Chapter 37
Jeffrey: “where shall the word Resound?”
Once outside the building he pushed the walking horse into a trot, letting it warm up its leg muscles before he urged it faster. Posting to the trot, the learned action of moving with the horse's back to minimize the jolting to both of them, was easy at this speed, as the horse smote the pavement first with front left and rear right hooves, then the opposite pair, making a clop clop sound with the two-beat gait.
After a few blocks of this, though, he began to worry about pursuit and urged the animal into a canter. The clop-clop-clop clop-clop-clop of the three beat canter was reassuringly faster, although he knew the animal could not maintain the greater exertion for long.
By now he had swung onto the south-bound lanes of the old Highway 25. There had been no time to discuss routes with Brutus before the scouts left, and in any event it would have been unwise to do so in front of the wizard. Now that he was on the road, he wondered if he was doing the right thing. Should he have remained in Rado?
Somehow the wizard had guessed his identity. That knowledge might have saved him from execution. But then, the price of his life would have been testifying against Brutus and his fellow Texans, and allowing Rado to extract a ransom for him from the Honcho.
There was no way he could justify to himself what Brutus had overseen at the border farm. He knew that. But to return home with his father knowing he had gotten himself captured and had informed on his comrades, that was also hard to stomach. Bad enough that his father thought him weak and useless without adding the word 'traitor' to the mix.
But what sort of person keeps the secrets of murderers and rapists?
No. He should report the commander's actions to his superior, the Honcho, and give his father the chance to do the right thing and make an example of the scum. But that would only be possible if he could get back before them. If Brutus reached Texas first, he would make his report, in all likelihood saying that his men had been fired upon and found it necessary to make an example of the farmer. The wife and daughter would not be mentioned.
He urged the horse into a full gallop, leaning forward as it shifted into the four-beat gait. Too much of this would exhaust the beast, perhaps even lame it, but he had to get ahead of them as soon as possible.
If he saw them, and rode past without slowing, would Brutus fire on him? No horse can outrun a crossbow. But if I slow down, one of his men could grab the reins and then there's no beating them back to Texas.
Presently he was out of the city. He let the horse slow back down to a trot and began to look for side roads. He couldn't stay on the highway, much as he would like to. The paving materials used for the main roads of the Ancients had stood up well against the crumbling onslaught of time, but the best route south was also the most obvious one for pursuit to take.
Surely Brutus and the other men had not kept to Highway 25. If he stayed on it he could make better time and arrive before them. But he would be safer off the main road.
He saw a stand of trees ahead on the left. Slowing the horse to a walk, he guided it off the road and behind the trees, out of sight of the highway.
While the horse rested, he tried to think. If only he could send a message to Dallas before Brutus beat him there. He didn't have to actually get there first in person, if his report did. From what he'd read of the Ancients, they'd had a communication system that circled the planet. Now all we have is smoke and mirrors...
Wait! He had forgotten about the Bangers! Fool! He'd been so bent on getting away, he'd forgotten that he should be running to something. If he remembered right, the nearest access point was less than fifty miles from Denver. And of course that was where Brutus and the others must be headed at this very minute. They had a few minutes head start on him, but unless the secret had been compromised, they wouldn't expect the Rado forces to be looking for them there. With any luck, the Governor's men would be heading due south just as he had been. And Brutus would know that, so he wouldn't be driving his horses as hard as he could be. He'd be saving their strength for the journey home.
And that meant Jeffrey had a chance of beating him to the access point.
As he realized this, he heard a deep humming sound. It was hard to localize, seeming to come from all around him. It seemed familiar.
Pathspace Page 37
