and sat down, looking up at her.
'Let's eat.'
Talsy cut slices of cold meat and wrapped them in bread, and he tore at it. Curiosity filled her, but Chanter obviously was not going to volunteer anything. She made herself a sandwich and settled down to eat.
'What happened?'
He glanced at her. 'I can't tell you.'
'What did you find?'
'A big flower.'
Talsy nibbled her bread. 'Why has it closed now?'
'I can't tell you.'
She sensed that he was unhappy about avoiding her questions, for he studied his food too hard. 'Something happened to you. Why were you so tired last night?'
'I can't tell you.'
'Mujar never get tired.'
He shot her a quelling look, but Talsy was not giving up yet. 'Tell me!'
His brows drew together. 'No. It's not for you to know.'
'Why?'
'Because you're not Mujar.'
Talsy stared at him, stunned. 'Why must you have secrets?'
The Mujar shook his head and concentrated on his food. She finished her meal in sulky silence, shooting him angry looks.
Finally she burst out, 'At least tell me why you won't tell me.'
He sighed. 'No.'
'Can't you even tell me what sort of plant it is?'
'It's called an Ishmak plant.'
'And it's important to Mujar.'
'I didn't say that.'
She snorted. 'If it wasn't, you wouldn't be trying so hard to keep secrets about it.'
He glowered at her. 'And if you weren't so nosy I wouldn't have to argue about it.'
Talsy rose and stuffed her bedding into the bag with unnecessary vigour. 'What do you think I'm going to do, run off to the nearest city and tell them your secrets? Do you really think I would betray you?'
'No, I know you wouldn't.' His tone softened. 'It's just not something I can tell you, and I doubt that you'd understand.'
'I might.'
'I can't tell you.'
'Are you allowed to keep secrets from your clan?'
He nodded, smiling. 'Yes. You have secrets, and I don't pry.'
'You're not interested. I would tell you anything you asked.'
'Okay, why were you so desperate to leave your home?'
Talsy sighed, knowing that he only asked to steer her off the subject, but her curiosity seemed doomed anyway. 'I wanted to escape a life of drudgery. A Trueman girl has little to look forward to. My father would have selected a suitable mate for me, who would have paid him for my first child. The second I could keep, if I wished. I would have had to care for my father until his death, then I would have been alone, raising my children. Or I could live with a man, like the woman in the forest, but most men don't want to be burdened with a wife, they prefer to breed a child and raise it.'
'What will your father do now?'
She shrugged. 'He's young enough to have another child.'
'In the clan it was different. All the men looked after the women, who could bear children to whomever they wished.'
'That sounds like a better life.'
'Is that what you're looking for?'
She nodded. 'And some adventure, to see the world.'
He rose and picked up the bag. 'Well, you're certainly doing that.'
Talsy hurried after him when he strode away. Evidently he was not going to turn into the stallion just yet. In a way, she did not mind, for it meant that she could talk to him while they walked. She reached his side and tried to match his strides.
'You've never told me where we're going.'
'You've never asked.'
She smiled. 'Well, I'm asking now.'
'We're going to Rashkar, to rescue a boy from King Garsh's army.'
'Is that the other Wish?'
He nodded. 'His father is the one who sent the men to rescue me from my clan's killing field.'
'How do you know he's in Rashkar?'
'That's where King Garsh trains his troops.'
Talsy skipped a few paces to catch up. 'How will you free him?'
'I don't know. I haven't seen what I'm up against yet.'
'What happened at the Ishmak plant?'
He smiled and shook his head at her ploy. 'I can't tell you.'
They passed the Ishmak plant's vast acreage, staying away from its edges. Herds of animals grazed in the distance, vast moving masses of brown or gold. The beasts also stayed away from the plant. In the afternoon, they left its border and struck off towards the distant mountains. By nightfall, Talsy's legs ached, and she wondered if Chanter had made her walk as punishment for arguing about the Ishmak plant, but discarded the notion. Mujar would not stoop to such pettiness.
The following day, he took the form of the black stallion again, and they galloped towards the mountains. Three days of travel brought them to the foothills, where Chanter cantered up the steep rocky slopes with ease. Talsy wondered if he would simply gallop up the sheer rock face ahead, but when they reached it, he stopped. She slid off with the bag and held her breath through the brief cold stillness of Dolana, then Chanter stood before her again. The mountains loomed over them, slabs of grey rock thrust up from the earth and shaped by wind and rain. The range stretched away in either direction like the vast stone backbone of some gigantic beast. Chanter gazed at the tall cliffs, his nostrils flared as the bitter wind whipped his hair. Flags of cloud flew from the snowy pinnacles, stretched and torn by the wind.
Talsy watched him with a frown. Had he been alone, he would have simply flown over them, but she tethered him to the ground. Now she understood why freedom meant so much to him. For Mujar, it was so much more than for Truemen. Only if he left her would he be able to soar over this stone barrier with a Mujar's freedom. To try to scale these sheer cliffs would be impossible. There were expanses of smooth rock that even a spider could not climb, and above that was ice. Chanter turned and walked along the edge of the cliff, his eyes scanning the heights. She wondered what he was looking for, and was puzzled when he stopped before a rock face as sheer as any other and turned to her.
'We'll cross here.'
Talsy eyed the cliff. 'How will we climb that?'
'We won't. We're going through it.'
She scanned the rock for a tunnel, shooting him a frown.
He smiled and pointed upwards. 'See, it's not as high as the rest.'
The top of the cliff was appreciably lower than the peaks on either side of it, but still loomed high above them, sheer and icy. She shot him another puzzled look, and he chuckled.
'What, don't you think I'm a demigod anymore?'
'You're going to make a tunnel!'
He shook his head. 'Mujar don't go underground. We can't without falling foul of Dolana, otherwise the Pits wouldn't hold us.'
