The sergeant, an old friend of Kit's, tipped his hat to Tunia. "I'm sorry we bothered you, miss," he said. He turned his pony around. "Come on boys, this spot's taken. I guess we'll have to use the canyon to the south of the pass."
Some five minutes later, ten more ponies came rushing in to the canyon with Chan and Helvon riding the flanks and Kit on Flash driving them from behind.
Chan reigned Fire in beside the young girl. "You have had company," It was a statement, not a question. "Four riders from the crater."
"Did you see them?" Tunia asked.
"I saw their tracks," was the answer. "Who were they? Did they give you any trouble?"
"I think they were off duty Guardsmen," she answered, "judging by the weapons and parts of uniforms that they wore. When I told them who we were, they decided to use the canyon to the south to collect strays in." She grinned and lifted Suron's old crossbow. "It didn't hurt that Kit's crossbow was loaded and pointed at them, either."
Chan grinned at her. "You remind me of the Eagle Rider, Nina. She, too, was a woman with the courage of a warrior. Are all crater women like that?"
"No," the girl admitted, "but most Eagle Riders are."
Chan started in surprise. "You were an Eagle Rider?"
"Years ago in a far off crater. My eagle died of a rare disease. I couldn't stand the thought of staying around the crater where we had flown together so I joined a Gypsy band 'til Silar's warriors caught up with us between craters. I come from three generations of Eagle Riders."
Later, whenever Tunia saw Chan looking at her, which was often, she noted that it seemed to be a glance filled with interest and touched with respect. It never failed to fill her with desire. She realized, to her chagrin, she was falling in love with the big nomad.
That evening, three of the four partners drove nearly a hundred ponies through the pass and into the crater. Kit had flown ahead to arrange for the use of a large field not far from the orchard. Their field was already far too crowded.
When the four of them finally rode into Jaron's farmyard an hour after dark, they were greeted by the good farmer's cook, Deena. She strode out in front of them with an apron on, a long, wooden spoon in her hand, a wide grin on her face and a twinkle in her eye.
"Helvon," she sang out, "Kit said you would be along soon. I knew you'd be hungry after working all day so I fixed you something special. Come in and eat it while it's hot. I'll have a hired hand care for your ponies."
As they filed through the front door, Kit turned to the old hunter with a whisper. "I think Deena is getting sweet on you. Now, don't you go marrying her and taking her away from grandfather. I don't think he could find anybody else who can bake a peach cobbler like she can."
"She's a sweet old mare," commented Helvon, "an' I likes her vittles but don't ya worry ya none. I ain't th' marryin' kind. Jest never could cotton ta settlin' in one place too long an' th' wimmin, all they wants is s'curity."
"Well, Deena is the marrying kind," Kit teased. "She's had three husbands already. You better watch out. I think she's picked you as her next victim. If she ever gets ahold of you, she'll pen you in and fatten you up like a steer headed for the slaughtering pens."
The old hunter squirmed at the imagery. When he had begun this latest dalliance, he had not expected things to get serious so quickly. "Why'd Kit have ta be so ad'mant 'bout stayin' 'round Washin'ton," he thought, "'specially in allus stayin' here at Jaron's house? Th' temptations 'round here'r jest a mite too great fer an ol', wanderin' he bull like me. Wonder jest how long a body c'n get 'way with drinkin' the cream afore he's forced ta buy th' cow?"
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
The morning sun was peeking over the western rim of the crater as the four partners sat at the table for their breakfast. Deena was fussing over them like a mother hen, a glow from the previous evening's activities still on her cheeks. Helvon looked up at her with a grin.
"Thet's 'nuff coffee, darlin'." He turned his attention to the question Kit had asked. "Don't know if'n we should go after more. We got ta recon with th' law o' supply 'n demand. How many more ponies ya recon's out thar, Kit, 'n how long ya 'spect us ta take ta get 'em?"
The lad paused while he considered the question a minute. "They're pretty scattered out," he said. "It might take a couple more days to gather another fifty head and I'd say that would be most of them."
