Fish Tails (31 page)

Eventually, Fatter and Leaner remounted their horses and clattered off down the road, not bothering to wave. Abasio went out onto the road and watched them go. When the bound man on the last horse looked back, Abasio made a signal, an upright right hand making a circle toward the sun. It meant something like, “Within a day we'll see to it.” Meanwhile he was carefully noting which stretches of the downhill road could be seen from this particular place.

There were three places, all within a day's travel, the first one only an hour or so away by horse—­and by road. Without a wagon one could go downhill through the trees instead of by road, in less than an hour. He remembered the first possibility as a good place to camp, near the river—­which at that point was merely a streamlet trickling through a rocky crease. The men probably had no plan requiring speed. Robbery, rapine, and murder needed no advance timetable. Plans were made after one had assessed a target. He wondered, briefly, if they knew how well Saltgosh was protected, deciding they not only did not know about Saltgosh but also did not know how to ride. If they were all like the two he'd seen dismounted, every one of them rode ugly and walked sore. He thanked something or someone he had not had to kill them. A dozen corpses to dispose of. He and Xulai couldn't simply have left them on the road. Possibly with a few dead horses!

Willum and Xulai appeared out of the woods, bearing chicken coops and babies. Blue also appeared to tell them that Rags had gone down, slightly uphill and inside the forest, to be sure all the riders would indeed camp some distance away. Abasio mentioned that Kim was a prisoner of the men who had just passed.

“Why didn't they grab you?” Xulai asked.

“No horse for me to ride,” Abasio replied. “I'd have slowed them down. And no harness for the wagon, so they couldn't take that. My guess is, they plan to pick me up on the way back. By that time, they figure on having extra horses.”

“You want me to get Kim loose,” asked Blue. “Tonight? While they're camped? I can follow them down now.”

“Both you and Rags go. If the horses could be silently cut loose, maybe they'd wander off in the night and make it difficult for the men to go anywhere tomorrow. Or they might follow you. That'd be fine. But you . . . you might have to cut Kim loose. I'll have to—­”

“Me, me, me,” cried Willum. “I'm sneaky, 'Basio. Real sneaky.”

Abasio gave him a long, thoughtful look. “Can you handle a knife without cutting yourself?”

“Oh, fer, 'Basio! You know me better'n that!”

Without further comment, Willum was furnished with a sheathed knife, which he fastened to his belt, his face tense with concentration. He scrambled onto Blue's back and the horse turned to go down through the forest, silent as a deer.

Abasio turned to find that Xulai was glaring at him. He said mildly, “When I was nine years old, four nasty men came by our farm. They took over our barn, where they had a little girl all tied up. She was a bit younger than I was. They were holding her for ransom, some folks in town who were well-­to-­do, I guess. They shut my father and me in the cellar. Snow could be heavy on the farm, partway up in the mountains as we were, so many of us farmers had tunnels connecting barns and chicken houses and such. I got out of the cellar into the chicken house, and then cross-­country to the three farms nearest ours, got six men to come back with me. Three of them were good bowmen, the others had axes. The men in the barn had only knives; at least that's all I saw. While the men helped my father keep the place surrounded, I got into the barn and got the little girl loose, and got her and me down in the tunnel they didn't know was there.

“I tell you this to explain why a man is never too young to learn how to gag some female who is intent upon screaming when silence is absolutely required.” He removed his scarf and moved purposefully in Xulai's direction.

“All right! I won't yell! I grant you are probably more aware of Willum's propensities than I am.”

“Both his propensities and his talents. You need to examine his pack one of these days. He thieved half Saltgosh of this and that and no one saw a thing. He's a petty pilferer. I'll bet he's been sneaking into places since he was three.” He saw the shock on her face. “Never mind! He and I have jointly recompensed or returned property to those who were stolen from. He owes me several dirty, unpleasant, onerous tasks for having supplied him with the wherewithal to repay and having taught him how to apologize. He deeply resented having to apologize. It made him feel ashamed, thank heaven! I was afraid nothing would! His ma evidently never taught him the thou-­shalts and shalt-­nots.”

“Thou-shalts?”

