Fool's Quest

I tugged at Shun’s coat and hitched myself closer to speak by her ear. “That night, everyone was screaming and fighting and running away. Why does he have two horses and everything he needs?”



“Not everything,” Shun muttered back. “No food supplies, no pans for cooking. I think he was just lucky to catch these two horses.”



“Maybe,” I agreed reluctantly. It began to snow, big flakes that clung to our coats and flew into my face. I put my face against Shun’s back. My face grew warmer, and the steady rhythm of the plodding horse tried to lull me to sleep. I felt a change in that rhythm and lifted my head. We were riding downhill now, threading our way between the trunks of big spruce trees. Here and there, stones stood up. It came to me that they were worked stone, as if walls and even buildings had once stood here. Our path meandered between the tumbled stones and the down-sweeping limbs of the trees. The snow was shallower here, but sometimes we brushed against one of the drooping branches and triggered a slide of snow.



“Not much farther now,” Kerf called back to us, and I felt grateful. I was so tired and sleepy. The trees were blocking most of what remained of the day’s light.



Then Shun stiffened in the saddle. “Not much farther to what?” she demanded.



He glanced back at us. “Your people,” he said.



I had one glimpse of firelight through the trees and then Shun pulled the horse around hard. I clung to her coat, nearly sliding off, as she kicked the horse and shouted, “Go, go, go!”



But it was too late. Their white coats had been almost invisible against the snow in the dimming light, but there they were. Two abruptly blocked the trail behind us and when Shun tried to rein the horse aside, Reppin jumped and seized its bridle. Shun tried to ride her down but the brown snorted and half-reared and then I was torn free of my grip on Shun’s coat as another White seized me and pulled me from the horse. “I have him! I have the shaysim!” Alaria shouted.



“Don’t hurt him!” Dwalia commanded, coming toward us. Shun was screaming and kicking at the lurik who held the brown horse’s head, and Kerf was shouting at her, “Be calm! You’re safe now! I’ve brought you back to your people!”



“You bastard!” she shouted at him. “You treacherous wretch! I hate you! I hate all of you!” She tried once more to stir the horse, but Kerf had dismounted and was tugging at her, saying, “What is the matter? You’re back with your people, you’re safe now!”



I had ceased my struggling but Shun fought on, shouting and kicking. Vindeliar was there, smiling a warm welcome at me, and I knew then how Kerf had been used against us to do Dwalia’s will. Alaria held me captive, firmly gripping the back of my coat and my arm as she pulled me toward the small campfire. I had dreaded to see the soldiers still there, but there was just one horse, a blanket pegged from the ground to a tree as a sort of shelter, and a small fire burning. Dwalia’s face was bruised. She rushed at me and seized my other arm.



“Hurry!” she whisper-shouted at the others. “They are still hunting for us. Two of them passed at the bottom of the hill not long ago. We must get the shaysim away from here as quickly as we can.” She shook me roughly by the sleeve. “And don’t think to pass yourself off as a boy any longer! A girl. Not what we were sent after. But you’re the only coin we have to buy our way back into good graces at Clerres. Hurry! Get her under control! Don’t let her scream! She’ll bring them down on us if she hasn’t already!”



They had dragged Shun from her horse and Kerf had a firm grip on her wrist. “What’s wrong with you? You’re safe now!” he kept saying. She bared her teeth at him, still struggling.



“Hold her!” Dwalia ordered the two luriks and thrust me at them. Alaria seized my wrist and Reppin took my other arm. They gripped me between them, holding my arms so tightly that they almost lifted me off the ground. From a pouch at her hip, Dwalia had pulled out a scroll and a single strange glove. I could not tell what it was made from. The hand of it was pale and thin, almost translucent, but to three of the fingertips a shriveled silvery button had been attached.



“I don’t even know if this will work,” Dwalia said, and her voice shook. She unrolled the scroll and held it by the tiny fire. They had shielded it with packed snow on all sides to keep us from seeing it too soon. She had to bend close. She studied something written on it, then straightened and ordered, “Bring her, bring both of them to the stone. I will go first, then Vindeliar. Alaria, take Vindeliar’s hand and grip the shaysim tight. Reppin, you take the shaysim’s other hand, and also Kerf’s. Kerf, bring the woman. Soula, you are last. We’ll have to leave the horses.”