Destiny's Road

Jemmy said, "Curdis, I want to take the speckles bread that's in the oven. Okay? Tho

Tho

Curdis said, "Hold it. Jemmy, caravans use the Road."

Jemmy hadn't thought quite that far.

"The merchants only just got here. They'll stay awhile," Tho

"They'll send someone to block the Road," Curdis said.

Tho

"One step at a time," Curdis said. "The merchants will search Spiral Town. They'll demand that, and nobody will stop them. You can't hide in town."

"I've got to leave."

"Have you thought of just hiding in the hills?"

Jemmy said, "We hike the hills, but merchants must know that whole range end to end. And if they found me-Curdis, they wouldn't have to take me to trial. Bang and plant a tree. Who'd know?"

"You'd be pretty conspicuous on the Road, too. How do you think you'll get around them?"

"It's our Road too," Tho

Brenda said, "Yeah. Let's go for a walk."

In the dark one could just see Tho

tasted the notion. "Go for a nice long walk down the Road? Me and Tho

"I'm coming too," Brenda a

Curdis ignored her. "Meet us somewhere down the Road, Jemmy.

Then I'll trade packs with you. From then on, you're Curdis Ha

You come back by Road, with Tho

If I'm caught, hey, I'm just off camping. I'll-"

"Come back by way of the New Ha

Curdis nodded. It would give him legitimacy if he were caught.

"I'm coming too," Brenda repeated. Margery said, "All right, Brenda."

"Margery-"

"Darling, you'll need her to talk to merchant women!"

Tho

"Good," said Curdis. "We can let things settle for a day or two and still beat Jemmy to... where shall we meet?"

"There aren't that many bicycles on the Road. I'll find you, "Jemmy said. Curdis sat in the dark, moving his lips, while they watched him. Presently he said, "The merchants search Spiral Town and don't find you. Your camping gear is gone. So's our store of speckles, so you buy some more, Margery-"

Jemmy said, "I wouldn't take your speckles-"

"You would if you were going forever. Instead, we can bring you home after the merchants have searched the farm and Spiral Town. You take my place here. They're searching the hills by then, but at worst they find just me, camping on my own land. After they're gone you can grow a beard or something. Lie about your age, marry someone, move to another farm. We'll have time to work that out."

"I like it," Junior Margery said. "I wish I could come-"

"You're in charge here," Curdis said gently.

They were deciding his future.

Margery said, "Okay. Tho

"What?"

"Curdis, you can't pass for Jemmy."

Curdis had straight black hair, yellow-dark skin, eyes with an epicanthic fold. Hmmm? Jemmy said, "I only have to pass for Curdis coming back. Going out is when they'll be looking to be sure he's not me. Me, escaping. Going out, you're i

They closed the curtains and turned on the lights. Margery posed Jemmy next to Curdis, examined them and said, "No."

And Brenda was a girl.

But Tho

They took all of Jemmy's clothes out of the bureaus and carried them in armloads into Tho

"You can switch scarves and hats," Margery said, and they tried it. "Right. Tho

"Jemmy, coming back, you're Tho

Curdis nodded in the semidark.

"Now, how did it happen, the killing? Hush, Jemmy. Brenda?"

Junior wanted Brenda's version, then Tho

Once again Jemmy moved along the shore. Two more fences to cross. He went back up through rows of lettuce, the Wayne Holding. Where he crossed the Road it was deep into its first curve.

Gasoline Alley, then the next inward loop of Road, then Baker Street. The graveyard had been well beyond the town for two good centuries, but Spiral Town had reached it at last. Jemmy stepped from the empty shops of Harrow Street into a grove of willows.

Destiny life wouldn't grow among the graves. The Spiral Town graveyard covered more than a square mile with nothing but Earthlife: long, lank grass, clover, and trees up to 240 years old.

Jemmy drifted like smoke among the trees. There was cover to hide him. The eyes he expected might be imaginary after all.

A lifegiver of Spiral Town would be buried with a handful of seeds. His will might name the Variety of tree. If several sprouted, tenders would transplant all but one, and a marker would be fired into the bark for the lifegiver within its roots.

The oldest trees were huge, chosen for majesty: oaks, banyans, redwoods.

Majestic trees hadn't always survived well, and variety had come into fashion. For a long lifetime the lifegivers bore nut trees and fruit trees. Then someone had decided that the practice was disrespectful or something.

But an extensive grove still bore fruit and nuts. Jemmy picked a handful of cherries, a few plums, an orange. He stuffed his pockets, then settled in the shadows of the gnarled old trees to eat.

The markers around him were all above eye level. Jemmy tried to read them, but they were only a glitter in the dark. Holograms need light.

When the holomarker gun failed it would be a major tragedy. It was settler magic, irreplaceable.

On an ordinary night Jemmy would have been asleep by now. Though he felt that he might never sleep again, he was weary. His life had lost all direction in one deafening blast. Now the bark against his back was too comfortable. It would be easy to stay where he was.

Tho

Had he been dozing?

He surged to his feet, swung his pack onto his back, and was in motion. If he sat down again, they'd find him asleep in the graveyard come morning!