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Chapter Forty-Nine

The sun was striking day-end sparks from the river when the battlefield was finally cleared and the Crewe met with the two humans and fifteen kajh—both trogs and trogans—who had sworn to follow them. One part of Riordan wanted to urge them all to make their own choices, but then shrugged and admitted that he wasn’t here as a union organizer and that this was Bactradgaria. As Bey had repeatedly pointed out, such ideas and gestures would simply not be understood. Not yet, at least.

What none of the Crewe had been prepared for were the additional twenty-three trogs—scouts, porters, artificers, handlers—who’d decided to follow the lead of the warriors. They were the majority of the survivors and, like their leaders, shifted their interest to the Crewe when Sharat turned away the humans and trogans.

The trogans had then approached Bey, and were, by turns, stunned to learn of the strangely reasonable terms of the Crewe’s oath of fealty they would take with and through her, as well as the unusual equity in the distribution of food, water, and routine duties. She recounted with a mix of amusement and worry how they had reacted to the strangest of its arrangements: that she was the leader of all the trogs who joined.

This had sent the captive kajh of all races into a huddle. There, it turned out that several of the trogans had roots in the Free Tribes and reminded—or in some cases, informed—the others that female leaders were known among those peoples. They explained that while it was uncommon, it was not unusual, particularly when a female was extremely clever and skilled. And if there were a few who had not been completely swayed by these assertions, they decided that inasmuch as Bey was the trusted friend of a small band of harrows who had utterly shattered a much larger caravan, they would gladly follow her.

Hresh stood as oathkeeper when they swore fealty, but was surprised by some of the changes the Crewe made to the typical terms. He stared when Caine concluded by telling Orsost and Enoran, “For now, we take your fealty, so that you, and those sworn to you, know yourselves to be an honored part of us. However, when we come to a safe place, we shall release you from this oath, so that you may choose your path—with us or not—unpressed by the desperate circumstances of this moment.”

After Caine turned and began walking away from the wondering trogs and the two somberly nodding humans, several others caught up to him, Miles in the lead. “Damn, sir,” he asked, “were you quoting Shakespeare or something?”

“Shut up, you little pendejo,” Dora whispered sideways in Spanglish. She jerked her thumb back over her shoulder. “Look at them; they’re loving it.”

“In both our cultures,” Yaargraukh nodded sagely, “great warriors are often depicted as admiring poetic words that give voice to the honor in their hearts.”

“Well, this warrior could use a drink!” O’Garran proclaimed.

“Right after we decide where we’re heading,” Bannor announced, remaining close to Ayana as she limped along with the group.

Girten frowned. “But . . . we’re going to Ebrekka, right?”

“We may still go there,” Riordan replied doubtfully. “But now that we know the two kajh from Forkus were leaving a trail of breadcrumbs behind us, we have to ask if that’s still the best path.”

“Besides,” added Duncan, “there are a lot of different groups here and they don’t all want to go to the same place. The h’achgai would all rather go to Achgabab, as long as it’s safe to do so. Sharat just wants to break trail and lose whoever’s tailing us—and now, him. The mangles want to go to Ebrekka. And although we need to go to Achgabab eventually, that doesn’t mean it has to be our first stop. What do you think, Commodore? Should we—hey! Where are you going?”

Riordan had veered off, heading toward his place in the camp circle. “Mission of mercy,” he called over his shoulder. “I’ll catch up with you at the meeting.”

***

Bey jumped to her feet when she heard Caine approaching. Since their disagreement over her means of interrogation, she had been respectful and amiable, but remained withdrawn. She eyed the large, heavy hide sack slung around his neck but said nothing.

Riordan considered and rejected what would have been his natural greeting: “Mind if I sit down?” Like almost every other polite nicety he’d been taught on Earth, it just wouldn’t be heard the way he meant it here. She’d most likely reply that, since he was “Leader Caine,” he could sit wherever he damn well pleased.

So instead, he stopped a few meters away and glanced at the empty space around her gear and sleeping fur. “Looks like you’ve moved away from the others.” Not like there are many “others” left from Forkus, anymore.

She shrugged. “I had to.”

He walked closer, sat well over a meter away from her. “I’d like to understand why.”

She sighed. “Losing Zaatkhur today means I am without a fur-mate. So I had to move to a place away from all others.”

“Fur-mate,” Riordan repeated, nodding. “I’ve heard that term and wondered about it. What does it mean, exactly?”

