Like the layers of an onion, portions of the caravan began to peel off to go their separate ways as soon as the column reached the base of the eastern foothills. Some merchants set their course for the oasis of Halamanza, some for the cluster of hill towns called Pitriche, and one heavily-laden group of traders struck out for Ars-mak-malda, a country so distant that even to some of the businessfolk from Yordd it was little more than a fable. There was of course a group of merchants who had joined the caravan with the intention of selling their wares in Daria. But after talking with some local colobos herders they chose to join the line going to Pitriche instead. It developed that business was somewhat slow in Daria at the moment.
Lying under siege has that effect on commerce.
“What are you going to do now?” Sitting on the carpet inside the tent that were just two of the many gifts the grateful traders had bestowed on Madrenga for saving the caravan from the frost dragon, Maya studied the young man who was standing in the doorway. After a further moment’s contemplation of the terrain outside he turned back to her. Bit lay asleep nearby while Orania browsed freely outside.
“I have no choice. Having come so far and being now so close, I have to try to get into the city to deliver the scroll.” When she started to comment but broke down in a fit of coughing his voice and expression became concerned. “How are you feeling?”
“Odd.” She took a long drink from the nearby water vessel. “One moment I feel halfway normal and the next it’s like I’m back in the hospital bed unable to move more than my hand. It makes no sense, Madrenga.”
“Of course it doesn’t. Nothing that has happened to me since leaving Harup-taw-shet has made any sense. Why should it be any different for you?”
Her brows drew together. “I’m not just an accessory to your mission, you know. I have a life of my own. We still haven’t determined if you’re just something I dreamed up.”
“Or I you.” He softened his tone. “The way you feel may be due to a tug on your existence. Part of you belongs back in your own realm while part of you now exists here. Your essence lies on the border between, neither fully here nor fully there.”
She coughed again, but less roughly this time. “Why don’t you just leave me here, with Bit for protection? If you’re going to try and ride into a city that’s under siege, I’d only slow you down.”
He shook his head. “I can’t leave you. Especially in the vicinity of a besieging army. Remember what almost happened to you that night on the road? And that involved a mercenary hired to protect you.” He sounded considerably less young now. “To a renegade military force a girl alone would be no different from a sheep or a covey of fowl: just something else to scavenge.”
“I’m willing to risk it.” She smiled thinly. “I’m going to die soon anyway. I don’t want you to fail in your mission because of me.”
“I won’t.” He returned her hard smile. “I’m going to succeed in spite of you.”
She took another sip of water. “That doesn’t flatter me, Madrenga. Forget about me. If you succeed—when you succeed—you can come back and pick me up.”
“No. We go together.” He turned back toward the open tent flap. “I’ll hear no more about it.”
“Yes, master,” she replied sarcastically.
“I am no one’s master.” One hand was gripping the side of the tent opening. “Not yours, not Bit’s, not Orania’s. Sometimes I think not even mine.” Exhaling heavily he pulled the opening shut. “Get some rest. We’ll wait until the sun sleeps and then head northeast toward the city. Moving at night we should encounter fewer patrols.”
She spoke admiringly. “For someone raised in the streets you seem to know a lot about military tactics.”
He smiled back as he moved toward his own resting place. “What do you think boys who live in the streets and have nothing to do play at?”
The night had turned pleasantly cool when they packed their belongings and started out. Among the small mountain of gifts the caravan merchants had bestowed on their young savior was a bogoln to carry them. The sturdy, stout dray animal looked like a mule that had been stepped on by a giant. Built low to the ground, sure footed and with two heads, it could carry a great weight a considerable distance without losing sight of the trail. If they had to make a run for it, however, they would have to leave it and its cargo behind. In flight there was no way it could keep up with Orania.
For most of the night they plodded onward through rounded, scrub-coated hills that grew lower and lower, like mocha ice cream melting into the sand. From the crest of a modest escarpment the scrubland and veldt stretched out before them. Shimmering like quicksilver in the distance, a river that was broad and deep was fringed with the checkerboard pattern of hundreds of small farms. On the far side of the watercourse the well-developed fields were dotted with small towns that reached to the horizon. On the near side the cultivated land broke like a green wave against the outer walls of Daria City.
Within the walls and the high buildings they protected, hundreds of lights were winking out as the city awoke to a new dawn. Between the last of the hills and the first reaches of the eastern wall, a ring of other lights was being similarly extinguished. Belonging to the forces of the besieging army, these formed a great arc that encircled the city from north to south and was interrupted only by the river.
Madrenga’s spirits fell as he studied the terrain. How was he going to get through so many soldiers? Each light that flickered out as the sun rose represented the bivouac of an unknown number of men. The line appeared unbroken. He considered circling around the besiegers and approaching the city from the river. But surely the aggressors would have posted sentries on the far shore or even on boats to ensure that no supplies or reinforcements reached Daria from that direction. Somehow they would have to find a way through the besiegers’ lines.
“Tonight,” he told the girl seated in front of him. “We’ll move back a ways, finding a good place to camp, and sneak into the city tonight.”
She twisted her head around to look back at him. “Not a very original plan.”
“You have a better idea?” he snapped.
“I could try to dream us inside.”
“Yes,” he replied dryly. “You do that. I think it will have as much effect as trying to dream away the man who tried to attack you, or dreaming away the frost dragon. While you are at it, why not dream us up dinner as well?”
She glared up at him. “I could also try to dream you up some manners.”
“You see?” Pulling on the reins, he turned Orania and the little troupe started back the way they had come. “More proof that this is real.”
“Your sarcasm certainly is.”
Miffed, she said nothing until they found a small sheltered hollow among the rocks and scrub. Too weak to help, she could only sit and watch and fume as he set up the tent and unpacked carpet and utensils. While Bit went off exploring and Orania wandered in search of fresh fodder, the chunky bogoln hunkered down and promptly went to sleep.