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"We should be coming to the village of Nushur soon," Lesh said about mid-afternoon. My watch said five-fifty, but that was still Louisville time. "The last time I was over this way, the i
"So could I," I said, "but I don't think anyone thought to equip us with ready cash."
"The crown's credit is good," Parthet said. "His Majesty's bursar pays every reckoning promptly. Whatever our problems, poverty isn't one of them."
"You mean all I have to do is charge it?" I asked.
"It's not American Express, but you wear the family rings. No one will refuse you service in Varay," Parthet said.
"We could have an early supper, and a drink or two, and ride on a few more miles before sunset," I said. There were no dissenting votes.
The anticipation of refreshments made the miles to Nushur seem longer. It took us an hour to reach the village-thirty homes and two larger buildings in the center. "The i
"Do we need to stop to see the magistrate?" I asked.
"No need at all," Parthet said. "Once he hears that you're in his village, he'll come to pay his respects. You outrank him."
We rode straight into the courtyard of the i
The beer was good even if it was just cool, not cold. Supper was a thick, gritty stew served in large wooden bowls. The bread was gritty too. I didn't know if the grit was dirt or poor milling. I was too hungry to get overly fastidious. The stew meat was some kind of game; I didn't ask what. But there were also potatoes, carrots, and loads of onion. The bread was in flat, rounded loaves like hamburger buns for the Jolly Green Giant, thick-crusted and chewy. Sopping up gravy was the best way to eat the bread.
Except for Timon, we emptied our beers quickly even though the mugs must have held more than a quart, and the landlord brought a second round. And a third while we dredged up the last traces of gravy from our second large bowls of stew with the last crusts of bread. It was a satisfying meal.
The landlord asked if we wanted lodging for the night. Rather than approach me directly, he asked Lesh, who looked to Parthet, who looked to me.
"We have to travel on, I'm afraid," I said. "There's still sun in the sky. But this has been an excellent meal, most satisfying."
The landlord's head bobbed up and down at the compliment, but I think he was just as happy to see us move on. He was a nervous sort, and we were obviously not his usual trade. Parthet asked how much we owed, then dug a BIC pen and a three-by-five spiral notebook from some recess of his clothing, wrote out an IOU, and signed it. "The magistrate will make sure you get your money," Parthet told the i
The i
I felt more loaded down than ever as we walked back to the courtyard. Two and a half huge meals in one day, probably more food than I ate in a full week at college. A burger and fries or a couple of slices of pizza for lunch, maybe a decent supper three nights a week, junk food taken on the run the rest of the time, with a snack thrown in whenever my stomach complained that it was empty-that was my school diet.
Our horses had been fed and groomed. They actually seemed eager to get started again.
Past Nushur, the road tended to head northeast rather than east. I spent a few minutes studying the map that Kardeen's clerk had prepared. Nushur was marked, and so was the road's change of direction. The map didn't show every nip and tuck, but it had the general layout fairly well. Varay east of Nushur got decidedly seedy-looking. The trees were shorter and scraggly with gnarled, knotty trunks and vegetation that looked wasted, more like the heat of summer than the bloom of spring. For long stretches, the road became a single trace scarcely wide enough for a rider, with branches hanging low enough over the path to be a serious hazard.
"You sure we didn't miss a turn or something?" I asked.
"This is the road," Lesh said. Since di
"We should make camp before it gets dark," I said as I remounted at the end of the worst of the worst stretches.
"That would be wise," Parthet said. He hadn't needed to dismount for any of the bad patches. "I need light for my camping magics."
"Camping magics?" I asked.
"There are a few things I can do to make a camp more comfortable, but I have to be able to see to do them."
Two hours later he decided that we had to find a spot soon if he was going to have enough light to work. "Well off the road would be wise," he added. "There's not much traffic hereabout, I'll warrant, but any traffic that does happen past would likely be someone we'd rather not meet."
"What if Dad and Mother come by on their way back?" I asked.
"If they do, I'll know," Parthet said.
"Whatever you say." I looked to both sides of the road. The landscape was in one of its most tangled moods. For the last half hour we had been riding between what seemed to be briar patches woven between the trees. The undergrowth had completely overgrown one rivulet.
"We're going to need a tank to get into that, and anyone who happened along would be able to follow in a second," I said.
Parthet chuckled as if I'd just told a brand-new dirty joke. He pushed his glasses up on his nose and said, "I learned this one from your Cecil B. deMille. Just watch, and when I start through, the rest of you follow closely, nose to rump, nose to rump."
He started making a whooshing noise, blowing in and out. Once in a while, a whistle crept into the sound effects, like a winter wind. At first I didn't see anything happening, but after a few minutes Parthet started to sway from side to side in his saddle. The whooshing got louder and louder. About the time I thought that it had become much too loud for one little old man to make, I realized that it wasn't all him any longer. There was a new wind swirling about the legs of our horses, raising dust from the road. And the thorny underbrush on the north side of the road started to sway in time with Uncle Parthet.
DeMille. The Ten Commandments. Parthet was parting the Red Sea, without the sea. The brush opened up in front of him and he started Glory forward into the swaying bramble patch. I followed him. Timon followed me. Lesh brought up the rear. The underbrush bent away from the horses and closed in again behind us, leaving no evidence of our passing. It was extremely slow going at first, but Parthet and the briars seemed to gather momentum. After thirty yards, Glory was walking as fast as she had out on the road.