Luck of the Wheels

One of the Brurjans snarled something, and the sea of rousters and horses was suddenly still. All eyes went to him, a great black-pelted creature with deep-set black eyes. His battle harness was scarlet and black leather, broken by threads of silver. A red cloak spilled down his furred back. His black-nailed hands gripped his mount’s reins lightly. His horse had wicked eyes, and its ears were tilted back toward its master, waiting for a command to lash out with hooves or teeth.

Like a stray cat strolling insolently into a strange butcher shop came Vandien. He slipped between two great horses fully as large as plow beasts, unmindful of their restive scarlet hooves. Ki wondered what magic kept him safe as he moved boldly through the rousters to confront their leader. He took up his stance, arms crossed on his chest, slightly to the left of the horse’s head. He looked up, raising his chin as he struck eyes with the Brurjan. His brow was unlined as he said, ‘Good morning.’

‘Is it?’ the Brurjan asked with callous humor. His Common was thickly accented.

‘Isn’t it?’ Vandien asked calmly. Ki winced. Three Vandiens rolled together might make up the bulk of one of the Brurjans. His rapier, she realized belatedly, was in its sheath on a hook in the wagon. The Brurjan stared down at him.

‘You Romni?’ one of the Human rousters suddenly demanded.

For a second Vandien didn’t move. His gaze remained locked with the leader’s. He didn’t even turn to the Human as he asked contemptuously, ‘Do I look Romni?’ Vandien paused, then asked the leader coldly, ‘Did you want something of us?’

The Human broke in. ‘They aren’t the ones we want, but it don’t mean we shouldn’t shake them down. Woman there looks Romni, Allikata. I’ve seen her kind before, up North. Duke doesn’t want Romni coming into his holdings.’

The leader’s eyes flickered briefly to his man. Then he stared at Ki as he asked Vandien, ‘Papers?’

‘Ki. Fetch the papers.’ Vandien didn’t look at her, didn’t move from where he stood.

Ki turned to the wagon, stepped up on the step and tugged at the door. It jarred against the latch. A trickle of icy sweat ran down Ki’s ribs. If Willow would unlatch it, she could step in, grab the papers, and step out without the rousters even knowing Willow existed. But if she didn’t open the door … Ki rattled the door against the lock softly, hoping the girl would unlatch it. There was no sound from within the wagon.

‘While you’re here, can you tell us if the road is good as far as Villena? We’re taking our boy to visit kin there. We’d heard rumors of thieves, but then someone said the Duke’s roadguard had cleared them out. That would be you, wouldn’t it?’

Vandien was speaking more rapidly than he usually did, trying to keep their attention away from Ki. It wasn’t working. Ki could feel the silence as the rousters stared at her.

‘Fine tack,’ Vandien observed. ‘Good leather like that’s hard to come by.’ Reaching up, he took a sudden grip on the bridle of Allikata’s horse. Ki gasped, knowing as well as he did what would happen. The battle-horse screamed angrily, struck out with front hooves and teeth. All eyes jerked to Vandien as the great beast lifted him clear of the ground and with a shake flung him aside. He landed, rolling, near another horse, which immediately struck out at him. She knew why he had done it, and didn’t waste his dare. Ki turned her back on him, and with a muscle-ripping wrench tore the door open.

She pushed past the dangling hook and snatched up a roll of papers from a shelf. Of Willow the only sign was a slipper peeping out from beneath an untidy heap of bedclothes. Someone cursed loudly in Brurjan, and a Human laughed sadistically. Ki leaped from the wagon, the papers held aloft. ‘Here they are!’ she called loudly, and strode between the dancing horses of the two nearest rousters.

Vandien got up slowly, one arm wrapping his ribs. As Ki approached he slowly folded his arms across his chest. She didn’t look at him, but walked straight up to Allikata and thrust the papers up at him. He unrolled them carelessly, glanced at them, and tossed them back. ‘It says two travelling. There’s three of you.’

Ki opened her mouth, but Goat answered, his voice cracking with excitment. ‘Maybe. But there must be twenty-five of those filthy Tamshin in the caravan that passed us yesterday. They’re who you’re supposed to be after. For those horses! I bet those horses were stolen! I knew that big roan stallion was too fine a beast to belong to Tamshin!’

‘The white mares!’ A Brurjan suddenly demanded gutturally. ‘They still had the white mares?’

‘Yes!’ Goat answered happily. ‘They passed us just before dusk. They couldn’t be far away; maybe at a place with more water, and trees for shade.’ Goat’s face had taken on a dreamy expression, as if he could see the place he was describing. The faces of the patrol lit up evilly. Vandien looked ill.

‘No, Goat, you’re mistaken. The Tamshin passed us before noon, moving north and fast. They are long gone by now. The wine merchants passed us just before nightfall.’

Ki’s voice rang clear, but no one turned to it. Allikata only laughed, a short fierce sound. His tongue was red behind his white teeth.

‘If we hurry, they’ll just be rousing from sleep,’ a Human added appreciatively. Allikata gave a shout, and the horses wheeled suddenly and left the camp at a gallop. One rider’s boot caught Ki’s shoulder as he passed, shoving her nearly into the path of another horse. Then they were gone, the thunder of their hooves fading, and only the trampled camp to show that they had been there at all.

She scrabbled to her feet. In two steps she was beside Vandien. ‘That was stupid,’ she said tersely.

