vandien. He’d latch onto Goat and drag him back.

  Nothing to do but sit on the seat and wait, and be both bored and edgy. She dared not leave the wagon to look for him. She’d seen how curiously the children watched the wagon. The instant she was gone, they’d be into it. And with the catch broken on the cuddy door, there was no way to prevent it. She settled back on the plank seat, squinting her eyes against the brightness of the sun. The wide blankness of the plaza seemed to double its dazzle and throw it all in her eyes.

  That dazzle had died and afternoon edged toward evening before she saw Vandien coming. His rapier swung with his stride and he looked jauntier than he had in many days. The stiffness was gone from his body, and as soon as he caught her eye she saw the white flash of his smile. Full of himself, and satisfied too, she’d wager. While she did the scrubbing and minded Willow. And lost Goat, she added angrily to herself.

  ‘Pull their noses up and let’s be gone,’ he suggested as soon as he was within range. From his shirt he pulled a rolled paper tied with a scrap of orange ribbon. ‘We’re clear all the way to Villena,’ he added smugly.

  ‘Took you long enough,’ she grumbled. ‘Vandien, I’ve …’

  ‘I know, hot and waiting and nervous, but it takes a bit of talk to get a petty official in a backwater town to relax. I knew I was in luck when I saw he was Human, not Brurjan. At least this Duke has that much sense. So we swapped a few tales, and I listened to him lie about how pleasant his job was and how fiercely he’d competed to get it. And then we rolled, double or nothing, for papers to Tekum. And I lost …’

  Ki’s jaw dropped and her face lost color.

  ‘So then I got angry, and said, let’s do it again, for papers as far as Rivercross. And again I lost.’

  Ki’s mouth closed slowly. She looked ill.

  ‘And then I said, “Well, by the Moon, let’s make it papers as far as Villena,” and we rolled again, double or nothing. And I won.’

  ‘How could you?’ she asked faintly.

  ‘Easy. The bones love me, child. Fortune’s favorite child, that’s me, though she sometimes takes a while to remember it. I did have to fluster and fuss between rolls, and complain how someone with such gorgeous robes and such a richly appointed room and a serving maid like a young goddess could take advantage of a poor peddler like me. When he lost at last, Ki, that man was positively gracious about it. I don’t think anyone has ever flattered him so much in one afternoon.’ His excited voice paused, waiting for her amazement.

  ‘Goat’s gone.’ She spoke into the pause, watched his dark eyes widen as the news sank in.

  ‘How long?’ His eyes were hard black now, all business. It boded no good for Goat when he was found.

  Ki hated to shrug. ‘Hours. I took the wash into the wagon, and came out. He was gone. He’d been restless all morning, complaining about all the people he’d never get to meet … typical village boy come to town, so sure it’s going to be different from where he grew up.’

  ‘Damn.’ Vandien put an infinity of meaning into the one brief word. ‘Any idea where he’d go?’

  ‘No. Well, he did mention that perhaps you’d gone into a tavern and forgotten us, and that maybe he could find you. So.’

  ‘So that’s quickly checked. There aren’t more than six in this town, and all within a quick walk of the Ducal Offices.’ His eyes went far; his tongue ran hastily over his upper lip. ‘None of them looked like a place that would welcome a stranger’s trade, let alone a mouthy boy like Goat. Perhaps …’

  ‘Go ahead,’ Ki urged him as he hesitated.

  ‘You go ahead. Take the wagon and team and go at a walk, as if they’re exhausted or sick. Very slowly. Head toward the gates, but don’t go out of them. I’ll be along with Goat as swiftly as I can. I have a notion that it will be better if we’re already on our way when I catch up with that boy.’

  Ki nodded tersely. It was as good a plan as any. Vandien gave her a quick nod and a flash of teeth that wasn’t really a smile but was reassuring anyway. He set off at a trot across the plaza, one steadying hand resting on the hilt of his rapier as he ran. She watched until he was out of sight, then gathered up the team’s water bucket and grain trough. Putting their bits in and checking the harness took but a few moments more. Then she climbed up on the seat, and with a few muttered words that could have been a prayer or a curse, set the team in motion.

  ‘Damn kid. Stupid. Just plain stupid.’ Vandien slowed to a walk. His muttering was attracting the stares of passers by; he shut his jaw firmly. But inside his head, the promises went on. When he got hold of that boy … He shook his head, baffled. The boy had behaved so well this morning … and now this. After he and Ki had agreed to do everything possible to be inconspicuous, right down to avoiding a cool d
rink in a local tavern, that fool boy had to do this.

