Portuh himself sprinkled the aromatic herbs and gums atop the started charcoal and supervised the setting up of a long copper bathing trough and its filling with many steaming bucketsful of fresh-boiled spring water. The arrangements of what would be the Ehleen’s sleeping and bathing chamber once completed, Portuh set himself and his staff to the larger, outer chamber. With the final meal of the day still cooking, the only hot foods available were mutton broth and hwiskee punch, but Portuh had a large pot of each placed in the center of the table, with a heaping platter of cold smoked ham, several full loaves of crusty bread, crocks of relishes, pickles and fruits preserved in honey, a cold joint of veal, a brace of cold boiled hens and decanters of various wines, cider and brandy. Then, with bows” far lower than his girth would seem to permit, he ushered the ill-tempered Urbahnos up the stairs to inspect The first few days after the flamboyant escape of their older sister, Bahb and Djoh had been kicked and cuffed by their angered, frustrated captors. But the boys had borne this abuse as stoically as the long captivity, snarling curses at the men who struck them, saving any tears for times when they were alone and unobserved. And this behavior had won them the grudging respect of most members of the trader caravan.
Although the traders assumed them brothers and although they addressed each other frequently by that term, the two boys were not that closely related. Bahb Steevuhnz was a full brother of Stehfahnah—both having had the same mother and father—but little Djoh’s mother had been a concubine, not of Horseclans stock but rather taken in a raid somewhere up on the far northern plains. However, this alien woman had died in his bearing and he had simply been added to the other baby then being nursed by another of his sire’s women—this one a third wife of Horseclans blood—and at his current age of ten winters he considered himself to be a Horseclansman, for all that he almost totally lacked mind-speak and had darker skin tone and bigger bones than most Horseclans folk, with brown eyes and hair that was coarse and, when not bleached by sun, a light ruddy brown.
On the other hand, Bahb looked his heritage, was a true scion of the Sacred Ancestors in all ways. His telepathic abilities were great and well honed; he could mindspeak horse and prairiecat and the more intelligent of wild beasts as well as he could carry on everyday silent communication with others of his clan and tribe. And from his crosslegged Seat on the thin pallet in a corner of the chilly room in which he and Djoh were immured, he was using this talent to “chat” with the horses on which he and Djoh and Stehfahnah and their now dead older sibling had ridden into the trader camp. Al-though too small for the majority of the big traders to ride, the wiry horses had proved fine for load-packing and so had been retained. But, according to the plans of the traders, they too would go on the block at Pahdookahport. But Bahb Steevuhnz had other plans, and it was the implementation of these that he was discussing with the most intelligent of the four mares, Windswift “Sister, Djoh and I have been working at the two bars of iron that block the wall opening in the place where we are. The opening is far too small for a man’s shoulders to go through anyway, so whoever set the bars did not set them deep and now only a hard tug is needed to clear them away. Little Djoh can slip through easily, and I can make it, too, and one of the trader wagons is against the wall but a spear length below. But do you understand what you must do? Everything depends on you, horse sister.”
The middle-aged mare beamed assent, adding, “But such a ruse could work only with stupid twolegs such as these who have enslaved us—twolegs lacking mindspeak. who have no real understanding of my kind. My brother will bespeak me when to begin?”
“Yes, horse sister, and it will be well after Sacred Sun has gone to His rest. No moon or stars this night, and just as well, too—the darker the better, for our purposes.”
“But, brother twolegs, if this plan fails,” added the mare grimly, “my sisters and I, we will not be taken alive by these ignorant, brutal twolegs. At your behest and at your twolegs sister’s we have been meek and spiritless as so many silly sheep. But no more—after this night we fightl” Bahb agreed just as grimly. “Belike, this night, we all will fight, sister; we shall regain our freedom or go to Wind.”
After the serving of the evening meal—plain food, but plentiful—there was a brief period when the traders and their employees simply lolled on the benches and stools about the fires, chatting desultorily, picking at teeth, belching and otherwise going about the early stages of digestion. A bit apart from hoi polloi, Hwahruhn—who had been chosen as his successor by the wounded and crippled Shifty Stuart, whom they had had to leave in the home of a physician back in Tworivertown—and Custuh held their own, low-voiced discourse. “It’s boun’t’ be them boys,” averred Custuh firmly. “I done had lotsa truck with them damn Ehleenee. City borned an’ bred, all of the shaved an’ oiled an’ sweet-smellin’ bastids, an” it takes suthin’ more’n jest extry fine furs ’r the like fer to mek ’em leave ther dang houses an’ towns, even in good weather. So, fer thet there fancy-dan Ehleen asshole up there to shuffle his stumps long a muddy road this far from Pahdookahport, he’s jes natcherly got him a dang good reason, Hwahruhn, ol’ buddy; an’ it ain’t but one lot we got would set a dang Ehleen to itching. Ever’wdy knows ’bout how they dotes on pretty lil boys.” Setting mug to lips, Custuh drained off the last mouthful of beer from it, then nodded and stated, “You jest watch what I says, buddy boy—afore long, thet there Ehleenee be down here or, likelies’, heil’ve sent one of his bodyguards down to fetch us up there to his rooms. An’ you bet it’ll be them boys he’s after, an’ we play him right, we’ll mek us as much off’n them as ever’thin’ elst put’t’gether.”