by Jo Clayton
“Yah. That’s why Hars went cross the river. Too many folks about, he said. Made him itchy.” Teras shook his head. “It was a lot different last time we came along here. Three days—no, four now. Can you believe how much has happened?”
Tuli moved her shoulders, grimaced. “I got reason to believe.”
Hars sat with his back against the thick, gullied bark of an ancient brellim watching the water swirl past his feet. Six macai stood ground-hitched in the shadow of the brellim grove, edgy and unhappy but not fighting the training that held them where he left them. Five were saddled and the sixth carried a high rounded pack whose contents were discreetly tucked beneath a folded tarp. Lost in thick shadow and behind a lacy fall of leaves, he could see unseen whoever passed across the bridge. He called the twins to him with the kanka whistle and didn’t seem much surprised that only Tuli came with Teras.
Tuli hung back as Teras brushed past the macain and hurried to Hars. “Mama and Sani aren’t coming.”
“Smarter’n most, your ma.” He got quickly and neatly to his feet, surprising Tuli who’d thought him a creaky old man. His hair was white, had been white as long as she could remember. He was bent and gnarled, tough as a centuries-old olive tree, sometimes looked to be older than the earth. In the moonlight this night he seemed different. More alive, maybe? Younger? Tuli didn’t know what exactly, but it rather pleased her. She had a sense that like her he belonged to the night. He smiled at her suddenly, a wide, knowing smile that told her he knew what she was thinking and feeling. Another time, another place, another person, her anger would have flared at this, now (and she didn’t know why) it was a blessing, a Maiden smile riding oddly on his worn face. The look was gone in a blink and he was tugging at his ear, his narrowed eyes on the spare macai. “Best come for your Mum and sis later when there’s a place ready for them.” He clipped lead ropes to the halters of the two extra mounts and tied their reins up so they wouldn’t trip on them. “Ras-lad, tell your Da to think on the vale where we sat out a rain once.”
“Huh?”
“Your Da ’ull know.”
“You’re not coming with us?”
“Would’ve if the Tarma’d come.” He tied the lead ropes to a ring on his saddle. “Different now.” His short, strong fingers made quick work of the buckles on his left-side saddlebag. He flipped the top back and pulled out a knobby black bundle. “Your sis, she cleared out the house for the tilun. This for you, night runner.” He smiled at Tuli again, that quick, flashing smile that erased half a century from his face. “No way you can ride in that mess.” A thumb jerked at the skimpy long skirt blowing against her legs. “Be sores on your butt before you make a mile.”
Tuli caught the bundle, laughed with delight as she recognized the pair of trousers wrapped round the outside. “Thanks.”
“Be careful how you unroll that. Your sling’s in there and a hunting knife besides. Now, get yourself round behind that bush ’nd change while I finish with this ’un here.” He nodded at Teras.
Tuli clutched the bundle against her breasts and went hastily behind the indicated bush. Though she couldn’t see them any longer, she listened intently to what Hars was telling her brother while she began unbuttoning her blouse.
“Here’s for you, Ras. Sling and knife. Your own. Got it from your room. Your things’re still there, though, since you run off, I expect they’ll outlaw you like they did your Da and call young Dris Gradin-heir. Calm down, lad. Most things get worse before they get better. You rather be back in that cell? Thought not. Listen. Your Da, he’s a careful man. He shook me awake the night he left and give me this.”
“Gold.”
“Yah. Here.” Tuli heard a series of dull clinks. She stepped out of the skirt and started pulling on the trousers.