"Shore is nice ta have a Eagle Rider fer a partner," the hunter drawled. "Now, if'n it'd take us a couple a days, them Guardsmen'll take a week th' way they has ta work. I figger by th' time they gets 'em in, we should have all our'n sold at th' highest prices. Th' price's sure ta go down mighty quick oncet all them ponies gets on th' market. We gots ta get th' good prices while they's bein' offered, don't ya see?"
"I get it," chortled Kit. "We'll get to the horse traders with them before they find out we don't have all of them and sell off the best of what we have at higher prices."
"I figgers we'll get a good price fer 'bout half th' herd an' hev ta take half price fer th' weaker ones. We'll still make out like Midas in th' end. Mebbe we'll buy 'nother orchard fer Jaron afore we takes off fer sights unseen."
Kit's expression clouded over. "You're not still thinking of moving on to another crater are you?"
Helvon laughed and slapped the boy's knee. "Jest funnin' ya boy. Yer jest about th' dandiest partners I ever 'sperienced, you an' Chan, but I allus had me a wander lust. Ain't never stayed nowhere too long but I ain't never been this old nor successful afore. I ain't lookin' ta go jest yet but th' day may come thet I'll jest up an' make tracks. If'n it happens, don't ya never mind. It ain't thet I want's ta be rid o' yer comp'ny, I jest never let no moss grow on me, if'n ya know what I mean."
He took a sip of coffee, placed it down on the table and changed the subject again. "Well, we best get them saddles off'n them from yeste'day an' sort th' herd out. We needs ta get 'em ta th' traders by mid mornin'."
The day's work was long but fairly easy after an initial period of hard work. Getting the herd to the horse trader's was the most of it but haggling over prices was something that took a long time. Helvon did most of the trading while his three partners took turns cutting out the ponies and bringing them forward for inspection.
They took their lunch in one of the local taverns and were treated to a round of drinks by a large group of Guardsmen who were there still celebrating their victory over Silar the Great's warriors. The only sour note happened when a couple of older Eagle Riders entered the room in their distinctive, white and brown uniforms. They headed toward a table just past the one occupied by the hunters when one of them stopped the other, pointed toward Kit and whispered something to his companion. The duo then promptly turned on their heels and left the room in a huff. The incident had put Kit into a blue funk.
"Now, what's got inta them fellers?" asked the old hunter. "They's not bein' a'tall sociable."
Kit looked down at his clenched hands on the table. "I had to visit the Aerie with Flash in order to warn them about the nomads the other day. Master Falconer Daron thinks that I started trying to steal Flash from Heron before he died. I guess those two think so too."
"I guess your dreams of joining the Aerie have become hopeless," commented Chan. "What will you do now?"
"I'd like to learn to use a safety wing somewhere," answered the boy. "I've been thinking about asking Master Aferon at McAllister to let me into his school. Then I guess I'll work with you guys as long as you stick around here. I want to stay here as long as my grandfather is alive. When he's gone, I guess I could go just about anywhere and it wouldn't really matter much to me or anybody else around here."
As the afternoon wore on, Helvon's three partners had plenty of opportunity to talk among themselves. Tunia had talked a lot about her life as an Eagle Rider and her later wanderings with the Gypsies.
"The life of a Gypsy is a really rich one," she said. "Since I began roving with them, I have never visited one crater for longer than a few weeks at a time but I've been
to all twelve at one time or another. The central ones, like Washington and McAllister, I've been in several times. But it's the travel between craters that is the most exciting. The terrain is so varied and beautiful everywhere."
"Even over the plains?" Kit had grown up in the mountains and could not fathom anything beautiful about endless grasslands.
"Yes, even in the plains areas. The ground isn't all flat and there are many hidden streams and small groves of trees but what I like most is the sunsets..."
"They are beautiful," stated Chan. "I'm so glad that you know how to appreciate them but have you ever been to the area to the north of here?"
"Not too far north," she answered. "All of the crater communities are along a wide band running more or less east-west along the equator. There are no craters north of here."
