'What did you want? Pickled chestnuts and peacock feathers?' Ki was nettled. She spoke over her shoulder as they edged through the busy market. When Vandien did not reply, she glanced back at him. He had paused at a stall aflutter with gay scarves. Belatedly he remembered her and fell in behind her.
'No. Nothing like that. I'd just like to see you be a little more impulsive. Enjoy life.'
'You're impulsive enough for both of us,' Ki pointed out.
Vandien shifted his load. They were out of the main press of the market, but Ki had left the wagon and horses behind the inn. Curly dark hair sagged forward onto his brow and fell into his eyes. He blew up at it, but it only tickled the more. 'You're just jealous of me,' he accused her gravely.
'Indeed.' Ki juggled her own parcels and slowed to walk beside him. They were nearly of a height, and their eyes met with sparks. 'I suppose next you will be saying that I secretly desire to wear a vest with trees and birds sprouting all over it.'
'No, not my taste. You're jealous of my ability to enjoy life. You tiptoe through your days, worryingabout warm underwear and axle grease, while I stride through mine singing. You're lost all your edges, Ki. You nibble at the dry corners of your life.'
'Instead of cramming it all into my mouth at once, like some folk we know.'
'Exactly.' Vandien bowed his head to acknowledge the compliment. 'This afternoon - I am quite safe in predicting ? you will drink exactly and precisely the three bowls of Cinmeth you permit yourself to consume in a public inn, while I take down as much Alys as they have and I can afford. Isn't that true? What can you say to that?'
'Only that I'm glad the wagon is right in the innyard. I detest dragging you through city streets in broad daylight.'
'Oh, that's funny,' Vandien snarled.
'Truth stings.' Ki grinned at him smugly. As they reached the wagon, she turned and added her burden to the items he already carried. She climbed up the tall yellow wheel onto the plank seat, and reached back down to receive the supplies from him. 'Come up here and help me put this stuff away,' she invited.
'Do it yourself,' he growled as he climbed up beside her. She slid open the cuddy door and climbed down into the living quarters of the wagon. The front half of the freight wagon had been closed in to resemble half a Romni wagon. Ki stood in the center of the tidy little cabin and put things away as he passed them to her. A platform covered with hides and blankets was the bed at one end of the room. The cuddy walls were a patchwork of shelves, cupboard, nooks and hooks. A small table folded down under the single tiny window with its greased skin pane. It took only moments for Ki to place every item on its shelf or in its bin. She looked up at Vandien sulking on the seat. She tried to straighten her face to match his.
'You're disgusted with me.'
'I am.'
'Because I am such a practical, mundane, boring person. Because I go through life immune to impulse and idiocy. Because there is never anything about me the least bit unpredictable.'
'Well.' Vandien quailed before the harshness of Ki's self-indictment. 'No. Because it's all there, bubbling beneath the surface, and you refuse to let it out. I'll tell you what I'd like to do.' He stepped down into the cuddy and seated himself on the sleeping platform. 'I'd like to make a day for you such as I'd make for myself.' Ki raised her eyebrows questioningly, but he plowed on determinedly. 'We'll do this.' He suddenly became almost shy, and covered his hesitation by brushing the curls from his eyes.
'Yes?' Ki said encouragingly.
'Stop interrupting me. How can I think and talk at the same time if you keep interrupting me? We'll do this. We'll find a public bath; an old city like Jojorum must have some baths worthy of the name. And we will loll and soak until your little toes are as pink as your nipples.' He grinned at her, suddenly wicked as his own fantasy carried him away. 'We will hire a body servant to put up your hair in long soft curls, and weave it all through with fine gold wire and pearls. We will drape you in one long length of cloth of gold, and put slippers on your feet of finest gleaming leather. Green stone earrings to match your flashing eyes, and three plain silver rings on each of your hands.' 'And then what?' Ki asked gently when the pause grew long.
'And then we shall walk through Jojorum together, with your arm about my waist, and folk will gaze on us and remember when this city was young and lusty.'
'They'd only be admiring your vest,' Ki teased gently, but she moved to stand close before him, and put her hands on her hips. 'You know we don't have the coin to do any of that, other than the bath.'
'I know. But when I want to do it, I know I want to do it, while you go about pretending you don't want to do it, because you know you can't afford it. And that's the big difference between us.'
'That makes us good for each other,' Ki amended. She slipped one hand into her skirt pocket. With the other she caught a handful of the thick dark curls at the nape of his neck. Her gentle pull bowed his head to her. She drew her free hand out of her pocket and shook out a circle of chain and looped it over his head.
'What's this?' Vandien pulled her down to sit on the bed beside him as he fingered the fine silver chain curiously.
'It's an impulse. From a friend who doesn't have many. I knew it was yours when I saw it in the jeweler's stall.'
Vandien slipped the necklace off to look at it. The chain was silver worked in tiny loops. Suspended from one larger loop swung a tiny hawk. Spread wings, talons and open beak had been chipped in fine detail from some black stone that glistened even in the cuddy's dim light. A chip of red was its sparkling eye. Ki knew she had chosen well at the sigh that escaped him. He looped it again about his neck. The length of the chain let it rest well below the hollow of his throat.
'It's almost lost in the hair,' she observed.
'I shall shave that spot on my chest to properly display it,' Vandien promised.
'You will not.' She kissed him so suddenly that her rare token of affection landed only on the corner of his mouth and his moustache. But when he would have been more thorough, she gently freed herself from his embrace.
'You just remembered you forgot to buy harness oil,' Vandien guessed sagely.
Ki laughed ruefully at his accuracy. 'And I need to refill the team's grainbox. I'll have to take the wagon to fetch that.'
'I've errands of my own, nearly as dreary.'
'Such as?'
'Warm underwear and axle grease,' he told her solemnly. He rose, keeping his head bent under the low cuddy ceiling. 'I found a nice little tavern, and left my horse tied in front. It's called the Contented Duck. As nearly as I could find by asking about, it's the only place in Jojorum that serves both Alys and Cinmeth.'
Ki nodded. 'I'll meet you there, then. But, Vandien.' He turned back to the sudden worry in her voice.'We cannot tarry long. I've heard an ugly thing in the streets today: A juggler on a street corner warned me of Rousters. I can put a long coat over my motley, he told me. But a painted Romni wagon is a harder thing to hide. We'd best be clear of this place before nightfall.'
'Rousters?' Vandien looked at her blankly.
'We've been together too long. Sometimes I forget you are not Romni born. The merchants of some towns are not pleased to see a Romni caravan arrive. They call us thieves and worse. But it's not just the Romni. It's any traveler with wares to sell that may be cheaper than their own, be he tinker or trader. So the merchants hire Rousters. They'll come on a wagon in the dead of night, beat the adults, terrify the children, disable the team if they can, set fire to the wagon if they can't; all in the name of moving on the thieving vagabonds and keeping their fair towns pure.'
Vandien's dark eyes went black as Ki spoke. Her face held an expression he seldom saw on her. Her green eyes were unseeing as she remembered more than she spoke about. He touched her gently on the sleeve and she was suddenly back with him.
'Surely they won't bother us,' he reasoned. 'We're only one wagon, delivering freight.'
'They don't care.' Ki's voice slashed in, low and savage. 'They don't care if you're selling lace or juggling at a crossroads or doctoring horses. You can just be begging. They roust you along, and not gently. I don't usually do business with towns that keep them. I'll be glad to watch the dust of Jojorum settle behind us, and get back to our regular hauls.'
