“I see them.”
Quickly, they assembled and tallied their goods, while Nori searched the shelved canisters and boxes. Hunter glanced at her as he wrapped his bundles. A moment later, he caught her sniffing the contents of a glass jar. “What are you looking for?”
She stepped back and shoved the jar back in place. “Nothing,” she said shortly. But he could have sworn she had flushed as she turned away to the jerky packs.
They had most of the goods together when she tensed. Her head shot up, her gaze going toward the back door. “Quiet,” she snapped the whisper. In the near-silence, the command was sharp as a shot.
Hunter slid the pack of arrows onto the counter and started to draw his sword when Nori relaxed. “It’s okay,” she said. A moment later, when the latch on the back door began to ease up, she said in a normal voice, “It’s alright, Ogoli. It’s just me.”
“ ‘It’s me?’ ” Hunter whispered dryly.
She went back to pulling out glass jars. “Only someone you know is going to assume you know them by saying ‘it’s me.’ It’s strangers who use names, since they know you don’t know who they are.”
“I’m terrified to think that that almost made sense.”
Kettre choked back a laugh, and Fentris shook his head, but even though the slim Tamrani trusted the wolfwalker, he didn’t slide his own sword back in its sheath.
The latch turned and the door opened, but no one stepped through. “Sorry to wake you, Ogoli,” Nori said. “We were trying to be quiet.”
Now the mountain of a man appeared. If Hunter had been the type to fear size alone, he’d have been stepping back quickly. On the other hand, the storekeeper held his bow as if it would turn and bite him. The massive man glanced at Nori, then at the others before lowering the weapon. “You were quiet enough,” he agreed casually. “But I put in a thread alarm last year after thieves hit me twice. I take it you’re in a hurry. Finding everything alright?”
From anyone else it might have been sarcastic, but Hunter caught none of that in the man’s tone. “Almost,” Nori answered. “Where are you hiding the salt packs?”
“Under the counter, by the uncuts. It’s alright, Josu,” he said in a low voice over his shoulder. “It’s Jangharat.”
The boy stepped around his father and grinned. “I told him it was you.”
“Good ears, smart man,” she approved, and earned a wider grin from the boy. He didn’t rush to hug her this time, and she smiled wryly. “Too manly for a hug?” He glanced at the Tamrani, and she followed his gaze. “They’re just cityfolk,” she told him. She glanced back at Ogoli. “Can’t see in the dark,” she explained, “or we would have left the lights off.”
Hunter snorted.
She offered Josu her arm, and he grasped it, eager to return the adult greeting. He’d been five when she’d found him on search after he’d been kidnapped; he was twelve now. Too young to draw a man’s bow, but old enough—he slanted a look at his father—to be greeted like a man by Black Wolf.
Nori started to step around the counter, but the storekeep did it for her, pulling out three white salt tabs and setting them on the counter. “Five, please,” she corrected, and he added two more. She tossed one each to Fentris and Hunter. It was almost amusing the way the two men ignored each other as they took their bundles out to the dnu for packing.
Ogoli studied her tallies upside down, then took the pad from her when she started to add the salt. She glanced up from under her lashes, and her violet eyes gleamed as she stuffed her own dried foods in her saddlebag. She lowered her voice carefully. “You don’t, by any chance, still keep a few balls of modichoc in the store?”
The storekeep didn’t look up from his tally, but he smiled slyly. “I might. I’m surprised you can’t smell them.”
She glanced back, but the Tamrani were outside. “Ogoli, you sneak,” she whispered. “Where are they?”
“I thought, with the Test ninan and all, there might be unexpected visitors in the valley, so I took the liberty of hiding the modichoc from thieves with sharp noses. Just in case,” he added with a wider smile.
“I’m hurt.”
“That’ll be the day.” He moved to the tea shelf and opened a canister, drew out a wrapped package, opened that and the package inside, and the package inside that. “This what you’re looking for?”
She grinned. “I had to throw mine out a few days ago. I’ve been dying for a bite.” She reached out, but he drew it back before she could grasp it.