"Ah, but there are," said the nomad, "or at least there were at one time and the lands around there are a sight to behold. Only the nomad can truly appreciate the full beauty of this planet. I know of abandoned sites of some twenty different crater communities that existed at some time in the past. They say there were over a hundred at one time but today only twenty eight remain on the whole planet that are inhabited."
"Twenty eight?" exclaimed Kit. "I have always thought that there were only twelve."
"Among the nomads, it is known that twenty eight still exist. Some are stranded at a long distance from any others. They are large and have learned to be completely self-sufficient. Two other confederations exist, one to the north and one in the far south. When I was very young, my tribe visited an area in the north where three allied craters still existed. My mother came from one of them, I was told."
At that moment, Helvon signaled that he needed another pony to dicker over. It was Chan's turn and he silently hurried off to fulfill the request. Tunia turned to Kit in astonishment.
"Does he ever stop throwing out bombs like that?" she asked. "I never know what he's going to tell me next. Did you know his mother was from a crater?"
Kit nodded. "I asked him once how he learned to speak our language so well. That's when he told me his mother was an eighth generation Eagle Rider. She taught him our language and some of our ways. He learned a bit more while he was a prisoner at McAllister for over six months. He's different but he's very nice, especially for a nomad. You like him a lot, don't you?"
"Does it show that much?" she asked.
"You two have been mooning over each other like a couple of idiots," the boy said disgustedly. "I've never seen so much mush since my mother was alive and my father used to spend the afternoons with her. It's disgusting. Can't you do something about it?"
The discussion was held in abeyance while the two of them watched a big bay give Chan a hard time. Tunia stood thinking so hard that Kit expected smoke to come out of her ears at any moment. The big nomad finished delivering the bay and strode back to their position. When he walked up, she turned impulsively to look up into his green eyes.
"Kit says we have been mooning over each other too much already," she said, impishly. "He thinks we should do something about it. What do you think?"
"Mooning?" he asked. "What is mooning?"
"I guess the closest definition would be 'pining for' or 'greatly desiring from a distance.'" said the girl. "I think it's a pretty accurate description of what's happening, at least on my part."
The big nomad's eyes dilated with realization. He looked hard into her eyes with a quizzical expression. She just nodded and his big arms swept around her and lifted her off her feet as he kissed her long and passionately.
Haggling suddenly stopped as first Helvon and then the horse trader he was with spotted what was going on. Tunia's arms snaked around the big man's neck, clinging in the hopes that the kiss would never end. Kit just turned away in disgust.
"Mush," he said. "Me and my big mouth, now it's worse than ever. Can't I ever do anything right?"
In the late afternoon, the four partners rode up to the front of Jaron's farmhouse. Kit rode in the front alongside Helvon. The other two were far to the rear, talking in low voices and hardly taking an eye off of each other. Kit stopped, twisted around in the saddle and looked back at the two of them.
"Are we ever going to get another lick of work out of them?" he complained. "I had to tell her he liked her and after that, I wound up getting every other pony for them."
The old hunter chuckled. "Thet's what young love does ta a body. Hit won't last much longer, I 'spect. Oncet they gets a chance ta sample the wares a mite, some o' th' edge 'll be cut off'n it an' they'll settle back inta their work. Don't worry, lad, it ain't permanent damagin'. Not 'less they d'cides ta settle down some'ers. Thet's no good fer a huntin' operation."
"The whole thing looks and sounds disgusting to me," Kit said.
"I 'spect ya'll feel different when yer a mite older," Helvon chuckled. "All 'pends on yer perspective, I guess. I seen it all an' they's allus a sight o' problems what comes with love but somehow, at th' time, it allus seems ta be wuth it."
By this time, the others were catching up with the leaders and the boy and old man stepped down from their ponies almost in unison. There was a loud jingle as their feet touched the ground. Helvon grinned widely.
"They's allus somethin' cheerin' 'bout th' sound o' gold clinkin'. It sets m' heart ta racin' like th' sight of a purty young woman."
