Michael misread him. “Who would recognize us? I look fifteen years older. You’ve lost weight, you got no beard, you’re turning grey, and you’re dragging…”
“I get your point, thank you very much. Young girls won’t throw themselves at me anymore.” Sherilee was back in his head, like a nagging toothache.
“And you’re crabby. Not to mention, you’re dressed weird.” Trebilcock flashed a huge grin.
“Lead on, boy wonder.”
Now Michael flashed a grimace. “Would it be smart for me to leave you out of sight behind me?”
“Why don’t we find out?” Then, muttering, “Camels? How come there are camels on the Sedlmayr road?” He did not like camels. In his youth, while with Hawkwind in the desert, he had had camels close by constantly. He associated their stench with that of misfortune, stil.
...
Dahl Haas finished hitching the donkey to the cart. He helped Kristen board, hoisted Bragi up. He would lead.
They looked like prosperous peasants. Haas hoped no one wondered why there was nothing in the cart but a child and an apparently pregnant woman.
Nearby, Bight Mundwil er and the Blodgett girl played at clumsy courtship rituals, Bight by far the more maladroit, mainly to irritate Ozora. The matriarch was suitably irked but refused to be baited by children.
Dahl murmured, “At some point Ozora wil make that boy sorry he withdrew his affections from you.”
“Not funny, Dahl! And is there suddenly something wrong with the girl?”
“Like what? She’s a girl being a girl figuring out that she has the power to fog men’s minds. She’l only get more wicked as she hones her skils.”
“Somebody is going to get honed if he don’t watch his attitude.”
“My thesis proven. What’s his problem?”
Bight was staring in the direction the camels had gone.
Nothing unusual there. A couple of shabby old travelers were approaching lazily. They might be brothers. They were tal and graying but both stil had their own hair.
Haas approached the youngsters. “Is there a problem? You know those men? Are they trouble?”
The girl said, “No, Mr. Haas. The one on the right reminded me of my Uncle Bridewel . That startled me because he died last year. Then Bight said that they were too far away to recognize, anyway, even if we did know them.” Bight said, “I got upset because I thought she was upset.” She said, “Anyway, I can’t see through him so he can’t be a ghost. And, now that they’re closer, I can see that he’s tal er than Uncle Bridewel was. But I wish they would look up so I could see their faces.”
Haas caught an odd note there but could not imagine why.
He drifted back to his cart, watching the travelers as he went.
Aral Dantice came out of the woods, where he had gone to consult the famous horse trader. He grumbled, “I don’t remember eating anything that would do that to me. The flies are going to be in heaven. Wel . Speaking of some remarkable shit. Look at this.” He ogled the tal old men with far more surprise than Bight or the girl had.
They were just twenty paces away and focused on the dust in front of their feet, shoulders hunched against the attention they had attracted.
Ozora barked, “What are you people doing? If you don’t move we’l have to spend another night camped out with the bugs and mosquitoes.”
Something clicked. Dahl recognized the man on the left.
The one on his own right. Not the one who had Aral’s attention, that the girl had mistaken for her uncle.
He did not shout. He said nothing to anyone. He just oozed over to the road to intercept the pair. “Excuse me, sirs. A moment, I beg.”
Both men kept searching the road immediately in front of their feet, shuffling dispiritedly, which wil ful focus made managing ful awareness of their surroundings problematic.
It was an ostrich approach to personal camouflage.
The nearer man responded with a dramatic start. He looked up.
Dahl lurched back. “Gods damn me!” He retreated several steps before good sense took over.
Both travelers shifted hands to the hilts of daggers and considered their surroundings.
Haas moved to Kristen, placed himself between her and the road, hoping to control her reaction.
At which point the Blodgett girl blurted, “Uncle Chames?” Chames? What happened to Bridewel ?
The girl gal oped to the roadside. She was not at al shy about throwing herself onto one of the men.
Dahl heard him murmur, “Haida, we’re real y trying to avoid attracting attention.”
“Oh. Hel ! I’m sorry. I got excited.”
Haas moved back toward the travelers, as did Bight Mundwil er, the latter uncertainly. The other Sedlmayrese stopped to gawk.
“Too late, now. The cat has dumped the cream.” Though she was not interested Michael introduced Ragnarson to the girl as his cousin Leopard Marks. “I forget why we cal him that. His real name is Flynn.”
“Because I changed my spots.”
Trebilcock offered no name for the girl, Dahl supposed because he did not know what name she was using. He had not missed him cal ing her Haida.
The girl retreated into resounding silence.
Haas glared at both men, wil ing them to do nothing to turn the moment more treacherous than it was. He looked back at Kristen. “Flynn” did the same, having recognized her.
And she had recognized him, now. She lacked al color.
They had talked about what this would mean, for her, for them, for the younger Bragi. Though the King’s return was only a theoretical possibility it never seemed vaguely likely outside popular fantasy. Unless…
Dahl looked back up the road. No. They were alone. But…
Shinsan would not arrive in ful kit with bands playing if the King was back as their man.
But!
These two had been missing and presumed dead for a year. Now they were sneaking back. Together. That could have immense meaning, perhaps going al the way back to before the King’s dumb eastern adventure.
Dahl turned to Aral Dantice. Aral was Michael’s best friend.
Aral was helping the Sedlmayrese get ready to move out.
His moment of surprise past, Aral was making like he had recognized no one.
Had he been running point for the others when Kristen spotted him?
Ozora commanded, “Blodgett girl! Come here! Now!” She did as directed. Bight fol owed. He would bark back if the old woman was excessively unreasonable.
The old king said, “Chames, we need to move along. A pleasure to meet you, young man.” He inclined his head toward Kristen. “And your missus. Blessings be upon the babe to come.”
He did not sound sincere.
Dahl suppressed an impulse to explain that there was no need for anger. Only, the Queen Mother could have become pregnant. The displeasure directed her way was not entirely misplaced. They were not always as careful as they should be.
The old king added, “Keep up the good work, son. Maybe we’l meet again in more comfortable circumstances.” Meaning he saw no reason to trust anyone behind Haas.
Longing shown when he looked at the younger Bragi.
“I shal look forward. Good fortune dog your journey, sir.”
“And yours as wel .”
The tal old men shuffled on, watched by the Sedlmayrese.
Only Ozora said anything, though.
The Blodgett girl answered every question with an elaborate and plausible lie about distant uncles, one of whom she had never met before. The ease with which she dissembled amazed Dahl. She convinced Ozora of nothing, but the old woman did pretend to believe her. She had recognized neither uncle herself.
Dahl wondered what tal tales the girl had spun already and would continue to spin. Clearly, she was one of Michael Trebilcock’s gang.