She still did not meet his eyes. “We sleep in groups. But our places in them are not random. They are determined by many things, but the most important is that we have a fur-mate who is always next to us. You have felt the nights here: even in summer, it is rare that there is no frost. To keep from becoming cold, or sometimes from freezing, you must rely on a group, or at least one other person, with whom to share your body’s warmth, and they with you.”

She glanced at him, but not suspiciously. “It is not—as Leader Miles jokes and seems to believe—about mating or any such nonsense. It is about trust. You will be putting your back to your fur-mate. For a long time. If you are lucky, for years.” She sighed. “On the other hand, making a wrong choice when agreeing to a fur-mate could very well be your last mistake.”

Riordan nodded. “So losing Zaatkhur is not just a pain to your heart. It is a danger to you, as well.”

She looked straight ahead. “I trusted Zaatkhur from childhood. To him, it did not matter that I was female and kajh. He was as the father I cannot remember from the Free Tribes. And as a leader, not merely a truthteller and counselor, I cannot take a fur-mate without transferring some of that privilege to them.”

“So the trogs from Forkus and the new ones could become jealous as a result of your choice.”

She sighed. “If I choose a fur-mate who is from Forkus, the new trogs will presume I favor my original band and that I am likely to take their side in future disputes or sharing of goods.”

“And if you chose one of those who just joined us?”

She shook her head. “Even worse. Firstly, they do not know me. Secondly, whichever one I choose will be envied by the others in their own group. Worse yet, there are very few females among those new to our ranks. So males might mistake my choice as an invitation to mating. Which would bring up greater difficulties. And those from Forkus would be sure I was abandoning them to be with a group that has crogs like myself.”

She raised an exasperated hand toward the emerging stars. “But none of that truly matters because I still do not know any of them and have no way to know which ones I might trust and which not.”

“It sounds like there are no easy answers,” Caine agreed. “And it sounds like even if you had one, you couldn’t act on it soon. Not until you found someone you trusted.”

“That is true.” She sighed, then glanced at him. “It was a hard day,” she said quietly. “I thank you for seeking me out and trying to understand our ways.”

Riordan shrugged. “I’m happy to do it. But tell me: would an extra sleeping fur help?”

She stared at him. “We do not have extras. Leader Duncan often asks me the value of things. In turn, I learn about our supplies and stores. So I know we have just enough. And I have heard that so many of the newcomers’ kits were lost in the attack that there are more of them than new furs. So as I say, we have no extras.”

“Well, I wasn’t thinking of an extra, exactly. The fact of the matter is that I really don’t need my sleeping fur. I have this suit.”

She stared at what she called his magic armor. “That cannot be comfortable to sleep in.”

“Actually, it’s probably a lot more comfortable than you would be, sleeping with just one fur and no fur-mate.” He extracted his sleeping fur from its sack and handed it to her. “Here. I know you won’t accept a gift. So just keep this until you find a fur-mate. Is that acceptable?”

She took the fur from his hands very slowly, eyes on his. “You are very kind, Leader Caine.”

Riordan smiled. “Kind has nothing to do with it! I need my leader of trogs to be fit and ready for each new day, no matter how cold the night is.”

Bey stared sideways at him. “You are a very poor lia— eh, you are not convincing when you deny your kindness, Leader Caine.”

“Okay, but”—he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper—“let’s keep that a secret. Just between us.”

First, Caine couldn’t keep a straight face. Then, when she smiled, he couldn’t keep from laughing.

Bey rolled her eyes a moment before a chuckle escaped her and she punched his arm.

It was a playful blow, but Riordan figured it was even odds that he’d have a bruise there in the morning.

***

Without any suggestion or prompting, the h’achgai and mangles joined the Crewe for the discussion on where to head next. As soon as the last of them was settled, Yaargraukh sat very straight and said, “We must start from this proposition: that we are now the hunted, not the hunters. To assume anything else is to invite ruin.”

When he did not add anything, Arashk confessed, “I suspect that many must now think we should go directly to Achgabab. But if we are being followed, I am less certain.”

Ulchakh shrugged. “It is widely known that was always my final destination. Yes, I saw the value of going to Ebrekka, but between our pursuers and those seeking bounties in the wadi country, that seems a much more perilous path.”

Arashk seemed to be supporting his head with one of his arms. “But if we go to Achgabab now, we might lead those pursuers to it.”