"Now which young woman would that be, I'm asking?" The voice of Deena came as a surprise to the hunters. She was standing just inside the open door to the house wearing her ever present apron and carrying the spoon which Kit thought she surely must sleep with.
Helvon's bushy eyebrows lifted and a grin spread across his face. "Why you, m' love, who else would ya 'spect?"
The woman's eyes lit on the large purse hanging from his belt and twinkled with avarice. "My, My, you did turn a pretty profit this day."
"Wall, if'n a feller cain't profit from his a'ventures ever oncet in a while," the hunter drawled, "then this world wouldn't be much fun a'tall, would it?"
The woman's eyes hadn't left the purse. "That would be more than enough to buy a small farm with a cozy cottage on it, I'm thinking. And it ain't all that you have stashed away, either, is it?"
"Not at all," volunteered the lad. "I'd guess he has at least twice this much in hiding by now. Hunting has been pretty good for us since Chan joined up."
The woman's grin got wider and wider and she stepped forward and snaked an arm through that of the old hunter. "You don't say? Well, you boys and girls must be pretty hungry. Come on in and clean up. I'll have supper on the table in a jiffy."
Helvon looked mighty uncomfortable.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
It was about a week later when Jaron took to the road that climbed to the Aerie. The sorrel mare he was riding was still a little on the wild side but she was coming along. She had been a present from his house guests, selected from the hundred and thirty some odd ponies they had collected before any of them had been sold, and was one of the finest mounts he had ever owned, of the earth bound variety, that is.
It was early afternoon on a fall day and the sun was high in a cloudless sky. As the old man approached the Aerie compound which had been his home for seven years, he saw an Eagle Rider take to the skies. The sight brought back many fond memories of his youth. He was dredging up so many of them lately and it was a comfort to be able to do so without the accompanying feeling of guilt that had plagued him for half of his adult life. Somehow, seeing young Kit happily astride his own eagle had negated the effect that his son's death had had upon him for so many years.
He rode through the open gates of the Aerie, approached the Falconer's Residence, dismounted and tied the pony's reins to the hitching rail there. His knock brought the Falconer's charming wife to the door. A range of emotions ran quickly over her face as she saw him. It moved from surprise to curiosity to slight anxiety which changed abruptly to feigned delight.
"Jaron," she exclaimed, "what brings you to us on this fine afte
rnoon?"
"I have decided," He said, "that it is time for us adults to discuss matters important to a certain young person who is dear to me and once was to you. Is Master Daron in this afternoon?"
The woman looked slightly flustered. "He is in the living room. We are entertaining a guest, someone from another crater. Is it necess..."
"I have come to reason," He interrupted, "not to argue. I will not cause a scene as long as the Falconer is civil, as well he should be to an old veteran of this establishment. I know my rights as an ex-Eagle Rider and those include the ready ear and respect of the current Master."
She turned and led the way back into the Residence. "Of course, I understand. Please excuse me for my thoughtlessness."
When they entered the room, Jaron saw the Master Falconer talking to a young man of about sixteen or seventeen. He was tall and slight with golden blond hair. Conversation stopped as Daron and his guest turned to greet the new arrival. The Falconer's attitude was guarded and slightly cold.
"Ex-Rider Jaron Washington," he said formally, "this is Apprentice Falconer Ganton McAllister. He is here to discuss the next class at the Aerie there. What can I do for you, Jaron?"
The old man was still grasping the arm of the young hero of the McAllister invasion attempt. "I am glad to meet you, Ganton. If Master Daron will not listen to reason, perhaps I could speak to you later?" He released his grip and turned to the Master Falconer.
"I have come to speak in behalf of my grandson, Kittron, as, I suspect, you have already surmised. The last time we spoke, you tried to convince me to nominate him as a fledgling. I am now prepared to do so." Jaron could see Ganton's interest perk up when Kit's name was mentioned.
"Well, I am no longer willing to accept his nomination," replied the Falconer coldly. "How could you dare to propose him under these circumstances?"
Soul of an Eagle Page 21