  Well, there was no sense being inconspicuous now. He’d wager Goat hadn’t been. His eyes roved as he hurried up the streets, and he checked each alley he passed. Earlier he had found the architecture of this town boring; squat square buildings set out on gently curving, if narrow, streets. Now it was to his advantage. If Goat were outside, he’d be visible for blocks.

  He set his teeth as he came to the first tavern. The doorway was a black gap in the mud brick wall. Vandien felt like a target as he stepped in and peered around the dim interior. The place had seen better days – at least, he hoped it had; it was depressing to think that it might always have suffered these cobbled-together tables and benches, these bleary, sodden men. The place stank of oppression and despair. The two women in the room swiveled toward him like windvanes feeling a favorable breeze. One leered invitingly, and Vandien gave her a polite nod as he turned toward the door. Goat wasn’t here, and Vandien suddenly decided that asking if anyone here had seen him would consume more time than it was worth. Not even the innman, endlessly wiping a mug on his greasy apron, looked as if he could put three words together without effort.

  One of the women called something rude after him, and was rewarded with a low wave of laughter. He hurried on, trying not to look as if he hurried. Ki was probably halfway to the gate by now. He’d checked it out earlier; it was a proper gate in the crumbling remains of the city wall of the inevitable mud brick. Manned by Brurjan troops, too. They’d best all be on the wagon with their proper papers to present when they went through.

  The next tavern was of better quality, but no more welcoming. The innman regarded Vandien suspiciously despite the small piece of silver he rolled up and down the table. A boy? Yes, there had been a strange boy in here, telling lies about riding with the Romni and facing down a whole patrol of Brurjan troops. They needed none of that kind of talk around here. This was a peaceful tavern, and folk left their troubles outside the door. No, he didn’t know where the boy had gone, and didn’t care, either. Strangers were nothing but trouble, what with half of them being thieves and the other half rebel spies a man could get hung just for talking to. Less this innman saw of strangers, the better he liked it. He liked his local trade, yes he did, and the Brurjan troops who dropped in for blood and milk at the turn of their shifts, which was pretty soon, yes, and he’d be glad to see them as he always was …

  Vandien took the hint, but let the coin fall flat and stay. He didn’t like the way the local patrons gazed after him as he left. They were burly working men, with one small group of wiry-locked Callistri in one corner. None of them lifted their gazes from the drink-ringed tables, but there wouldn’t be one of them who wouldn’t be able to describe him to anyone who asked.

  Clear of the tavern, he turned the corner and hastened through the yard of a livery stable. The next tavern was only a few blocks away, if he remembered correctly, and …

  A bray of laughter, followed by a girl’s giggle, stopped him in his tracks. He turned slowly, but saw nothing. Yet that laugh, he was sure, was Goat’s. The stable was an open affair, not much more than a thatched roof held up by dark beams. A pair of oxen chewed their cuds and regarded him with calm brown eyes. In the next stall an old mule dozed, its muzzle nearly touching the ground. Beyond him was a rick of bleached yellow straw, straw that suddenly shifted with another giggle.

  ‘Goat!’ Vandien barked with sudden certainty.

  The boy’s head popped up from the straw. His cheeks were very red, and his mouth was wet. The girl’s head appeared more slowly. Her eyes were round and wide. As she met Vandien’s stare, a blush rosed her cheeks. But Goat grinned delightedly as if an audience had been all that had been lacking to complete his pleasure. ‘Pretty little poppet, isn’t she?’ he asked Vandien roguishly as he emerged from the straw, dragging his conquest with him. He began to refasten his loosened clothing. ‘I’ll bet you wish you had done as well today.’

  Vandien looked aside, disappointment so sharp in him it made him feel sick. Goat shamed him. He’d believed better of him. There was an innocent eagerness in the girl’s eyes. She was pretty only with the fleeting beauty every girl has on the brink of womanhood. Her narrow nose and chin would seem sharp when lines came into her face, and the generous young breasts she was now struggling to hide would soon hang like pouches on her chest. Vandien had seen thousands like her; it struck him as tragic that she had spent the brief wonder of her virginity on Goat.

  ‘It’s time to leave,’ he told Goat in a tight-lipped voice. ‘I’ve been looking for you. Ki’s waiting on us.’

  But Goat was still strutting too high to hear the anger in Vandien’s voice. He gave a theatrical sigh. ‘So, my little love, then it must be over. Remember me well.’ He gave a dirty little laugh. ‘I’ll certainly remember you!’

  Vandien glanced up in time to see the girl’s face shatter. In that one brief instant her prettiness popped like a fragile bubble. ‘But …’ she stammered. ‘But I’m going with you. I dreamed it, last night. First this, and then how we would ride out of the city together, on the tall white mares …’ She saw the truth in Vandien’s agonized embarrassment. ‘You came in my dreams,’ she whispered in horror. ‘It has to be true!’