“Some ancient rule most folks seemed to know when I was a boy. Thou shalt not steal was one of 'em. Not kill ­people was one. Not tell lies was one.”

“What happened to the little girl in the barn?”

“After we killed the four men?”

“Presumably after, yes. Since you were a bit young to commit rape.”

“Which would not have been at all tempting to me. If you had ever seen or heard her, you would have known that. Particularly heard her. Doing so would make one covet deafness. Don't worry about Willum. Even if he were caught, no one knows he's connected to us. They wouldn't hold him long.”

Xulai did not look greatly comforted, but then she worried over Willum's morality more than Abasio did. Morality proceeded from conviction, and at some point she hoped Abasio would take the trouble to convince him. Ability to trick and dissemble, however, was inborn, and Willum had an immeasurable supply of that!

Abasio stalked out to the road. He would prefer that the men stop at the place he had picked out for them. He took off his boots and climbed a convenient tree.

From below him, Xulai asked, “And you are doing what?”

“Seeing where they stop, dear heart. So I'll know when we can expect Kim and his horse back. Also Willum and our horses. Also, perhaps, all the horses they were riding. I'm wondering about that group, hoping Kim has listened to them and can tell us something when he gets back. They acted almost as though they were looking for something in particular.”

“You think the Griffin sent them . . .  ?”

He shook his head. Griffin did not need and would not use such scruffy agents. Compared to that gang of offal eaters, Griffin was a model of purity.

Xulai prepared their supper, something a bit more satisfying than boiled grain, putting a goodly share at the edge of the fire to await Willum and Kim's return. When she took Abasio his bowlful, he remarked, “They stopped at that clearing we noticed on the way up, the one with the little tributary creek running through it. They've built a fire.” He came down from his perch. “We can't expect anything until well after dark. Let's get everything repacked and ready to move. We'll want to get out of their observation range before light.”

(That's it, thought
ul xaolat.
Hurry, rush, scramble around, drive yourselves crazier. Why not just say, “Put the stuff back in the wagon”? I am being totally wasted on this trip. Maybe they make a model for very young children two or three years of age that would be more suitable for this . . . group.)

B
LUE AND
R
AGS ARRIVED IN
the vicinity of the troop's camp well before it was dark. Willum slipped from Blue's back and slithered to the largest tree between him and the encampment—­though he considered it not much of a camp. Everyone sort of suiting himself, finding his own bed space, nobody collecting wood to keep the fire going, nobody preparing anything hot to eat. And each one of them seemed to have a bottle of something besides water, which could be good news so far as Willum was concerned. Particularly if they all got sleepy-­drunk fast.

Kim was tied to the tree Willum was behind, his hands tied in front of him.

“Kim,” whispered Willum. “Don't talk.”

“Crmm,” coughed Kim.

Willum looked up. Kim had a gag on his mouth. “If I cut the gag off, they'll see. I don't want to cut you loose till they're asleep. Can you sit down?”

Kim sagged, worked the ropes downward inch by inch as Willum silently shaved off chunks of tree bark to let the rope go by. Kim finally managed to sit. He was tied once around his chest, once around his belly. “Put'cher legs up,” whispered Willum. “Hafta cut the bottom ropes, but they won't see with your legs up. Hafta leave the top rope for a while.”

The bottom rope—­with a knot that had been pulled so tight it could not be untied—­had been wrapped several times around Kim's body. Willum cut it next to the knot and pulled it slowly away, inch by inch, providing a nice length for someone to do something else with. He set himself to watch.

Each man carried his own provisions, just as each man had his own bottle, and they were settled separately, each eating and drinking from his own supply.

“Y'gonna feed 'im?” one asked.

“Na,” said the fatter man. “Later, mebbe, when we get some provisions down in Saltgosh. Don't have any extra now.”

“Y'wanna keep the fire goin'?”

“Nah,” the leaner man replied. “S'not cold yet. We'll get some sleep, make a fire for tea in t'mornin'.”

“We gonna do Saltgosh in the mornin'?”

