Again, that urgent, lofty voice. Precious Wind, not trusting her own, merely nodded agreement.
Oldwife and Xulai, with the cat basket between them (while the secret chipmunk explored the intricacies of the half-rotted trunk), curled up in blankets under the fallen tree and went to sleep, though not until Xulai had spoken earnestly to the tree trunk above them, the grasses, and the neighboring trees. As Oldwife later told Precious Wind, “It was something about nothing being here but cats. Wildcats.”
From her perch up a tree, well-hidden by higher branches and a good way back down the road they had just covered, Precious Wind could not see the men’s camp in the meadow below, but she imagined Bear rolling a blanket into his bedroll to resemble a sleeping person before he sneaked across the brook and into the woods on the far side of the road. It was no great distance. The valley narrowed as it steepened, and at this point the edges of the forest were only about a hundred yards uphill on either side of the Wilderbrook road. Remembering Xulai’s request, Precious Wind surveyed the sky, thinking it unlikely she would be able to see a flyer above her and as unlikely the flyer would see her. The last of the light had gone.
It was not long, however, until the green moon rose to cast a ghoulish light on everything. The human spy arrived on foot around midnight, a shadow barely visible against the pale packed soil of the wide wheel tracks as he crept silently along the grassy verge. Precious Wind watched as he crawled around Bear’s camp, looking at it from all sides, then among the wagons, where he lifted canvas and looked under sacks of oats. He did not go near the sleeping men but turned back the way he had come.
Descending from her tree, Precious Wind went silently to the edge of the woods. The spy’s horse stood at the far end of a long curve, tethered near the road, and the spy led the creature a goodly distance farther away before riding back the way he had come. By this time the green moon was high. It was said to be bad luck to be out when the moon shone green, probably because everyone looked dead in its rotting light. The green moon, so it was said, dated only from the Before Time, the time of the Big Kill.
“Somebody down at Benjobz is interested in us, isn’t she?” Bear asked from behind Precious Wind’s left shoulder.
She gasped. “Idiot. Are you trying to scare me out of a year’s growth? I thought you’d be over there, on the other side.”
“I wanted to be sure everything was all right. How’s our little one?”
Precious Wind started to tell him what had happened, then stopped herself. This was, perhaps, one of those things best not talked of. What Bear did not know, he could not say. She contented herself with saying, “She’s a good little traveler. Uncomplaining. She helped hide the horses and she doesn’t fuss at the long ride. I think we’re well hidden.”
He stared at his feet for a time. “This has been a very strange journey, Precious Wind. There’s something going on here, something that wasn’t part of our bargain.”
“My only bargain was to protect Xulai,” she said calmly.
“If that is Xulai.”
She stared at him in disbelief. “Why would you doubt it?”
He said bitterly, “At present, I do not. Being a Xakixa makes her unusual here, true, but why in the names of all the pantheon of Tingawa does she attract all this interest? It’s not as though she were the ambassador’s daughter! They told me she’s just a child, a family member, true, but of a distant branch, an orphan. At home, she’d be virtually a nobody.”
“She’s carrying Xu-i-lok’s soul.”
“And what does that mean to anyone who is not Tingawan? It should mean nothing! It does mean nothing! So why all this interest?”
Precious Wind considered what she might tell him. “Well, if someone went so far as to poison Xu-i-lok, that same person might wish to destroy her soul. I think that’s perfectly understandable.”
He stared at the sky. “Well, the orders I was given were clear enough that I can follow them without understanding them, otherwise I might let confusion lead me into error. Whoever is stirring trouble, or for whatever reason, all we have to do is keep her safe and take her where we were told to take her. Meantime, we should make defensive moves. At this stage that means spreading confusion among her likely enemies. We’re doing that, and if, as you say, Xulai cooperates nicely, I suppose that’s all we can expect.”
He yawned widely, gaping at the sky. “I doubt we’ll be visited again tonight. You three stay in the forest one more day and we’ll rejoin company at our stopping place tomorrow.”
“You’re sure that’s long enough?”
“It will have to be. The farther up the road we go, the narrower and steeper this valley gets. Black Mike’s been up this road before, taking Woldsgard birds to the abbey, and he tells me you’ll only have one more day of reasonably level ground among the trees. After that, we’ll need to keep to the road or let you females ride mules. They’re more sure-footed.”
“How’s Nettie and her so-called cousins?”
“No reason to think they’re not doing well. They’ll travel a bit faster than we can. They should be along tomorrow or the next day with the traveler either before or after.”
“Then I wish you good morning, Bear. If I’m lucky, I’ll get half a night’s sleep.”
They parted. Bear made his way up the meadow to his men, Precious Wind to her bed beneath the fallen tree with a feeling of relief that surprised her. She did not know what she would have said if Bear had pursued the question of the interest in Xulai. The answer she had given him
