As he could not, in any case, for from both sides of the road the sheep materialized once again, bleating lambs looking for their mothers, baaing mothers trying to find their lambs. The shepherd was across the pond, talking to someone at the inn, and the dog lay beside the road, nose on crossed paws, determined to take no responsibility for the shepherd’s inattention.
The horses stopped, stamping their feet, shaking their heads in irritation. The people at the inn looked up. Harnesses jingled; Bear allowed himself an epithet. The shepherd ran toward them, followed by half a dozen other men and women. Bear ground his teeth together, climbed down, made his way back beside the wagons, speaking to each driver. “No matter what happens, I want no appearance of surprise. Understand. Pretend you’re a hog in a mud pit, with no opinion about anything.”
Bear returned to his carriage. Help arrived to get in its own way and make the sheep mill about even more. Curious people moved along the wagons; one man in particular opened the door to the closed carriage, then shut it with a puzzled expression and walked very quickly away toward the inn.
The shepherd cursed his dog, who rose with excruciating slowness to curse the sheep before moving them off the road with one bark and several well-placed nips.
“I’m Benjobz,” said a cheery voice below Bear. “Where you headed?”
“The abbey up in the hills there,” said Bear politely.
“Heard there were people headed there. What’s all this transport?”
Bear shook his head in peevishness that held not one iota of pretense. “Furnishings and clothes and all sorts of whatnot for a child supposed to be going up to the abbey for schooling. She got frightened into hysterics back at the falls, scared she was going to go over the edge or something, so her nursemaids took three of the animals and hired some local’s wagon to return her to her cousin at Woldsgard until she settled down. They told us to take her baggage on where it’d be needed when the child finally learns to behave herself.”
“Ah, so that’s what’s left you short of animals,” said Benjobz. “It’ll be a hard haul for this few.”
“I know,” said Bear in genuine exasperation. “We may have to double-team the wagons one at a time over the steep places.”
“That’s a long journey made longer yet,” said Benjobz. “You want to come on over to the inn for a good meal? A little conviviality? There’s many a good game in our parlor after supper, and I’m told you’re a man who loves his cards.”
“Who told you that?”
“Don’t remember. Just some fellow you had a game with in Hay Town, said you were a good card player. Told me your name. Tingawan, aren’t you?”
Bear hesitated, tempted. But Precious Wind was out there on the hills and she’d . . . No. There’d be games at the abbey. He supposed he could wait. He growled, “What I want most is to get this job done so I can get home. Once the stuff is delivered, I’m headed for the islands.”
“Don’t like Norland, eh?”
“I just hate this cold.” Bear shivered. “Thanks for your offer, though. We may stop on the way back.” He beckoned with his whip hand, and the wagons moved slowly past the gathered sheep and the curious onlookers, over a rise, down into a swale, and up the other side, swinging right around a long upward curve and out of sight of anyone Benjobzish. They went on without stopping or talking about it until well after the sun had gone down.
As they unharnessed the horses, Bartelmy asked Bear, “When are the others rejoining us?”
“Variously, I should imagine,” Bear replied. “Tonight the man who was so curious about our carriages will tell the duchess what he’s seen. Then tonight or tomorrow she’ll send him or someone else on a fast horse to find where we’re camped and see if what her spy told her is true. After we’re sure she’s convinced, we’ll let the women rejoin us. They aren’t far. Precious Wind has good camp craft, and they have ample supplies.”
“And that’s why we’re camped out here in the open? So anybody can look us over.”
Bear began to unharness the horses. “It may be too late for somebody to come after us tonight, but I’m betting on it. And even supposing no one comes until tomorrow, he’ll find us by noon at the latest, right? And he’ll follow until he sees only four of us. So it’s either tonight or tomorrow night.”
Bartelmy sighed, sharing a glance with Pecky and Mike. “And of course one of us is always lying up there in the trees, wide awake, to see when he does show up.”
“Of course,” said Bear absentmindedly, as though he didn’t care very much whether the duchess’s spy turned up or not.
Chapter 4
Becoming Xulai
Nettie Lean and the two Farrier brothers had saddled their mounts and tied them out in the forest. While they waited for darkness, they kept up the appearance of earning their keep by working for Benjobz, Nettie doing housemaid duty and the brothers putting together a row of stalls in a newly built barn. Through the barn’s open door they saw the encounter between the flock of sheep and the Woldsgard wagons, particularly noticing the lopsided fellow who walked by each equipage and opened