“I’ll be keeping half, being a careful man myself. You share that out with your sister and keep it hid. Lot of folk been shoved off the land and looking starvation in the ribs. Good enough people, but not so strong against temptation as they might be. Here, you keep this where you can get at it.” More clinking noises. She fumbled at the laces on the trousers then called herself to order, pulled the cords tight and knotted them. “You need something, you pay with that silver there. But don’t go flashing that about neither, you hear?” Tuli clamped her teeth together against the pain of lifting her arms over her head and pulling the tunic down over her aching back. The cloth was soft and supple and she blessed Hars fervently as she realized he’d found her a larger tunic somewhere. The shoulders were too wide and the sleeves hung six inches over her fingertips but the fullness in the front hid the shallow swell of her breasts and the fullness in the back fell comfortably across her welts. She rolled up the sleeves until her hands showed, buckled the sheath belt about her waist. It slid low on her hips though she’d used the last hole. She fingered the leather thoughtfully, glanced up at the moons. TheDom’s broad white face floated overhead, the three smaller Dancers close to passing him. Late, she thought. She gathered up the discarded skirt and blouse and came rather hesitantly around the bush.
Hars was in the saddle. He looked her over, nodded. “You make a good enough boy. In the dark anyway. There’s a couple jackets tied on the saddles. Better wear one come day. Don’t care how hot it get, you got a kinda slimpsy look might make some types start crowding you. Bread and cheese and some dried fruit in the saddlebags. Keep to yourselves. Don’t chat with everyone comes along.” He chuckled at Tuli’s indignant glare. “Tain’t a game, moth.”
“I know that.”
He looked suddenly bleak. “You think so but you won’t know that till you have to kill a man.” He straightened, raised a hand. “Be seeing you, twins. One of these days.”
Tuli dropped everything and ran to him, feeling suddenly bereft. She put her hand on his knee. “Maiden bless you, Hars friend.”
He touched her head, smiled down at her. With no more words, not even a wave, he rode into the shadows under the trees, the three reined macain following in unprotesting silence.
“What are you going to do with these?” Teras held up the skirt and blouse.
Tuli turned slowly, frowned at them, then grinned. “Dump them in the river. Let the Yastria make what she wants of that.”
Teras walked to the edge of the water, wadded the clothing into a tight ball and tossed it out as far as he could. The ball unfolded as it flew, fluttering like dark wings over the river. It landed with a very small splat and went sweeping off, riding the water like discarded leaves from a shedding tree. He stood gazing at the black bulk of the watchtower for some minutes then came back to her. “No alarm yet.”
“Still, we better get going.”
“Yah. You need help?”
Tuli nodded. “A boost. My arms don’t work so good right now.”
By dawn Tuli was clinging to the saddle ledge, staying in the saddle by will alone. She followed Teras along the Highroad, drifting in a painworld, the skin inside her thighs rubbed raw in spite of the protection of the trousers. She’d never ridden so long before. In most of their night rambles, she and Teras had kept inside Gradintar hedges. She’d gone with the other Gradins to Oras when they made the pilgrimage to the Temple to celebrate the Moongather, but they’d all walked and taken the miles slow and easy.
A hand closed about her arm, supporting her. Gradually she understood that her mount was standing still. She forced her eyes open. Teras was leaning anxiously toward her. He doesn’t look tired at all, she thought resentfully. “Tuli?” she watched his mouth open and close. The word seemed to come from a great distance through waves and waves of water. She blinked. “Tuli, you all right?”
She thought over the words, then nodded carefully. The world swayed around her. The hand closed around her arm was all that kept her from sinking in slow circles to the ground somewhere beneath her. “Tired,” she croaked. “’S all.”
“We’re gonna stop awhile. Hang on.” Teras eased the reins from under her stiff fingers and led her down a slope. Slope? she
thought. The Highroad was flat, no up no down. Flat. Flat. Flat. The shift of her weight broke open some of the scabs on her sores. The pain shocked her out of her haze of exhaustion. She shifted her hands on the ledge and straightened her back. A dark line of trees loomed ahead of her, blocking all but the tip of the dawning sun. We rode all night, she thought and felt a vague wonder.
When Teras slid off his mount she looked down at the dew-beaded grass and knew she couldn’t dismount, not without help. She eased her grip on the ledge and shifted about in the saddle, every muscle protesting. The macai dropped his head and began tearing avidly at clumps of grass by his feet. She watched Teras. He was bending his knees, kicking his feet out, stretching and twisting his upper body. He’s stronger than me now, she thought. A lot. She turned away, not wanting to admit to herself that she could no longer keep up with him, let alone dominate him as she had when they were younger. He came briskly over to her. “Stiff?”
