The Luck Of The Wheels Read online

  'Damn kid. Stupid. Just plain stupid.' Vandien slowed to a walk. His muttering was attracting the stares of passersby; 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 drink 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 checks 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?'

  'Yes.' A more serious look came over his face. 'I think that's what upset me the most. Not a boy and girl in the straw, but the deception he used to get her there. The lack of honor.'

  'Honor is so important?'

  His dark eyes pinned hers. 'Yes. A man's honor is what he is.'

  Neither spoke for a long time. Ki sat up, arranged the quilts and Vandien's arm more to her liking, and settled into them again, pillowing her head on his shoulder and upper chest. She spoke softly. 'I like the sound of your heart beating.'

  'Me, too. I'd be very annoyed if it stopped. Ki, what do you believe about Goat?'

  She sighed, and he knew she didn't want to talk about it. But she would. 'Everything, and nothing,' she said. 'Yesterday, and this morning, he was like a different boy. Helpful, kind. But this afternoon ...' She paused, took a breath. 'I suppose I believe that we should be careful. Knowing that he might be capable of such a thing negates it, doesn't it? It's kind of like finding out a man's a liar. He doesn't deceive you easily after that. I won't be swayed by anything I dream.'

  'But you aren't going to give up sleeping?' Vandien filled in.

  'Oh, I'll sleep, all right.' Ki lifted her head, slowly scanned the camp. Willow was a motionless huddle under the wagon, and the door of the cuddy was shut as tight as Goat could slam it. She ducked her head and brushed her lips down Vandien's face to his ear. 'I'll sleep if there's nothing better to do.'

  'Um.' He settled more comfortably. 'You're warm. Feels good on my ribs. Well. So, what are we going to do after we drop Goat in Villena?'

  She lifted her mouth from his neck. 'If you're too tired, just say so.'

  'I'm not too tired. I just enjoy being persuaded. And it brought to mind what I heard in town today. About a week from now, there's going to be a festival in Tekum. The Duke will be there, with all his retainers, and there will be jugglers and street musicians and wrestling on the village green ...'

  'And so?' Ki asked, loosening the lacing of his shirt.

  'And so I thought we might want to stay and enjoy it.'

  'Not a good idea,' Ki said decisively. 'Does this tickle?'

  'Not exactly, but it's nice. Why not the festival?'

  Ki paused to answer him. 'Timing's all wrong. We should be nearly to Villena by then. Because the Duke will be there, and if the Duke will be there, then his Brurjans will be there, and if the Brurjans are there, then we don't want to be there.'

  'But we'd be part of a crowd, hardly noticeable in the throng. There'd be a lot to see and do, and maybe we could pick up some freighting that will take us out of Loveran. Even if we don't, the man who issued our papers today said that Tekum boasts a number of good swordsmen, and that the Duke always offers a purse for the ... hey! Be careful of my ribs, will you?'

  'I hate this damn belt buckle. Next town we come to, I'm buying you a different one.'

  'It works fine if one doesn't get in a rush about it, Ki.' His hands moved lazily to her assitance. 'But you could buy me a new one at the Duke's festival in Tekum if you want. Staying for it would delay us a few days at most.'

  'Delays are one thing that I have no tolerance for,' Ki said pointedly.

  'And you say I'm impatient and impulsive.' He sighed theatrically as he reached for her.

  Ki awoke to darkness. Vandien's elbow was in her ribs; sleepily she shifted away from it and resettled herself in the quilts. Then she heard again the sound that had wakened her. Willow drew another shuddering breath, sniffed again. For long moments Ki listened to her weeping, trying to imagine what could be wrong with her. At last she rose and went to her. The dry earth was warm beneath her bare feet. She crouched by the wagon, gripping a spoke of one of the wagon's wheels. 'Willow?' she whispered gently.

  The prone figure of the girl twitched. She buried her face deeper into her crossed arms. 'Go away,' she said in a small, muffled voice.