“Now, Wolfwalker. You owe us a dinner. Solvini’s made up a special dish just for you.”
She glanced meaningfully at the boy and sobered. “On the way back, perhaps.”
The storekeep followed her gaze. He gathered the last three bundles. “Josu, take these out to the cityfolk.” He waited a beat till the boy hurried out, then said soberly, “Riding at night, sneaking gear? You’re in trouble.”
“We’re being followed,” she admitted.
He stood straighter, seemed to puff out his already massive chest. “I’ll take care of it. I’ll tell them I haven’t see you. Or I’ll tell them I heard you were near Tochoars.”
“Ogoli—”
“Better yet—” He shook his thick finger at her to hush her. “—I’ll tell them you stole from me. Broke in and took what you wanted, then fled west or south when I nearly caught you.”
She put her hand on his thick arm. “Ogoli, I thank you for the offer, but you’re a terrible liar, and they’d know it. They already know we’ve got to head east, fast, to hit the main road. I hate to leave you with danger on your doorstep but—”
“Jangharat,” he interrupted. “Whatever you need.”
She nodded. “If you really want to help . . . ?”
“You insult me,” he chided her.
“Then get a few friends, armed, to join you here tonight. Stay up with the lights on low, as if we snuck in and you’re trying to inventory what we took. The men tracking us will come here, I know it, and you don’t want to meet them alone. If you have to, tell them what they want to know. It won’t matter,” she said quickly over his instant denial. “We have a good lead on them already, perhaps even hours. Don’t fight them, Ogoli. They’re the nasty sort. They kill carefully, but easily.”
“Raiders.” Ogoli cursed quietly.
“Worse, I think. They’re out of the city.” She jerked a nod at Hunter as he stepped back inside. “Harumen, he calls them.”
Ogoli’s face blanched at her steady tone. He’d heard the term before. It wasn’t said lightly. He forced his voice to be stern. “I can send a message to your parents, warn them that you’re in trouble.”
“No.” There had been that ring-runner who rode out unpaid with that message from the chovas. And the other messages going missing. She gave him a lopsided smile. “The Harumen will be watching the message towers and ring-runners. If they see you sending a runner out to the tower line, they’ll know that we’re more to you than some late-night irritants.” She paused in her swift packing and put her hand on his arm. “Ogoli, friend, you have mate, a son, a sister and your sister’s children to watch out for. You have a home that can burn. You have livestock, a store and a livelihood. Don’t get caught up in this. We’re ahead of them, safe for now. Trust me. We’ll be alright.”
“ ‘Trust the wolfwalker, follow the wolves,’ ” he murmured.
“Aye.” Nori started to dig in her belt pouches for coins, but Hunter drew out a handful of thin gold and silver pieces. The wolfwalker glanced at the coins, then at the tally and quickly counted out what they needed.
The heavy man raised his eyebrows at the Tamrani. “Even charging cityfolk, that’s too much.”
She teased, “A storekeep who argues about overpayment?”
His meaty hand pushed four of the silvers back across the counter. “You know, if you’d come in the daytime, we’d have bargained, you’d have argued, we’d have settled, and you’d have paid less.”
“Yes, but.” She
grinned slyly. “If we’d come in the daytime, Payne wouldn’t have been able to steal the ginger-peach pie that was still cooling in your kitchen.”
“The pie? Payne? Why that—”
She leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss on his stubbled chin.
He tried not to look pleased. “What else has that damn tamrin taken?”
“If I know Payne, he’s gotten into your leftovers.”
“I should have alarmed the kitchen.”
She pushed the silvers back. “Tell Solvini we loved the meatrolls and appreciated the fresh cheese.”
“Nose like a hound dog,” the storekeep muttered.
She hefted her saddlebag to her shoulder and didn’t bother to complain when Hunter plucked it from her hands and slung it over his own. She punched Josu lightly in his chest, then looked meaningfully at the boy’s father. “Send for your friends now, Ogoli. Don’t wait. You want to be protected when they get here.”
