Wizard and Glass

where they went?'

'Yes,' she said. Her voice was low, barely a whisper.

Jonas looked pleased. 'If you was to tell, things might go easier for you. Would you agree, Renfrew?'

'Aye,' Renfrew said. 'They're traitors, Susan—for the Good Man. If you know where they are or what they're up to, tell us.'

Keeping her eyes fixed on Jonas, Susan said: 'Come closer.' Her numbed lips didn't want to move and it came out sounding like Cung gloser, but Jonas understood and leaned forward, stretching his neck in a way that made him look absurdly like Caprichoso. When he did, Susan spat in his face.

Jonas recoiled, lips twisting in surprise and revulsion. 'Arrr! BITCH!' he cried, and launched a full-swung, open-handed blow that drove her to the ground. She landed at full length on her side with black stars exploding across her field of vision. She could already feel her right cheek swelling like a balloon and thought, If he'd hit an inch or two lower, he might've broken my neck. Mayhap that would've been best. She raised her hand to her nose and wiped blood from the right nostril.

Jonas turned to Renfrew, who had taken a single step forward and then stopped himself. 'Put her on her horse and tie her hands in front of her. Tight.' He looked down at Susan, then kicked her in the shoulder hard enough to send her rolling toward the hut. 'Spit on me, would you? Spit on Eldred Jonas, would you, you bitch?'

Reynolds was holding out his neckerchief. Jonas took it, wiped the spittle from his face with it, then dropped into a hunker beside her. He took a handful of her hair and carefully wiped the neckerchief with it. Then he hauled her to her feet. Tears of pain now peeped from the comers of her eyes, but she kept silent.

'I may never see your friend again, sweet Sue with the tender little titties, but I've got you, ain't I? Yar. And if Dearborn gives us trouble, I'll give you double. And make sure Dearborn knows. You may count on it.'

His smile faded, and he gave her a sudden, bitter shove that almost sent her sprawling again.

'Now get mounted, and do it before I decide to change your face a little with my knife.'

12

Sheemie watched from the grass, terrified and silently crying, as Susan spit in the bad Coffin Hunter's face and was knocked to the ground, hit so hard the blow might have killed her. He almost rushed out then, but something—it could have been his friend Arthur's voice in his head—told him that would only get him killed.

He watched as Susan mounted. One of the other men—not a Coffin Hunter but a big rancher Sheemie had seen in the Rest from time to time—tried to help, but Susan pushed him away with the sole of her boot. The man stood back with a red face.

Don't make em mad, Susan, Sheemie thought. Oh gods, don't do that, they'll hit ye some more! Oh, yer poor face! And ye got a nosebleed, so you do!

'Last chance,' Jonas told her. 'Where are they, and what do they mean to do?'

'Go to hell,' she said.

He smiled—a thin, hurty smile. 'Likely I'll find you there when I arrive,' he said. Then, to the other Coffin Hunter: 'You checked the place careful?'

'Whatever they had, they took it,' the redhead answered. 'Only thing they left was Dearborn's punch- bunny.'

That made Jonas laugh meany-mean as he climbed on board his own horse. 'Come on,' he said, 'let's ride.'

They went back into the Bad Grass. It closed around them, and it was as if they had never been there . . . except that Susan was gone, and so was Capi. The big rancher riding beside Susan had been leading the mule.

When he was sure they weren't going to return, Sheemie walked slowly back into the clearing, doing up the button on top of his pants as he came. He looked from the way Roland and his friends had gone to the one in which Susan had been taken. Which?

A moment's thought made him realize there was no choice. The grass out here was tough and springy. The path Roland and Alain and good old Arthur Heath (so Sheemie still thought of him, and always would) had taken was gone. The one made by Susan and her captors, on the other hand, was still clear. And perhaps, if he followed her, he could do something for her. Help her.

Walking at first, then jogging as his fear that they might double back and catch him dissipated, Sheemie went in the direction Susan had been taken. He would follow her most of that day.

13

Cuthbert—not the most sanguine of personalities in any situation—grew more and more impatient as the day brightened toward true dawn. It's Reaping, he thought. Finally Reaping, and here we sit with our knives sharpened and not a thing in the world to cut.

Twice he asked Alain what he 'heard.' The first time Alain only grunted. The second time he asked what Bert expected him to hear, with someone yapping away in his ear like that.

Cuthbert, who did not consider two enquiries fifteen minutes apart as 'yapping away,' wandered off and sat morosely in front of his horse. After a bit, Roland came over and sat down beside him.

'Waiting,' Cuthbert said. 'That's what most of our time in Mejis has been about, and it's the thing I do worst.'

'You won't have to do it much longer,' Roland said.

14

Jonas's company reached the place where Fran Lengyll's party had made a temporary camp about an hour after the sun had topped the horizon. Quint, Rhea, and Renfrew's vaqs were already there and drinking coffee, Jonas was glad to see.

Lengyll started forward, saw Susan riding with her hands tied, and actually drew back a step, as if he wanted to find a comer to hide in. There were no comers out here, however, so he stood fast. He did not look happy about it, however.

Susan nudged her horse forward with her knees, and when Reynolds tried to grab her shoulder, she dipped it to the side, temporarily eluding him.

'Why, Francis Lengyll! Imagine meeting you here!'

'Susan, I'm sorry to see ye so,' Lengyll said. His flush crept closer and closer to his brow, like a tide approaching a seawall. 'It's bad company ye've fallen in with, girl . . . and in the end, bad company always leaves ye to face the music alone.'

Susan actually laughed. 'Bad company!' she said. 'Aye, ye'd know about that, wouldn't ye, Fran?'

He turned, awkward and stiff in his embarrassment. She raised one booted foot and, before anyone could stop her, kicked him squarely between the shoulderblades. He went down on his stomach, his whole face widening in shocked surprise.

'No ye don't, ye bold cunt!' Renfrew shouted, and fetched her a wallop to the side of the head—it was on the left, and at least evened things up a bit, she would think later when her mind cleared and she was capable of thinking. She swayed in the saddle, but kept her seat. And she never looked at Renfrew, only at Lengyll, who had now managed to get to his hands and knees. He wore a deeply dazed expression.

'Youkilled my father!' she screamed at him. 'You killed my father, you cowardly, sneaking excuse for a man!' She looked at the party of ranchers and vaqs, all of them staring at her now. 'There he is, Fran Lengyll, head of the Horsemen's Association, as low a sneak as ever walked! Low as coyote shit! Low as— '

'That's enough,' Jonas said, watching with some interest as Lengyll scuttled back to his men—and yes,