  ‘Ah, well!’ Goat’s voice was bluff and hearty as a tavern boaster’s. ‘That’s the way it is, missy. A man has to have what a man must have. And certainly you seemed willing to give it! Vandien, old man, you’ve never had a gallop like that! It’s a thing no man could resist! I’m sorry if you were deceived, little love, but a man can scarcely refuse …’

  ‘Not a man.’ Vandien’s voice was cold. ‘A goat. I’m sorry, miss.’ He fumbled an instant at his belt, then saw her eyes and stopped. A gift of coin could only make it worse. He had nothing else to give her, except a look of sympathy.

  ‘There, there, let this brighten your face, then,’ Goat said in a masterful way. Vandien glimpsed the handful of coppers he was ready to scatter, and something in him broke. He backhanded the boy, heard the coppers ring on the wooden planked floor at the same instant that Goat struck it with a thud.

  Vandien hauled the dazed boy to his feet. As he dragged him from the stable, Goat came to life. His eyes flashed with green glints of anger. He jerked free of Vandien’s grip and stood independent. A thin trickle of blood was starting at the corner of his mouth. ‘Who do you think you are?’ he demanded shrilly. ‘You can’t treat me this way! You’re nothing but a hired carter, paid to take me where I want to go! And I’ll say when we leave! Me! I’m the one who paid for this trip! And if you ever treat me so again, you’ll be very sorry. Very, very sorry! Think what could happen to you and your precious Ki if I told the Brurjan guards what I know! You’d be very sorry, but it would be too late! So watch your step, man, or …’

  Vandien had his weight behind it, and it was his fist this time, not his open hand. Goat dropped solidly. The boy was heavy, but there was a lot of satisfaction in dragging him by his collar. He only wished his ribs didn’t ache so. And that his heart didn’t ache for the sobbing girl.

  EIGHT

  The stars were very bright and more numerous than Vandien had ever seen. His head was pillowed on a bundled quilt and the earth beneath him was warm. Satisfaction flowed through him as comfortingly as his own blood. He listened to the crackling of the fire and the horses’ teeth grinding the rough dry grass. Laundry draped on the low-growing bushes made friendly ghosts in the night.

  Ki’s silhouette came between him and the firelight. ‘It was stupid,’ she informed him. Her knees cracked as she squatted down beside him. He took her mug of tea and stole a sip from it.

  ‘Necessary.’ He felt too lazy to even make complete sentences. The long tension of the day had taken its toll. Now that it was finally eased, he felt both incredibly sleepy and very smug. Too smug to trade words with Ki. Besides, the argument was already old.

  ‘Stupid. If I hadn’t stopped and pretended to be taking a stone out of Sigmund’s hoof,
you would never have caught up with us. Dragging him like a sack of potatoes. You couldn’t have attracted more attention if you’d been blowing a horn.’

  ‘A diversion,’ he said lazily. ‘Carefully planned. The Brurjans at the gate were too busy asking me why the boy was unconscious to wonder what might be inside the wagon. No smuggler in his right mind would go out of the gate like that.’

  ‘Hmm.’ Ki sipped at her mug. ‘I put a poultice of cold tea leaves on it, but his face is going to be purple. We’ll be lucky if the bruises fade before we get to Villena.’

  ‘I’m truly distressed to hear that,’ Vandien said laconically.

  ‘You should be. What if he had come to at the gate and made good on his threats? Or what if a patrol stops us again? He’s still furious. He’s full of low names for you. He must have told me two dozens times that you were going to be very sorry you’d treated him that way. I was glad to get out of the wagon and leave him there. You should see his jaw. It’s a wonder he can talk at all.’

  ‘Breaks my heart.’ Vandien smiled briefly. ‘I knew he wasn’t going to come to at the gate.’ He made a show of massaging his knuckles.

  ‘You get that much satisfaction out of hitting a little boy?’ Ki asked acidly.

  Vandien wasn’t fooled. ‘More. Infinitely more. You can’t imagine how good it felt.’

  ‘I’m ashamed to say, I can,’ she admitted with a small smile. She settled comfortably beside him.

  ‘Willow’s asleep?’ Vandien asked after a moment.

  Ki nodded to the dark. ‘Under the wagon. I think she’s exhausted from the tension, and couldn’t stay awake any longer, no matter what she believes about Goat.’ Her voice faded into the silence between them.

  ‘And what do you believe?’ Vandien finally asked her.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Ki admitted. ‘I haven’t been sleeping too well since we took on Goat, but my waking hours haven’t been pleasant, either. That girl said she’d dreamed of him?’