“I hear you, Wolfwalker.” He watched her from the door. “Ride safe.”
“With the moons,” she answered over her shoulder.
Hunter slapped her saddlebags over the horn and stepped back as she lashed them down. He murmured, “See why I want you with me? You’re a handy woman to have around.”
“Handy?” She tightened the buckles, then tugged on the tabs to check them.
“How many scouts know a storekeeper who leaves the key to his store for you, doesn’t moan about getting up in the middle of the night to find you raiding his home, doesn’t argue over the payment you figure you owe him, and then sneaks you modichoc candies?”
“I didn’t think you saw the candies,” she muttered.
“With the size of that package, you must have one heck of a sweet tooth.”
She let the sense of the wolf in so that her lips curled back. “Teeth is the operative word.”
He bit back a laugh. “I’m curious, Wolfwalker. Just how many contacts like that do you have, in how many obscure towns, and in how many of the first nine counties?”
“Are you asking for a reason, or just trying to irritate me?”
“Will you blush again if I irritate you enough?”
“Moonwormed Tamrani,” she said, not quite under her breath. She ducked under the dnu’s neck to take the reins from Kettre.
“He saw the candies?” Kettre whispered slyly. “You’re slipping.”
“Just hush and give me the reins.” She mounted as Payne trotted up. “Hurry up,” she told him shortly.
“For pie, we can wait sixty seconds.” He thrust one of his bundles at Kettre. “Find room for this. And don’t squish it,” he added quickly.
A moment later, they cantered away down the road.
Inside the store, Ogoli watched them go, then turned to his son. “You feel like a man tonight?”
The boy puffed up his chest as his father had done. “Aye.”
“Then run fast, to Libri’s house, and wake him. Tell him to bring his sword. When you’ve done that, go wake Ursgor and tell him the same.”
“Rhyk’ka?”
Ogoli hesitated. “Him too, if he’s not too drunk.”
The boy started to dash from the store, but his father caught his shoulder and spun him back around. “You see anyone riding in town, anyone at all, and you go into the bushes and hide.” Josu’s eyes widened at the fear that flickered in his father’s gaze. “You hide, and you don’t make a sound,” the man added sternly. “You don’t breathe, you don’t move, you don’t come out for any reason, not until they’re gone. No matter what you hear, no matter what you see, come home only if the roads are clear and none of the dogs are barking.”
“They didn’t bark at Jangharat.”
“They never do,” he answered.
XXXIII
Petty men steal all but strife;
Thieves take from the money wheel;
Killers take each family’s life;
What then do your friends steal?
—Sixth Riddle of the Ages
At first, the trail was well used and wide enough that the branches didn’t whip them as they rode. Nori had them stop and stand silently more than once while she listened to the night. Then she led them on again.
Rishte was closer now, out of sight, but near enough for her to feel the grey. He fed her impressions of dew-dank earth, night-chilled leaves, the musk of day creatures sleeping, and the rustle of creatures that warily watched them pass. He was getting used to the sounds of the dnu, and he ventured close enough that twice Nori caught a glimpse of movement off within the trees.
It was well past midnight when she finally led them off the trail and into a stand of pintrees. Decades of needles dropped on the ground made it spongy, and they set out their bedrolls and sleeping bags.
At dawn, they were up again. At midmorning, they watered their dnu at a steep stream that rushed down the hill they had just urged their dnu to climb. While the others rested, Nori rolled her neck and shoulders to ease her tiredness before changing her riding boots for running moccasins.
“Where are you going?” Hunter looked at her suspiciously.
“Up there.” She gestured with her chin at a ridge. “We need to know how far they are behind us.”
“Not far enough.” Kettre dropped to the ground, staggered a bit, and grimaced. “Are you taking Payne?”
Nori shook her head. “He and Uncle Wakje are the only other scouts among us. He’ll have to stay here with you.”
Hunter nodded. “Then I’ll go up with you.”
