“Those cats shouldn’t have been there at all,” one of the men who’d come with us burst out. “They were starving, all of them; since when does a starving animal come to a place where there’s no food?”
“They found food, right enough,” one of the others muttered, and the first man turned on him.
“There are herds of deer and bison and silverhooves to the west, out past the land the mirror bugs destroyed,” he snarled. “Hell, a full pride can bring down a mammoth, and there are plenty of mammoths out past settlement country! Why didn’t the blasted cats just stay there?”
No one had an answer.
We stayed in Bejmar just long enough for the professor to find some people to observe the plants and animals for the college, and then we went on our way. The settlement magician and a couple of the other settlers made a halfhearted try at persuading us to stay the night, but Wash and the professor thanked them kindly and said no. We’d already lost nearly two days; if this kept up, we’d be all summer just getting out to the western edge of the settlements, let alone heading north and back around to Mill City.
CHAPTER 10
WHAT WITH THE SABER CATS AND ALL THE STOPPING AND STARTING to count plants, it took us nearly three weeks to get from Puerta del Oeste to the Oak River settlement. The professors had planned for it to be our first long stop because that was where we’d been staying the summer before when Papa and Professor Jeffries had been looking into the grubs and mirror bugs, and because it was the only Rationalist settlement anywhere in the North Plains Territory.
Since the Rationalists didn’t believe in using magic, their territory hadn’t attracted grubs and mirror bugs the way the other settlements had, and it was easy to tell when we were getting close. Long before we came in sight of the settlement, we came across bushes and trees that had leafed out. I hadn’t realized what a relief it would be to see a perfectly ordinary tree again, instead of all the bare, black skeletons we’d been passing. Professor Torgeson got all excited; I think she would have insisted on stopping to do a survey if it hadn’t been so late in the day, and if we hadn’t been so close to the settlement.
The Oak River settlement looked a lot like the pictures of Old Continent castles from my day school history books, except the castles were made of stone and the settlement was made of wood. The Rationalists had to depend on their walls and watchtowers, because they didn’t believe in using magic even for settlement protection, and they’d made quite a job of it. Two log walls surrounded the hilltop, far enough apart that nothing could climb the top of the first wall and then just jump up to the top of the second, and they had manned watchtowers on either side of the settlement.
Oak River didn’t have a wagonrest nearby, on purpose. The Rationalists didn’t want magic used anywhere on their settlement lands, not even the protection spells that everyone used when they were traveling. Putting up a wagonrest would have encouraged travelers, on top of which they’d have had to keep sending people out to remind anyone who camped there not to use spells. So they’d persuaded the Settlement Office not to build one. Anyone who came by Oak River had to stay in the settlement itself, so the Rationalists could keep a close eye on the magicians in the group.
Papa had sent off a message to my brother-in-law Brant Wilson, to let him and Rennie know we were coming. Sure enough, Brant was waiting inside when the inner gates swung open. He seemed tired and worried, and more than a little fidgety, but he relaxed some when he saw me. “Welcome back, Eff, Mr. Morris,” he said. “Glad you made it. We were expecting you last week.”
“Nice to see you again, Mr. Wilson,” Wash said, touching his hat brim. He dismounted and went on, “We had a little run-in with some saber cats back Bejmar way, and couldn’t come on until the main pride had been taken care of. Sorry to be late.”
“Saber cats?” Brant frowned. “That close?”
“Mixed pride, saber cats and Columbian sphinxes,” Wash said. “We’re not sure whether they came in from the west or up from the south. They’re gone now, and I doubt there are more to fret over. The ones we killed were starving.”
“Toller and the rest of the Settlement Council will want details, I expect,” Brant said. “But that can wait.” He looked past Wash at me and smiled. “How are you liking rattling around the settlements, Eff?”
“Well enough, so far,” I told him. I felt Professor Torgeson come up close behind me, and remembered my company manners. “Professor Torgeson, I’d like you to meet my brother-in-law, Brant Wilson. Brant, this is Professor Torgeson.”
“Pleased to meet you, Professor.” Brant offered his hand, and she shook it. “You’ll be staying with my wife and me.” He hesitated, then said, “If you’ll all come this way?”
It didn’t take me long to figure out what that little hesitation of Brant’s meant. The year before, when the whole group of us had come out to visit Rennie and look into the grub problem, most of the settlers in Oak River had just ignored us. Sometimes it was a kind of pointed ignoring, but mostly people pretended we weren’t there. This year, the few folks who were out glared, and two women made a point of crossing the street to avoid us.
Wash appeared to take no notice of the reaction we were getting, though I didn’t believe for a second that he hadn’t seen. Professor Torgeson’s eyes got narrower and narrower and her back got stiffer and straighter the farther we walked. I thought it was a good thing we didn’t have far to go.
Rennie must have been keeping an eye out for us, because the door of the house swung open before we even got close. She motioned to us all to come on in, and shut the door right quick once we did. We stood there staring uncomfortably at each other for a long minute, and then Albert and Seren Louise came running in and distracted everyone. The baby, Lewis, toddled after them; he was just over a year old, and still trying to get the hang of this walking thing.
I was almost as excited as the childings were. I had other nephews and nieces out East, but these were the only ones I’d seen more than once. Mama had given me presents for each of them — a toy horse for Albert, a rag doll for Seren Louise, and a wooden train engine with a string for baby Lewis to pull along behind him.
I thought the awkwardness with Rennie would go away by the time we got the childings settled down and everyone introduced, but it was no such thing. Oh, Rennie was polite enough, but even the professor, who’d never met her before, could tell that her heart wasn’t in it. As soon as the introductions were finished, Rennie gave Brant a dark look and said, “I’ll just go and add a bit to the kettle, if you’ll excuse me.”
Anyone who knew my sister could tell that she meant to turn her back and stalk off. Trouble was, the front room of the little two-room house wasn’t large enough for dramatic gestures. It was barely large enough to hold the five of us and the three rambunctious childings.
Brant glanced at the door, then at Rennie’s back. He sighed and said, “Albert, have you finished your chores?”
Albert nodded, suddenly too shy to speak.
“Then why don’t you and your sister go over to Mrs. Abramson’s and —”
“The Abramson girls aren’t allowed to play with Albert and Seren Louise anymore,” Rennie said without turning.
Brant shut his eyes for just a second. Then he opened them and made a grimace that was maybe supposed to look like a smile. “You three go in the bedroom and play for a minute,” he said. “We’re going to talk grown-up talk now.”
Albert nodded solemnly. He took his sister’s hand and ducked between the layers of fly-block netting that separated the front room from the equally small sleeping area. As he did, I frowned. When Papa and Lan and I had stayed with Rennie the summer before, there’d been a spell on the fly-block netting — nothing big or fancy, just a touch of magic to make it work a little better. Now there wasn’t one.