‘You’re welcome,’ he gasped. He let his arms hang at his sides and she tugged his shirt free of his belt, to lift it carefully. He flinched as her fingers gently prodded. ‘Bruised,’ she said in a tight voice. ‘Maybe cracked, but not broken.’

‘Same ones,’ he said, trying to make his voice light, but she could hear the effort it took for him to speak. ‘And that was a Brurjan, too. You remember that tavern in Silva?’

‘Where I had to pay for the hole in the wall?’ Ki asked.

‘Yes. Guess I just don’t make a good impression with Brurjans.’

‘No. You should stick to walls. You made a hell of an impression on that one.’

He made a vague effort to tuck in his shirt, then gave it up with a twisted smile. Ki touched his face, and when he lifted his eyes to hers, she kissed him softly. He caught her hand.

‘That’s twice,’ he said, his voice still breathy with pain. ‘Twice in two days that you’ve kissed me. I remember a time when if you kissed me twice in a month, it was remarkable.’

Ki shook her head at him silently, finding no words for her thoughts.

‘What about me?’ Goat demanded suddenly. ‘Isn’t anyone going to thank me? If I hadn’t sent them after those Tamshin, they’d have wrecked this place. And probably killed Vandien and raped you and Willow.’

Ki rounded on him. ‘And what do you think they’ll do to the Tamshin? What you did was cold and disgusting.’ She choked into silence, unable to speak her anger.

Vandien’s eyes were hard and black as he stared at the boy. ‘We were handling it fine, until you stepped in. If there’s ever a next time, you remember that Ki and I handle things, while you keep silent and unobtrusive. Understand me, boy?’

There was a whip’s edge to his final question. Goat both flinched and bristled. ‘Oh, yes,’ he spat bitterly. ‘I’ll remember. I’ll keep silent and unobtrusive while they kick the snot out of you, I will, and with pleasure, and when they …’

‘Fine. That would be wonderful. I’m pleased we understand one another.’ Vandien’s voice was cool, every trace of anger gone from it. He turned from the boy’s ranting as if it were the humming of a mosquito. ‘What was wrong with the door?’

‘Willow latched it,’ Ki said tersely.

‘Willow!’ Vandien exclaimed, remembering the girl. ‘She must have been terrified. Is she all right?’

Ki looked disgusted. ‘Willow!’ she called. ‘You can come out now. They’ve gone.’

In an instant the disheveled girl appeared in the door of the wagon. She raced across the trampled earth to fling herself into Vandien’s arms. He exclaimed with pain, but didn’t push her away. ‘I was so scared, I was so scared!’ she sobbed into his shoulder. ‘All I could think of was to hide.’

‘Are the Duke’s patrols always so threatening?’ Ki asked. ‘I would rather have faced the robbers.’

‘She doesn’t have travelling papers,’ Goat guessed suddenly. ‘You thought they were after you, didn’t you, Willow?’ His voice was snidely speculative. ‘Why would the Duke’s patrol be interested in a little girl running away to her lover? Or is Kellich starting to take his big talk seriously?’

‘Shut up! Shut up!’ Willow screeched savagely, and Vandien held her firmly to keep her from going after the boy.

‘Quiet!’ Ki bellowed, her voice cracking on the word. Silence fell. Vandien looked astounded at the command. Ki took a breath, feeling her throat’s rawness. ‘Now. Quietly,’ she said. ‘Tell me. I knew Vandien and I needed papers because we had the wagon and were doing business with it. I thought it was sort of like a trade permit. It seems I was wrong. Are you two supposed to have travelling papers, just to go from town to town?’

‘Of course,’ Goat answered. ‘Or how would the Duke know where anyone was? How could they tell good citizens from rebel scum? I have my papers. My father got them the morning we left. I have no reason to sneak from town to town. Not like some.’

‘Willow?’ Ki asked.

The girl buried her face against Vandien’s shoulder. ‘I didn’t have time! I didn’t have enough money!’ she wept. ‘If I’d waited for the papers, you’d have gone. And I needed the money to pay you to take me. I didn’t think anyone would stop us or check us. What are you going to do?’ She lifted red-rimmed eyes to gaze into Vandien’s face. ‘Are you going to leave me here? Do you know what they’d do to me if they caught me, alone on the road, with no papers?’ She was shaking.

‘They might think you were a rebel,’ Goat observed heartlessly. ‘Or a sympathizer, carrying information. Or maybe just a roadside whore and …’

Ki’s look shut him up.

Vandien put steadying hands on Willow’s shoulders. ‘No one’s leaving you,’ he said softly. ‘But don’t you see the danger you put us all in? If you’d told Ki and me, we would have been prepared. It’s not like the Romni don’t know how to handle harassment. Ki knows a dozen tricks, and I have a few of my own. But we need to know what we’re up against. We’re strangers to your Duke’s holdings.’

His voice was calm, reasonable. Willow lifted her tear-stained face. ‘The Duke’s patrol,’ she faltered, ‘keeps the roads clear. Of robbers, and Tamshin, and such … those without papers. Rebels, they call them. Rebels. As if just being too poor to afford papers, or not wanting to account for every step of your life, should be a crime. And the Duke lets – if they find anyone without papers – they can take what they wish from them. Even their lives. It’s how they’re paid. Oh, the Duke pays them some, but that’s how he keeps them eager. If you don’t have papers, you’re game for the patrol.’