“Help me down.” The edge of annoyance in her voice brought a flush of shame to her face after the words were said. She wanted to apologize to him, was angry at him, was angry at herself for being such a weakly creature; she refused to be weak and helpless and submissive, and it wasn’t Teras’s fault she was so torn up—why was she blaming him. “Please, Teras?”
If he took any notice of her snappishness, he laid it to her weariness and ignored it. He took her hands and helped her ease off the macai. When her feet touched the ground, her knees buckled and she fell against him. He lowered her gently to the grass.
She shivered as cold struck up through the cloth of her trousers and pierced the sores on buttocks and thighs. He knelt beside her and began massaging her calves, working ankle and knee until the feeling came back into her legs. She opened and closed her hands, rubbed at her arms once he stopped working on her legs. He settled back on his heels. “Better?”
“Some.”
“Hungry?”
“Too tired. I couldn’t swallow.”
He nodded, got to his feet and went to his mount. A moment later he was back with a waterskin. “Here,” he said. He knelt again and handed the skin to her, then sat on his heels, waiting with a finger-tapping patience for her to finish with it. As she drank and drank, his eyes moved restlessly about the clearing, squinting against the strengthening light that gave a reddish glow to the shadows under the trees.
Tuli sighed, lowered the skin and shoved the carved wooden plug home in the protruding mouthpiece. “Much better.”
“Think you could get some sleep?”
“Here?”
“Why not?’ Folks on the Highroad can’t see us. I’m going to look around a bit, then catch some sleep myself.”
“Teras, what about Da? And the guards—won’t they be looking for us?”
“Tutu, the macain have to rest and eat. We got no grain for keeping them going without grazing and if we ride them off their feet, Da ’ud skin us and Hars ’ud think I was dumber than Dris if I couldn’t take care of my beasts. So you might as well sleep. The guards.…” He shrugged. “If they come, then they come.”
She watched him walk off, disappearing behind a clump of brush, then tried to stand. She was shaky all over and cold to the bone. After falling back twice, she managed to get onto numb feet and hobbled painfully into the middle of the small clearing where the sun was touching the grass. She settled in a patch of warmth, curled up and closed her eyes. For a time her sores itched and burned, plaguing her too continually to let her relax. When the sun warmed some of the soreness away, she slept.
Teras shook her awake. She groaned as she tried to move. Her sores were like knives biting into her flesh. He helped her sit up, inadvertently putting pressure on the healing welts from her flogging. When she gasped with pain, he jerked his hands away, then had to catch her arm to keep her from falling over. “Maiden’s toes, Tuli. I’m sorry.” He held her up while she croaked a laugh, wiggled her feet up and down, straightened and clenched her toes. She tried to swallow and found that her throat was painfully dry. “Water?” she whispered.
While he brought her the waterskin she massaged the back of her neck and eyed the sun, trying to estimate how much time had passed while she was asleep. The sun was past zenith, the tree shadows moving toward her from the west now, not quite long enough to reach the center of the small clearing. About mid-afternoon, she thought. She drank. The water was warm and a little stale but it was nectar to her scratchy throat and swollen tongue. “Did you sleep any?”
“Some.” As if her words reminded him, he yawned and his eyelids drooped. He jerked his head up, jumped to his feet, reached his hand down to help her up. “We better get going.”
They rode at an easy lope along the thick, black, rubbery surface of the Highroad, the road straight as a knife slash and empty of all traffic to the southern horizon, equally empty ahead as far as Tuli could see. She felt horribly conspicuous on the high embankment that raised them near to treetop level, yet it was rather comforting to know there was no one about to challenge her disguise or ask difficult questions about two young people traveling without adults.
When the shadows of sundown were swallowing them and the western sky layered with red and gold, Teras gave a muttered exclamation and pulled his mount to a stop. Tuli looked at him, a question in her eyes. “I thought you wanted to keep going.” She frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“Boom,” he murmured as he searched the sky and the road ahead.