  'All right, if that's what you want.' Ki knew that some kinds of grief did not bear sharing. But others did. 'I'll go away, Willow. But if you change your mind and want to talk to someone, or just have someone sit up with you, let me know. I'm not hard to wake.'

  Willow took in a gasping breath and suddenly lifted her face to stare at Ki. In the deep shadows under the wagon, her eyes were two smudges in her pale face. 'That's wonderful.' She spat out the words. 'Now you'd like to listen to me. Now, when it's too late! Well, there's nothing to tell you, Ki. Nothing's left. Unless you want to hear about a bad dream I had. Unless you want to share my nightmare with me!' The last she all but shrieked at Ki. Ki stood and backed stiff-legged from the wagon, repulsed not so much by Willow's words, but by the low chuckle that echoed them; a laugh she would swear came from within her wagon.

  She sensed Vandien's wakefulness even before she touched him. She snugged her body against his, belly to back, feeling chilled despite the warmth of the night, and shrugged the covers up.

  'What happened?' he asked softly.

  'I don't know. I heard Willow crying and went to see what was wrong. She said ...'

  'I heard. Goat?'

  'I think so. I think he got into her dreams somehow and gave her a nightmare.'

  'Or maybe she just had a nightmare about him.'

  'I hope so,' Ki muttered against his neck. 'But somehow I don't think so.'

  Morning came muted in grey. The bright blue skies that had shimmered over them for days were suddenly robed with clouds. The air was muggy, the team restless in the charged atmosphere. Rain, Ki thought to herself, and thunder. She breathed deeply of the heavy air but it didn't satisfy her lungs. She rolled from the blankets and staggered upright.

  Vandien sat cross-legged by a tiny fire, a mug of tea balanced on one knee. He raised his brows at her as she rubbed her face. 'Why didn't you wake me?' she demanded.

  'I thought we could all use a little extra rest.'

  She drew water from the cask on the wagon and slos
hed it over her face. She ducked to peer under the wagon. 'Where's Willow?' she asked, turning to accept a mug of tea from him.

  'Sleeping ...' His voice faded as he stooped to poke at her empty blankets. The eyes he raised to Ki were anxious. 'She's gone,' he said needlessly.

  'How long?' Ki wondered, 'and where to?'

  He shrugged. 'I've been up about an hour. I thought she was still sleeping.'

  'Goat!' They said the word simultaneously, but it was Ki who dragged the wagon door open. The boy was there, lying on his back with one arm flung out. A foolish smile was on his swollen face. As the light touched his eyes, they opened. He turned his head to squint at them. The smile faded.

  'Oh. Good morning.' There was heavy sarcasm in his voice. Ki ignored it.

  'Do you know anything about Willow?' she asked anxiously.

  The fatuous smile returned. 'Oh, yes,' he replied leisurely. 'I know lots about Willow. More than she knows herself,' he added, a giggle in his voice.

  'Where's she gone?' Vandien demanded impatiently. 'There's bound to be patrols along this stretch of road, and if she's spotted alone, with no papers ...'

  'Gone?' The word came out of Goat as if it were a rock he'd discovered in his mouth. 'Willow's gone?'

  'Yes,' Ki told him angrily. 'And if you know where, you'd better say now.'

  'She can't be gone.' Goat sat up, frowned, then winced and put his hand to his jaw. 'My face hurts still, you pile of sheep dung,' he told Vandien angrily. In the next breath he muttered, 'She wouldn't dare be gone. She can't be gone.' He glared at them as if he suspected a trick. 'She's probably off peeing in the bushes.'

  'Sure she is. Since dawn,' Vandien agreed sarcastically. He turned to Ki. 'Now what do we do?'

  She shrugged. 'We can wait for her to come back. But we aren't sure that she'll do that. Or we can look for her. Damn. I should have stayed with her last night, made her tell me what she was crying about.'

  'I should have tried to talk to her,' Vandien added guiltily. 'But I was just so tired.'