“I don’t think so,” she returned flatly, and hid a smile at his look of surprise. “You’re next best on the trail. If something happens to Uncle Wakje or Payne, you’ll be needed here. I’ll take Fentris or Kettre.”
He tried not to be pleased at the offhand compliment.
“I’ll go,” Fentris offered.
Kettre barely glanced at the other Tamrani. “I’ll go. Best to keep the cityfolk together.”
“Toss for it,” Nori said flatly. She turned to Hunter. “Do you have a coin?”
Kettre murmured, “Does a poolah pee in the woods?”
Fentris coughed, and Payne hid a grin. “He is a Tamrani,” he told her.
Nori rolled her eyes, but took the silver from Hunter and then glanced the silent question at Fentris.
“Heads,” he affirmed. The coin flicked up, glinted white in the sun, and fell heads-down on the dirt. “Well piss on a brick and bake it,” he said in turn.
Kettre kept her voice bland. “At least he’s learning something from us.”
The slender man smiled sardonically and turned to loosen the cinch on his saddle, but Nori stopped him. “You can’t rest here.” She glanced at Wakje. “Move on down the trail, maybe half a kay.” The ex-raider nodded, and she closed her eyes to think over the land. She’d wandered here for ninans one summer. Her mother had taken her out with the wolves to teach her about the river. She could still recall the trails, the smell of the dark, wet canyon as they approached it in the morning. The steep cliffs, black water racing and boiling into white froth below . . . She opened her eyes. “The ground will start getting rocky within a kay. The closer you get to the gullies that lead down to the river cliffs, the rockier it will get. You’ll have to cut across some of the ledges. Kettre and I will meet you near the top of the gullies when we cut back down from the ridge.”
Hunter frowned. “This is rough country to bushwhack.”
Kettre tugged on her running boots. “We only have to bushwhack if Nori can’t find the trail.”
He glanced at Nori. “And can you find the trail?”
She shrugged. “I’ve been here before, back in ’34, I think. It was the year the Phye flooded at the ten meter level. Dankton was completely under.”
“ ’Thirty-four?” Fentris raised one elegant eyebrow. “What were you, twelve?”
She frowned, counting back. “Aye, about that.”
He couldn’t hide his disbelief. “You remember trails from when you were t
welve?”
Payne snorted. “She remembers every blade of grass, every print and every pebble on every trail she’s ever run. Don’t ever bet on her sense of place or direction. You’ll lose more than your shirt.” Nori scowled at her brother, and Payne added to Fentris as he took the reins of her dnu, “I bet you remember every copper you spent at the same age.”
The Tamrani exchanged a glance. He had a point.
“I know I’m showing my city ignorance again,” Fentris said dryly, “but if we need to rest the dnu, why can’t we do that here? It’s shaded; there’s water and grass. Plenty of space for the dnu.”
Payne merely nodded to Nori. She sighed. “Do you hear that tree sprit?”
The slim man cocked his head. “No.”
“Or that pair of stingers?”
“What stingers?”
She gave him a lopsided smile. “You wouldn’t hear the Harumen, either. Not till they were upon you. Water deafens your ears, but bounces sound so that others farther away can hear you.” She turned to Kettre. “Ready?” The other woman had changed her boots also, but made to remount until Nori shook her head. “Belt packs, on foot,” she told her friend. “This side of the ridge is too much of a scramble for dnu.”
“By the second hell, Nori. If I’d known that, I would have lost the toss.”
She slung her own belt pack on. “If your pride wouldn’t stop you, you could still give in to the Tamrani.”
“I’ll think about it, when laceflowers grow in the seventh hell.”
The wolfwalker grinned.
It took the two women half an hour to jog-walk to the base of the ridge. They didn’t speak. Kettre had learned scout signals from Nori when they were young enough to have thought of it as a game. It was one of the reasons she’d been invited to ride on the city venges when they hunted raiders outside the outskirts. Kettre snorted to herself. In the city, Kettre was considered a sharp-eyed scout. Compared to Payne, she was barely adequate. Next to Nori, she might as well be blind and deaf and half crippled on one side.
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