war. Surely a sennight among the Elves has not civilized you so much?'
Kellen gathered his scattered and perambulatory wits. 'No, I… it's just a surprise, that's all. I thought you couldn't ask questions.'
Jermayan regarded him with a haughty expression, one eyebrow raised. 'That, Wildmage, is akin to saying one cannot be rude. One chooses not to be, of course.' Seeing Kellen's stricken expression, Jermayan obviously decided to take pity on him. 'Questions are… very direct. We of Leaf and Star consider them a form of coercion, not to be used in civilized times and places. But when one rides to war, one must be… more efficient.'
'Yes. I… okay. Yes. That… seems reasonable.' Kellen didn't know whether to be relieved or not. Well, he certainly shouldn't show it. 'I… Just… tell me when I stop being efficient and start being rude, okay?'
'I shall try to bring myself to do so,' Jermayan said, with another faint self-possessed smile.
Kellen thought for a moment about what Idalia had told him that morning, gazing northward as he did. 'I'm not sure exactly where we're going, really,' he admitted. 'It's kind of a case of knowing it when I see it. Idalia told me the sort of signs to look for, but I'll need your help and Shalkan's to recognize them.'
Quickly he explained the underlying theory about the Barrier, and the unnatural patterns it would produce in the natural world.
'So that's the best idea she could give me of what we're looking for,' he finished. 'If we don't see anything like that in a day or so—or if we think we're missing the signs or might be going off in the wrong direction—I'll try a Finding Spell to locate our route. Idalia said that was something to avoid if I could, though. She said it would attract attention.'
'Then we shall hope that Shadow Mountain has grown proud and careless,' Jermayan said grimly. 'And now, we should stop as soon as we come to a good place for stopping, for Valdien needs rest if Shalkan does not, and there is something I must begin to show you, for all our sakes.'
IN a short while more, they came to an oak tree standing alone in what must have once have been a lush deer meadow. But if the oak had ever had a dryad, she was long gone, and the grass around the tree was nothing more now than greyish stubble that crumbled away into dust beneath the hooves of the animals as they rode over it. The tree itself was bare of leaves, looking sere and winter-blasted out of season.
Jermayan swung gracefully down from Valdien's back, but though he tied the mule carefully to one of the tree branches, he made no effort to tether his destrier in any way. Valdien followed him about the way a dog might, until Jermayan told the destrier to stand. To Kellen's mild surprise, Valdien obeyed, though the destrier continued to watch his master hopefully.
Kellen got himself out of Shalkan's saddle with much less grace, though he managed the feat without tripping and falling.
'Is there anything you need?' he asked the unicorn, seeing that Jermayan was loosening Valdien's saddle- girths.
'Just some water,' Shalkan said. 'I'll miss Songmairie,' he added wistfully.
'Do you know what he's planning?' Kellen asked in a low voice.
'Yes. Don't worry. It won't hurt. Much.' Shalkan sounded amused.
Kellen sighed and went to get Shalkan's drink.
Jermayan was already taking both the water barrels down from the mule's back. For a short stop they wouldn't unpack the mule completely, but the water was the heaviest part of her load, and they couldn't leave the load unbalanced.
'The buckets are in the pack on the near side,' Jermayan said when Kellen arrived.
Kellen unbuckled the flap and looked inside. It was easy to see which was his; the bucket was green, to match everything else. Well, Idalia had said the Elves were perfectionists. He lifted it out. The blue one beneath it obviously belonged to Valdien, but fortunately they wouldn't need to water the horse and the mule until tonight since the weather was relatively cool. Even so, those barrels barely held enough water for a day.
He brought the bucket over to where Jermayan was carefully unscrewing the top of the barrel and dipped it full, then carried it to Shalkan. When the unicorn was done drinking, Kellen carried the bucket back and tipped the last drops down at the base of the tree. It felt odd to remember he'd been doing more or less this same thing at about this time yesterday, with no idea that barely a day later he'd be on the road, riding against Shadow Mountain.
Whatever Shadow Mountain might be. In the flurry of last-minute preparations, he'd never gotten a chance to ask Idalia about that. He frowned. It occurred to him suddenly that Idalia had probably arranged it that way.
Why?