“Gong?”
“Loud and loud. Look!” He pointed at the sky close to the northern horizon.
She followed his finger and saw two dark specks drifting in lazy circles above the treetops some distance ahead. “So?”
“So Hars. Those, they aren’t passare, Tuli. Demons, that’s what they are. Traxim. Look how big they are, all that way alay and we can still see ’em.” His hands closed tight on the ledge in front of him, he leaned forward and peered intently at the black specks. “They look to be watching something.”
“For us maybe?”
Teras dropped back in the saddle and kneed his mount to a fast walk. Tuli kept her macai to a trot until she was beside him again, though her tired beast complained with low hoots and a whine or two. “Hars?”
“When we got to talking, remember I told you, after Nilis met the Agli, anyway we got to talking about this ’nd that ’nd he told me about the tilun, you know, ’nd after that he sat fiddling with a bit of leather, you know how he does, ’nd after a while he started talking about when he was a kid ’bout big as me.”
Tuli glared at him. “And you didn’t tell me!”
“Maiden’s toes, Tuli, what happened at the tilun scared all that right outta my head.”
“So how come it’s back now?”
“Them. Demons. Eyes and spies for the Nearga-Nor. Hars said he smelled Nearga-Nor mixing in where they shouldn’t. Said he knew them better’n anyone should have to. Said when he was a kid in Sankoy, he got snatched away from his family by one of the High Nor because he had some kinda talent or other, didn’t say much about that. Well, he didn’t say nothing about that. Anyway, that Nor started teaching him things ’nd that wasn’t so bad though he missed his family a lot and the Nor was meaner than a limping fayar. And he kinda like the idea of being a Nor and doing the things his master could, kinda liked the idea that he’d come back and do some awful things to the Nor to pay him back for the way he treated him. But there was this initiation thing he’d have to go through and he wasn’t trusting the Nor much so he sorta snooped around. No one would talk to him but there was this other boy who was a couple years older who’d been initiated already and was getting along good with the Nor and he happened to see him naked one day and so he found out one thing they were going to do to him.” He flushed a dark red and scratched uneasily at his upper lip, then along the line of his jaw, then tugged at the collar of his tunic.
“Teras!” Tuli felt like reaching out and shaking him but she didn’t. “Don’t be like Nilis,” she said sharply.
“Well, you’re a girl.”
“Well, I’m going to snatch you bald in another half-second if you don’t get on with it.”
“If you must know, they were going to geld him. You know what that means?” He wouldn’t look at her.
“I watched Da and Hars when they did that to the rogue macai last year. Mama explained.” She stared at him. “You mean the Agli and all them are …?”
“Uh-huh. Anyway, while he was with the Nor he found out all about the traxim. Told me what they look like. Big black devils with leathery wings. Wingspread wider than I am tall. Stink worse than downwind of an oadat coop. Sometimes the Nor put poison on their talons, when they’re not just being spy-eyes.”
“Teras, is Hars …?”
“No!” Teras exploded. “Course not, Tuli. He ran off before they could. And if you ever tell him I told you.…”
“As if I would.” She frowned at the specks which were beginning to merge with the increasing darkness of the sky. “You think they could be watching Da?”
“Uh-uh, not unless he started back to the Tar for some reason. He’s been on the road near five days now, should be over halfway to Oras, even riding slow.”
“They’re watching something. And if we get too close, they’ll see us sure and if the Agli’s the one using their eyes, he’ll know where we are and where to send his guards, and if they’ve got poison on their claws like you said maybe he’ll make them attack us. He’d be rid of us with no one knowing.” She touched dry lips with the tip of her tongue. “Can they see in the dark? If they can’t we could sneak past once it’s full dark.”
“Don’t know. Hars didn’t say.” Teras glanced at the sky where the last bit of sun had eased behind the Earth’s Teeth and the colors were slowly fading. “Let’s keep going a while and see if we can think up something real nasty for them.”
“Maybe they’ll go away or find a perch for the night.”