“Whenever we get there. Queen Sybbis says Saltgosh's got a whole winner's wort' a per-­versions. Got salt wagons and horses, too, an' prob'ly money. We're gonna load their wagons with their per-­versions and drive them over the pass.”

“Y'know how t'do that? Like harness n' all?”

“It's justa buncha straps. Shouldn't be hard.”

A horse, hearing this, snickered. Willum gave Blue a look, which was returned innocently.

“Think there's enough of us?” yawned another of the men.

“Nobody there that fights, is there? Sybbis says it's justa mine. Men diggin' out salt. No gangers. Might be some women. If there's women, kids, we might take some.”

One of the other men asked, “Whatchu gonna do with him?”—­pushing his chin out in Kim's direction.

“Sell 'im when we get back.”

“Don't think so,” murmured Willum into Kim's ear.

It grew dark. The clearing resounded with whurfles, snores, grunts. Kim was released. The moon rose, giving Kim and Willum enough light to release all the horses from the picket line after Blue had spoken to them about the need for quiet movement away through the trees, quiet movement upward off the road inside the trees, leaving no tracks while following Blue and Rags to a far better future than these idiots were offering. All the horses agreed.

Kim mounted his horse—­the men had left the horses saddled—­and followed the herd as it moved. Willum was on Blue's back, holding on tightly. The herd ghosted upward along the hill, mostly in among the trees, the shorter way that Rags and Blue had come, well spread out and leaving, as Willum had requested, no easily visible hoofprints. Willum could have tracked them, he knew, but those idiots asleep back in the clearing probably couldn't.

Willum announced his return well before midnight. “ 'Basio, I got all the horses an' the saddles. Kim's back.”

Xulai had heard them, and had also felt the soft noses of some other beasts smelling her where she lay beside the wagon. A brief conference ensued while Kim and Willum were given food and while both they and the horses drank.

“They didn't even unsaddle the horses, Abasio!” snarled Kim. “They're stupid. They don't know anything. Didn't even let the horses have a drink! No campcraft, nothing! Those saddles have been on those horses for days! They prob'ly got sores, even!”

“Well, their ignorance was luck for us,” muttered Abasio. “Let's see if we can stow the saddles inside the wagon for a while. They may have to carry them daytimes, but we'll give the horses' backs a rest. I have stuff for saddle sores if you see any.”

The extra harness was removed from its traveling rack under the wagon, Blue, Rags, and two volunteer horses—­Blue said there were four in the group that were harness, not saddle horses. The Catlanders hadn't known the difference when they got them. Kim mounted up once more and headed uphill, followed by ten horses. In the pale moonlight, the wagon trailed behind them, moving a good deal more rapidly behind four horses than it had traveled with two. The second team made a difference.

“What did those men think they were doing?” Xulai asked Willum.

Willum said, “Two of the men were talkin', an' one said Queen Sybbis says there's a whole season's worth of supplies put away in Saltgosh, and they're supposed to steal winter ‘perversions.' What're perversions? And maybe they'll steal some women and children. An' when the others was asleep, it was just those two guys, Skinny and Fats, awake, and they said Saltgosh prob'ly had money.”

In the moonlight, Xulai stared at Willum. “They were talking about provisions, Willum. That'd be food for winter, mostly, I imagine. Abasio, you have my
ul xaolat,
don't you? I created a destination place in Saltgosh. It's not that far away in real distance, though the road winds so much that it seems much farther. I can be there in two minutes, warn them, let them lay whatever trap they like. Just because that crew lost its horses doesn't mean they still won't attempt to rob the place.”

“What place in Saltgosh?” he asked.

She flushed.
There had been that lovely little mountain pool above the pasture, surrounded by pines, with the softest mosses . . . Abasio had been in a loving mood. The children had been asleep. And Willum had been, for a wonder, somewhere else! Never mind. It would be a good place to flick to, with very little chance of being seen.

Abasio, reading the flush correctly, changed the subject. “Well, you'll have to wait until we reach a camping spot you can enter into
ul xaolat
so you'll know what place to come back to. There's plenty of time. They won't move until morning and they won't move fast even then.” He turned toward Willum. “Did you or Blue hear anything else about who or why?”