Ulchakh nodded. “Yes, but it is not as though the location is unknown. Yes, it is hard to find, but anyone who wishes to do so could. And there are ways to signal our approach before we would be revealing any of the hidden ways.” He glanced at Yidreg who confirmed the trader’s assertion with a stately nod.

“Still,” Arashk pressed, “from the oldest legends and wisdom, we are told never to go there if we are being pursued. If so, we could forever ruin one of the reasons it has always been a haven: that the x’qao cannot reach it, not without losing the element of surprise.”

Yidreg and Ulchakh nodded at that, too. Riordan wished he knew what that signified, but was pretty certain—chogruk or not—that he wasn’t supposed to.

Duncan put out his hands in what was almost the universal gesture of an appeal to common sense. “We have to assume that whoever is following us knows, or will soon discover, that we changed our destination to Ebrekka. We didn’t keep it a secret, and the traitors had ample opportunities to leave marks at the ferry. And again when we made our way further north.”

O’Garran frowned. “Yeah, but that trail ends where we crossed, which isn’t too far from here.”

“I would be interested in knowing how any pursuers would cross the river where we did. Or any place but the ferry at Khorkrag, for that matter,” Peter pointed out quietly.

“Okay, point taken,” Miles admitted. “But here’s the real worry: What if one of the pursuers is a mindspeaker? Doesn’t that mean they could be sending back, oh, I don’t know . . . sitreps on the state of their pursuit? And if they’ve got a boss who can read minds, doesn’t that mean that the two who betrayed us could have been making, well, reports? If so, then the bastards who knifed poor Zaatkhur in the liver and cut his throat have been walking, talking transponders the whole time. And their last signal was right here, damn it.” He thumped the ground.

Caine shook his head as the h’achgai and mangles exchanged long glances. They could have been reacting to the dire ramifications of O’Garran’s summation or at his ignorance for even thinking such things possible; there was just no way to tell. “Look,” Riordan started, “if the traitors could send some kind of mental updates on our position, then they wouldn’t have needed to leave markers behind. Because, as what happened to the two of them today proves, that can go seriously wrong in all sorts of ways. So let’s leave that worry behind for now.

“What we can’t leave behind or avoid is the simple fact that there could be an ambush waiting for us if we keep heading for Ebrekka. And until today, that’s been the destination we’ve been talking about since we left Khorkrag.”

“Could be an ambush on the way to Achgabab, too,” Katie muttered.

Riordan shook his head, but Ulchakh answered first. “It is very, very unlikely, Friend Katie. To go to Achgabab we mostly travel north. This keeps us well to the west of the wadi country—the Orokrosir—where the bounty hunters from Khorkrag are said to be searching. So unless someone already knows we are headed to Achgabab, which we do not yet know ourselves, they are very unlikely to catch up to us.”

“Whereas,” Ne’sar added quietly, “the entire width of the Orokrosir must be crossed to reach Ebrekka. It is almost due east of this place and while it is good traveling country for small parties afoot—and especially with a mangle guide—it would be difficult for a cargo-laden group as large as ours, and the two rads would make it far more visible.”

Arashk frowned but said nothing. Nor did anyone else.

Bannor sighed, leaned back. “Sounds like we have a destination.”

Riordan rose. “So, if we’re all in agreement, let’s go tell Sharat and the others.”

“Do not bother,” said Tirolane, approaching out of the darkness.

“Why?”

“Because our group has arrived at the same destination. And I suspect by the same logic.” He paused, looked directly—purposely—at Riordan. “I would ask a favor of you, however.”

Riordan nodded. “If we can help you, we will.”

“I wish to travel with you.” In response to their raised eyebrows, he hastened to add, “I have nothing but admiration and gratitude for Sharat and his band, but I know my path does not lie with them. They are about the Legate’s business and so, follow his orders as to what they must do and where they must go.” He shook his head. “I cannot be so bound, for I know not where my duty will take me.”

The others had risen as he spoke. Bannor shrugged. “Can’t say our path will be any more convenient for you.”

Tirolane nodded. “You are correct, it might not. And yet, I think our journeys might be bound closer than you, or even I, suspect.”

Riordan watched his eyes and detected something beyond affability, something more like . . . pleading?

Caine put out his hand. “We are proud to have you traveling with us. Bring your kit over tonight, if you like.”

Riordan drew a deep breath, much as he might have before diving from a great height or at a forking path in a forbidding forest. “Bannor, you and I need to be up earlier than usual. We’re going to need to work out a formation for this crowd. Everyone else, we head for Achgabab at first light.”


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